[Tex/LaTex] Modify footer used by elsarticle.cls

Question

I would like to modify the footer used by Elsevier's elsarticle.cls without editing the class file directly. I would like to eliminate the footer on the first page that states "Preprint submitted to Elsevier" (or the journal you specify with the optional \journal{} command). Obviously I can just delete it from the class file but this change won't carry over to others without me providing an explicit modification of the class file. I tried adding the modified lines of the class file to my .tex before the documentclass declaration, but they are ignored:

\def\ps@pprintTitle{%
\let\@oddhead\@empty
\let\@evenhead\@empty
\def\@oddfoot{\footnotesize\itshape
% line below modified from elsarticle.cls
 \ifx\@journal\@empty Elsevier
\else\@journal\fi\hfill\today}%
\let\@evenfoot\@oddfoot}
\documentclass{elsarticle}

Is there any way to remove that footer without editing the .cls file?

Answer 1

You have put your definition before the call to elsarticle, so the newer one overrode the older one. You need to change the order of definitions!

This works for me:

\documentclass{elsarticle}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\makeatletter
\def\ps@pprintTitle{%
 \let\@oddhead\@empty
 \let\@evenhead\@empty
 \def\@oddfoot{}%
 \let\@evenfoot\@oddfoot}
\makeatother
\begin{document}     
\title{Paper}
\author{A. U. Thor}
\date{\today}
\maketitle
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{document}