Who is "The Man With The Yellow Hat?" He is best known to most of us as Curious George's companion. I grew up with George, the curious little monkey, and I have just come to learn that The Man With The Yellow Hat's name is Theodore 'Ted' Shackelford. Turns out George isn't the only one who's curious here. Who are you, Ted?
A Little History: How The Man With The Yellow Hat Met George
The most curious little monkey in history was introduced to us in 1941 by Margaret and Hans Rey. George was living in Africa, and he was happily swinging from tree to tree when he's spotted by The Man With The Yellow Hat, who decides he wants to take him home.
However, in the original story, George is popped in a bag and taken on a ship bound for a zoo in "the city." Ted tells George to go along and play until they get there, while Ted smokes his pipe. Somehow George ends up overboard and is saved by sailors.
When Ted and George get to the city, they stop at Ted's home so he can call the zoo to prepare them for George's arrival. Ted leaves the house, and George gets curious. He decides he's going to smoke a pipe, and then he'll make a phone call just like Ted. George calls the fire department; they are clearly unhappy when they arrive at Ted's home to find no fire-just a little monkey. George is resourceful –he's survived in the jungle– he can get out of jail, which he does.
He finds a stash of balloons that fly him high into the sky; of course, the balloons come crashing down on a traffic stop, which causes a traffic jam, and who's stuck in the traffic? The Man With The Yellow Hat! George is thrilled to see Ted. Ted, not so much. He's promptly taken to the zoo, so the father-son relationship between The Man With The Yellow Hat and George we're familiar with didn't happen immediately.
However, at some point, the authors of the book take George out of the zoo and place him lovingly in Ted's home where their relationship and George's curiosity blooms.
Who Is The Man In The Yellow Hat?
We know The Man With The Yellow Hat's name is Ted, but what does he do? We know Ted is an explorer, as we learn from the first Curious George book. Since he has an apartment in “the city” with a doorman and a house in “the country,” it seems that Ted is doing pretty well for himself financially. He's always busy with meetings and goes off to work, but what does he actually do?
Ted's job has become somewhat of an enigma. In the Curious George movies and the PBS animated series, he is shown to work at Bloomsbury Museum first as a worker and then as a director. In the episodes, he helps Professor Wiseman, but we never see him earning money from it. Ted is also seen riding the subway to work. Scrutiny about what Ted actually does for a living is as varied as the versions of the story.
One Reddit user claims that Ted's museum work is a side job, since he completes random tasks, has an odd schedule, and unusual behavior –the use seems to be insinuating that The Man With The Yellow Hat is some type of clandestine government official, especially since George goes to space and rides rockets!
What's The Deal With Yellow?
The story of how Ted ended up with this signature wide-brimmed yellow hat has different versions. Based on the 2006 movie, he got it from an explorer's shop. But in the television series, he makes references to the fact that he's had the hat since childhood, and that it is extremely valuable to him.
George is warned not to touch it (we all know what that means), and Ted's yellow hat suffers some misfortunes that cause him to pace back and forth anxiously while he waits for his hat to be mended or laundered in several episodes. Ted cannot be without his yellow hat. He only takes it off to sleep.
What Else Do We Know?
The Man With The Yellow Hat seems to have a fondness for the color yellow: his necktie, long-sleeved shirt, pants, and pajamas are yellow. The convertible Volkswagen car he drives around 'the city' is also yellow. He appears to be single and ready to mingle –at least in the television series. In the movies, he's committed to his girlfriend Maggie Dunlop.
What we know for sure about Theodore 'Ted' Shackelford, aka The Man With The Yellow Hat is that he's just as curious to us as his monkey, George. The more we learn about him, the more we need to know.
Sources: The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Fandom