PARIS (Reuters) - Babar the Elephant, a timeless figure in children's literature, turns 75 this year.
Babar was created one evening in 1931 when Cecile de Brunhoff, a piano teacher, told her two small sons the story of an elephant whose mother is killed by hunters and who flees to a town where he learns to dress as a human.
"My brother and I loved the story and we rushed into my father's studio -- he was a painter -- to tell him about it," Laurent de Brunhoff, who was six when his mother made the tale up, told Reuters.
"He drew some images in a big sketch book and he developed the idea. He gave Babar his name, because my mother hadn't given him one," he said.
The boys' father, Jean de Brunhoff, showed the sketches to a relative who worked in magazines. The story was published as a book, becoming an instant success and leading to a series of others, telling how Babar returns home to become king and of his subsequent adventures.
Reuters
4 comments:
I love Babar! I remember bribing my younger brother to see the movie with me in the late 80s/early 90s.
I still watch Babar too. I love it! And that pic is beautiful Jody. You always post the best ones! :)
There was a guy in my first year dorm that did the voice of baby Babar in the cartoons...it was weird sometimes to hear him talking to someone down the hall because it would kind of sound like Babar was living a couple of doors down.
Cool! I'd love to hear that.
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