Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat have been around for nearly 70 years, and yet the little monkey has the same appeal to kids today as he did back in 1941. Here are a few facts – including H.A. and Margret Rey’s narrow escape from Hitler – that you may not have known about George and his creators.
1. Curious George showed up in another H.A. Rey book before getting a series of his own. The book is titled Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys and it’s still in print today, although the focus is less on Cecily G. (for giraffe, of course) and more about how it’s “The First Book About Curious George!” If you buy the book, though, don’t go looking for a monkey named George – the one that goes by the name “Fifi” in the book is the one that would eventually become the classic character.
2. The Man in the Yellow Hat never had a name in any of the books or their resulting cartoons… until the 2006 film, when his name was given as “Ted Shackleford.” He’s just Ted in most of the movie, but a deleted scene revealed his surname as well.
3. Is a George by any other name as Curious? Our inquisitive little monkey friend is known by many other names around the world. He’s “Peter Pedal” in Denmark, “ “Nysgjerrige Nils” in Norway, “Nicke Nyfiken” in Sweden, “Hitomane Kozaru” in Japan, and “Choni Ha’Sakran” in Israel.
4. Although he’s plain old George in the U.K., it wasn’t always that way – at first he was renamed Zozo because it seemed rude to have a monkey that was seemingly named after then-King George VI (that would be the current Queen Elizabeth’s dad).
5. If the Reys hadn’t been quick thinkers, Curious George may have never been. They fled Paris, France, on homemade bicycles just hours before Hitler’s army invaded during WWII. As you can imagine, fleeing on two wheels doesn’t really leave much room for luggage. But the Reys decided they definitely wanted to bring several in-the-works manuscripts with them and managed to pack five in their meager belongings. One of them was the first Curious George book. It makes George’s love of his bicycle a little more poignant, doesn’t it?
6. That first book was published just a year after H.A. (Hans Augusto) and Margret fled Paris. Since then, more than 30 million copies of George books have been sold, and since the book has been translated into 16 languages (including Yiddish, Afrikaans and Braille), kids all over the world have had the pleasure of reading about George’s adventures.
7. The drawings in the Curious George books are deceptively simple, but make no mistake that the Reys knew what they were doing. They were both trained artists and Margret even studied at the Bauhaus.
8. If you’ve ever noticed that some of the books credit only H.A. Rey and seem to leave poor Margret out of it completely, there’s a reason. There were so many children’s books on the market written by women at the time that George’s marketers thought having a male (or ambiguous) author might make the book’s appeal a bit broader. Once George was established as a hit, Margret was given the credit she deserved. Margret was in charge of writing and plot while Hans generally stuck to ideas and illustration.
9. It’s no surprise the Reys wrote about monkeys and giraffes and other zoo animals – Hans grew up right by the Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany, and took great inspiration from it. Margret was an animal lover and whenever the two traveled together, one of the first stops on their list was the local zoo.
10. George has some fans in very high places. Or at least, he did. The CEO of Vivendi Universal, a media conglomerate that owned Curious George publisher Houghton Mifflin at the time, decided the little monkey would be a perfect corporate mascot for the brand. While he never became the official mascot, he did turn up in ads for Vivendi in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times in 2001. The CEO resigned in 2002, however, and by 2006 Houghton Mifflin had been sold again. I’m glad – I don’t really want to see a beloved children’s character shilling for a corporation, but maybe that’s just me.
Are there any George fans reading? What’s your take on the fairly recent revival – just as good as when you were a kid or not?
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I LOVE Curious George. I was always a George fan as a kid and now that I work as a nanny I get to relive his awesomeness all over again! The little girl I care for absolutely loves the one where poor george jumps off the fire escape and brakes his leg and ends up with a cast. Plus he sniff ether and passes out. Whats not to love!
posted by Emma on 4-21-2010 at 6:01 pm
Ted Shackleford the actor from Knots Landing??? ;_)
posted by Mark T. on 4-21-2010 at 6:07 pm
My son loves Curious George, both the 6 original stories and the new stories which are done in the same art style as the originals. Thanks for doing a piece about it!
I also read that his name was changed in England due to “Curious” being slang for being homosexual. Lol…
posted by LO on 4-21-2010 at 6:10 pm
Did I miss something? Were the Reys Jewish? I’m assuming they were, though that’s unclear from the article. That would make Hitler even more evil if he invaded France just for artistic jealousy.
I was a big fan back in the day and my old stuff Curious George is still around somewhere. My aunt or cousins tried to take him away from me and I held on for dear life, George still has the stitches to prove it.
PBS Kids has some Curious George games online (linked) that were kinda fun. Kept my nephews occupied for a while.
posted by Big Jonny on 4-21-2010 at 7:57 pm
I mean I love Curious George as much as the next person, but I recently re-read the first book… the man in the yellow hat was a poacher! He literally tricked George into his hat and stole him from Africa! I just don’t know if that’s exactly the message we want to be sending to our kids…
posted by Slightly Skeptical on 4-21-2010 at 8:44 pm
@Slightly skeptical
I agree wholeheartedly! And make sure they don’t go sailing off in a vainglorious pursuit of a white whale. And make sure they know better to get on a raft on a flooded river with an escaped slave. And make sure they know not to ask for more gruel, sir. It’s a book, a child’s book, a book with a monkey and a guy in a big yellow hat. It’s not a treatise on animal welfare, please save us from this silliness.
posted by papoon for president on 4-21-2010 at 9:57 pm
Just FYI- George is a chimp not a monkey.
No tail = not a monkey (apes have no tail; chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, gibbons, and humans)
posted by Amy on 4-21-2010 at 10:36 pm
If the authors of the book call George
a monkey, he’s a monkey. Maybe the man in the yellow hat (No obvious tail so we are safe to call him a man) had his tail removed. But I’m not sure that is the message we want to send to our kids. Tail removal is bad, kids, don’t do it.
posted by papoon for president on 4-21-2010 at 11:47 pm
@Slightly skeptical, I actually took a class in college that taught Curious George as a good example of storytelling, and the whole class (prof included), came to that same conclusion. I mean, yes, it’s a kids book and the whole thing is cute, but George is more or less tricked into leaving Africa for the States and nearly gets thrown into captivity until the nice man “saves” him. It might not be flat out encouraging poaching (or, as some in the class saw it, imperialism), but that interpretation isn’t so far fetched.
@Papoon, why so hostile?
posted by Also Skeptical on 4-22-2010 at 1:19 am
Isn’t it that the OST for the Curious George animated movie were all from Jack Johnson? I love the part when George explores the city while “People Watching” plays in the background.
posted by Jay-R on 4-22-2010 at 1:47 am
Thanks for this, I love Curious George! Just wanted to make a very picky comment about of your statements: “…book has been translated into 16 languages including…Braille.”
Braille is not a language. It is a method (or alphabet) for transcribing certain languages.
posted by Emmanuel on 4-22-2010 at 4:05 am
Ok, so in the books George was tricked into going with the man with the Yellow Hat/he was poached. Hey, they were different times. In the movie, it’s different.
If you watch the series (great PBS series), George looks different, more “up to date” (as if he really needed that), but when he dreams or imagines himself in a situation, he is drawn in the “old style”.
We love George in our house.
posted by Beth on 4-22-2010 at 8:23 am
My nephew LOVES Curious George and I wish so bad that they would release a CG movie. My nephew’s happiness on going to see his hero in the theater would be indescribable.
@Slightly Skeptical
I read that book about how the MWTYH came to have Curious George and was a little shocked….that was no children’s story and not at all in the same vain as the later stories in the series.
posted by septerr on 4-22-2010 at 10:16 am
And for a different version…
Werner Herzog Reads Curious George
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7T8y5EPv6Y8%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded&h=aa848
posted by goinggirl on 4-22-2010 at 11:05 am
oops, sorry, that should be just
And for a different version…
Werner Herzog Reads Curious George
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8y5EPv6Y8&feature=player_embedded
posted by goinggirl on 4-22-2010 at 11:06 am
Thanks for the posts on kids’ lit! I’ve sent all of them to my sister-in-law, who is a reference librarian and loves this kind of stuff.
posted by Sara in Al on 4-22-2010 at 11:10 am
Really people? What is with all the nitpicking? Braille is not a language and George is a chimp? Who cares? It’s an article on a children’s series written in the 40′s I might add. Get over it and take it at face value.
posted by Kim on 4-22-2010 at 11:32 am
I learned how to fold a paper boat from Curious George!
posted by Janice on 4-22-2010 at 11:56 am
My three-year-old’s favorite toy is his stuffed Curious George. He loves him and will not go anywhere without his George.
posted by Tara on 4-22-2010 at 12:09 pm
Braille IS a language. I teach at the a school for the visually impaired, and it is definately its own language. Just like sign language is its own language for the deaf, Braille is the written language for the blind.
BTW, I love Curious George!
posted by Heather on 4-22-2010 at 1:27 pm
in 2006 Alan Shalleck, one of the artists that worked on the Curious George series let his curiosity get the better of him. After posting an ad looking for anonymous sex in a gay magazine he invited a man to his Boynton Beach, Florida home only to be robbed and stabbed to death.
posted by Ariel on 4-22-2010 at 1:27 pm
I love Curious George. My 3 year old daughter loves the books and it’s been fun rediscovering all the books I read as child. She calls him “George Curious.” Too cute.
posted by Tash on 4-22-2010 at 1:38 pm
I love George’s Japanese “name”. “Hitomane” basically means “pretending to be a person” (hito=person, mane=from the verb “maneru”, used for when you’re impersonating/pretending to be someone/something else) and “Kozaru” just means “baby monkey”.
posted by Jamie on 4-22-2010 at 1:47 pm
@ septerr
wasn’t there a Curious George movie made a few years ago with will ferrel? or did i just dream that haha
posted by rose on 4-22-2010 at 5:09 pm
@Kim – We’re all highly intelligent know-it-alls and have to prove it in the comments section of Mental Floss.
posted by JRD on 4-22-2010 at 6:27 pm
In 2007 a first edition of Curious George, the only known copy in the original dust jacket, sold at PBA Galleries in San Francisco for $21,850.00.
http://pbagalleries.com/search/item.php?anr=182763&
posted by Greg J on 4-22-2010 at 11:32 pm
H.A. Rey also wrote “The Stars: A New Way to See Them” and “Find the Constellations.” Even though they are children’s books, both are frequently recommended to beginner stargazers who want to learn their way around the sky.
posted by Lou on 4-23-2010 at 12:58 am
Curious George is now also in a live Broadway style musical made for families of all ages. Touring the country to a city near you soon. Check it out – lots of fun :)
http://www.curiousgoergelive.com
posted by Shaun on 4-23-2010 at 7:42 am
whoops thats
http://www.curiousgeorgelive.com
posted by Shaun on 4-23-2010 at 7:43 am
“Ted Shackleford”. Really? Wasn’t he on Knott’s Landing, and recently a CBS soap?
Love George! We have some of the classics from my childhood and some that are “based on”, which are newer ones. Not as good as the original classics though!
posted by shirleyfeeney on 4-26-2010 at 1:52 am