If you were a monkey and your name was George, you'd be curious about what was going on with your life. You'd walk into stores these days and see your image everywhere: on refrigerator magnets, on calendars, on T-shirts and big, fuzzy backpacks. Where there are no Dalmatians, you'd see Curious George.
The big question in your little monkey mind would be: "There haven't been any new Curious George stories in 30 years, so why am I all the rage?"Ever since the 1941 publication of H.A. Rey's "Curious George," the tale of a monkey who journeys to America and gets in all kinds of trouble, the monkey's image has become synonymous with classic kid lit, right up there with the Grinch and the Wild Things and Winnie-the-Pooh.
But recent months have brought the insatiable simian and his partner (the tall man in the big yellow hat) out of hiding and into stores. A compilation book and CD-ROM appeared last year. But does that explain why hipster boutiques on L.A.'s Melrose Avenue boast apparel based on a book containing short sentences and no big words? And why adults as well as kids are excited to see their curious friend?
"The demand is just so overwhelming," says Rebecca Gutierrez, who works in Video a la Carte, a groovy kind-of Melrose Avenue movie store rife with pop-culture kitsch. "The little jack-in-the-box thing is pretty hot. And the rubber stamps. A lot of adults are buying them, too, remembering him from when they were growing up."