The French Resistance
Posted on 03/25/2010 10:37:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The mischievous traveling monkey that became a childhood favorite, Curious George, might never have become an American curiosity had it not been for the Nazi invasion of France.
His creators escaped oppression, and he eventually became an icon.
Now the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie is honoring thier achievement in a new exhibit that shares the story of the husband-and-wife creators of the “good little monkey,” reports the Sun-Times H.A. and Margret Reys were German Jews living in Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion. During their five-month escape in 1940, they fled on bicycles with their drawings, including one of a mischievous monkey then called Fifi.
"If the Reys had not escaped from France by bicycle to Spain to Portugal, we would have never known Curious George," said Noreen Brand, the Skokie museum's director of education, reported the Sun-Times. The Reys created the monkey character that is always on the run because it represented themselves always on the run.
Fifi’s name was later changed to George once the couple arrived in the U.S. because publisher Houghton Mifflin had doubts about the name Fifi for a boy monkey. The Reys have sold tens of millions of copies around the world. The exhibit, titled "The Wartime Escape: Margret and H.A. Rey's Journey from France," is based on a 2005 children's book by Louise Borden about the Reys. The display will show Allan Drummond's original illustrations of Borden's book explaining the couple's story.
The exhibit runs through June 20.
The French Resistance
Had they Nazis not invaded, they still would have had to flee Paris, because it is illegal in France to publish a book with "get[s] a job" in the title.
Wow - I was totally ignorant of the history behind Curious George. My grandson loves CG, but when his older sister was his age, we kept those books away from her - she wanted to try everything George tried and it got her into trouble. :-)
She got a job?
No, she’s 5. :-) Vivid imagination.
Thank you for this post! I loved Curious George as a child, and even more loved reading the books to my children!
I'm surprised they didn't revamp him for today's standards. He'd spend the whole book sitting on the couch, curious as to what was on the other channels.
LOL! When my son was very little, he loved the Curious George books, too; I read some of them to him so often I could practically recite them.
ping
Todays version would be “Curious George Get 99 Weeks of Unemployment Pay”
He out-monkeyed them nazis.
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