Feb 08, 2024 - Sale 2658

Sale 2658 - Lot 3

Price Realized: $ 500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(DR. SEUSS / THEODOR GEISEL)


The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.
Offset lithograph movie poster. 1042x685 mm, 41x27 inches. 1953.

The poster for Dr. Seuss's only feature film, a fantastic box office dud that Seuss omitted from his official biography, calling it a "debaculous fiasco." In this surreal musical adventure (for which Seuss wrote the screenplay and lyrics), a child dreading his piano lessons from his teacher, Dr. Terwilliker, falls asleep only to be menaced in his dream by Terkwilliker, now a tyrant whose autocratic regime imprisons all musicians who don't play the piano. Then, in some sort of Stockhausian nightmare, the teacher creates a piano of such tremendous proportions it can only be played by the combined efforts of 500 children (hence the 5000 fingers). Neither audiences nor Hollywood were prepared for Seuss' fluorescent creative vision.