The Eroding Legacy of Curious George
(all images from: Curious George Takes A Job, copyright 1947.).
"He was a good little monkey _ but he was very curious."
As a strong advocate of the simian races, I remember Curious George as one of the important role models of my youth. So I was sorely disappointed when I purchased "A Curious George Treasury" recently from Amazon.com for my son.
Gone were the tales of mad monkey adventure I remembered. In their place were a bunch of predictable, harmless stories with the life and danger sucked out of them.
My son wasn't interested at all.
Then, while I was back home this month, I picked up one of my old Curious George books, called "Curious George Takes A Job" and it was every bit as good as I remember. My son loved it too.
I figured out later that the "Treasury" they're selling on Amazon actually wasn't done by either the original illustrator or author. They date from around 2000. What a scam.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA5DbJqXIv-KQELcGlb7GLqEuGH28jWCRa6obtBElo61dvhkAWYPBJKzEAR10RYvgPNegGPtBkcvvPlcIT7zsniAiYIcAm0ev1Vc7z5itSnu9Bq7bQwxkcOJw9lhwUSFksSdsL8C_9jwE/s320/Afbeelding+006.jpg)
"Curious George Takes A Job" begins with George stealing his keeper's keys and busting out of jail. He then goes nuts with some spaghetti in a restaurant and has to wash dishes to pay it off.
He gets a job as a window washer on a skyscraper and eventually breaks into somebody's house to paint it up like a jungle. When he gets chased away, he gets a compound fracture while jumping off a fire escape.
This is the Way of the Monkey.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQwN0f6vHlAiKJOTqIB4pzGRVLG0rTEBN6Rd8ujV9ddCSMyqH0WQ64v5PwGAK26AE4rc41uEJjm3J7-tvlQ1eG5HAjowqLhi5ZK9GS5Jz0A7ZSMpUIb6fIuyu20oz57ap9qiqAZ2Tncds/s400/Afbeelding+004.jpg)
But the ether incident is definitely the highlight.
"There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge."
-Hunter S. Thompson.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7N2HHaUNk4fXwsessjN5LgMz1Iu21_fEhq1DCL0VOd-EYJyLwAHXiw_2h9dcFN7OEK8eWZH9u1Nbcr_vVjfBRcieSdpHCaLP7xGC1XfhbYkdNKVGH7OnUFHPfUaR7OWriUDAz5Lai_cs/s400/Afbeelding+005.jpg)
If you're wondering, the story concludes with The Man in the Yellow Hat smoking big cigars after landing a movie contract for the story of George's life.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj83vj6EdNrCoxI0QhJYkA5-RXJnC2cZqI1YmVPDfWWcY7H2KIsPCXIdacIAE3Log7Fu81rye2DQenBtu5BOOyCKYNiynSrA3Av9QndJfXpn1aOfomy7bneJ441ueRIFVj2A9vG1s-i_5M/s320/Afbeelding+008.jpg)
On a serious note, according to Wikipedia, the "Curious George Gets a Job" story is closely based on the life of a German boy with Down Syndrome who eventually became an artist. He's believed to have killed by the Nazis, presumably for either eugenics or as a producer of 'degenerate art.'
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