How the Grinch(es) Stole the Case

Hey Cassettes and welcome back to the Christmas Case Diaries! This month we’re focusing on Christmas TV specials, but this episode is EXTRA special because we will be talking about movies as well. The 1960’s was a decade that brought us a lot of classic Christmas specials. Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman (1969), and tonight’s topic: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)!

The Origin of Grinch

Theodor Seuss Geisel, AKA the beloved Dr Seuss, first used the word Grinch to describe a bird in his 1953 book Scrambled Eggs Super! The bird was called a Beagle-Beaked-Bald-Headed Grinch.
In 1955 he published a short 32 line illustrated poem in Redbook, which was a woman’s magazine at the time. The poem was entitled “The Hoobub and the Grinch.” Although this poem does not contain the same Grinch we know and love it, brings about the same issue of commercialism. In the poem the Grinch is able to sell the Hoobub a simple green string by making it sound like it is needed and thus goes on to say that the Grinch is able to sell the Hoobub similar items every day.
Finally Seuss used Grinch in his hit Christmas book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” which was released in 1957.

Many believe that the Grinch was Dr Seuss’s alter ego, even Seuss himself. There were many reasons for this. In a 1957 interview with Redbook he stated “I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noticed a very Grinch-ish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! So I wrote about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I’d lost.”

To add to this Seuss was 53 when the book was released, the same age as the Grinch and he was also quirky and disliked large crowds.
And finally to show favor to the character he even had a Grinch vanity license plate!

Making of

The director of this special was Chuck Jones. You may know Jones because he is a famous animator, filmmaker, cartoonist, author, artist, and screenwriter. Most well known for his work in Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, and Tom and Jerry. He and Seuss knew each other due to working together during WWII on the animated propaganda called Private Snafu. Seuss was a writer and Jones an animator. Jones was the one to convince Seuss into making an animated short for his How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

*During production however, Phil Roman (one of the animators) said that Seuss was only there 3 or 4 times but that he had been there for the storyboard beforehand.

In the original book, there are only three colors: black, white, and pink/red. So, where did the iconic green Grinch color come from? Apparently Chuck Jones was inspired to use it after renting cars that were that color.
Dr. Seuss felt like the main character more closely resembled a Chuck Jones character than the original Grinch drawings.

Time magazine in 2013 named it one of the top 10 greatest Christmas specials from your childhood, along with a movie we just discussed last episode called A Charlie Brown Christmas from 1965. While both of these masterpieces took a lot of money to make, Charlie Brown pales in comparison. It took a little less than $100,000 to create Charlie Brown but Grinch was finally able to garner $300,000 from an organization called The Foundation for Commercial Banks after pitching to companies such as Kellogg’s and Nestle.

Not only did Grinch receive funding to make the 30 minute special happen, but CBS paid $315,000 for the right to air it twice on their network; once in 1966 and once in 1967.

The music for the special was done by Albert Hague.

Dr. Seuss wrote the lyrics to all the songs, including “Fahoo Foraze” which was meant to sound like classical Latin. Apparently it tricked some viewers, and people called to find out the translation. It turns out it was just classic Seussical Gibberish
When Hague later recalled his audition for being able to compose for the special he said, “Afterward, Seuss looked up and said, ‘Anyone who slides an octave on the word Grinch gets the job.’ The whole thing took three minutes,”

Voice Actors

Boris Karloff as the Narrator and the Grinch
- Dr. Seuss was concerned that casting Boris Karloff would make the character too scary. But, Chuck Jones chose him after hearing him narrate other works.
- Originally, there was no difference between the narration and the speaking voices in the special, so sound editors removed the higher pitches from his voice in post. That is why when The Grinch speaks, he sounds different from the narrator.
June Foray (uncredited) as Cindy Lou Who
Dal McKennon (uncredited) as Max
Thurl Ravenscroft (uncredited) as the singer of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
- AKA Tony the Tiger!
- He was also the voice of Kirby in the Brave Little Toaster!
- Dr. Seuss attempted to fix the fact that he was uncredited by sending letters to every major columnist in America! Well, we know now.

Grinch (2000)

The original special aired on December 15th, 1966! So, why did it take so long for it to get remade? Dr. Seuss himself was reluctant to bring his works to the big screen. But after his death, the rights to his stories went to his widow.
This was the first time a Dr. Seuss story was turned into a full length feature film
Before she signed off on Jim Carrey playing the role of The Grinch, she had to visit him on the set of another movie to see if he was right for the part.
- The movie was “Man on the Moon” and Jim Carey was so deep into character that he had to do an impression of himself playing the Grinch

Directed by Ron Howard, he not only wanted it to be an adaptation of the book, but an adaptation of the original special as well. This is why he kept The Grinch’s green color, even though the character is white in the book.
The movie did not receive a lot of critical acclaim, some believed the story and themes were too adult for a movie marketed to kids.
- Jim Carey himself seemed to regret the amount of adult jokes in the script and wished that he had done more to stop them.
- He maintains that all of his jokes were age-appropriate, and Ron Howard even removed some even raunchier jokes from the script.
What the critics did like was Jim Carey’s performance as The Grinch as well as the beautiful film score by the late James Horner.

Starring

This movie included many stars but here are just a few…

Jim Carrey as the Grinch
- His costume was incredibly uncomfortable, including the yellow contacts that he was forced to wear. Apparently he even spoke with a former CIA agent about coping mechanisms for torture, as the suit was THAT uncomfortable and took an hour to take off.
- He improvised a lot of lines in the movie, “Dinner with me, I can’t cancel that again!”
Josh Ryan Evans as the young Grinch
Christine Baranski as Martha May
Jeffrey Tambor as Mayor Augustus Maywho
Molly Shannon as the mother Betty Lou Who
Bill Irwin as father Lou Lou Who
Taylor Momsen as the little girl Cindy Lou Who
With Anthony Hopkins as the Narrator

Grinch (2018)

Where the 2000 Grinch was too adult for children, the 2018 film fixed that issue. This movie is meant to appeal to children, with some older jokes and references.