line that remained familiar in his later works. Ruth MacDonald saw Geisel's drawing style as fully formed in Mulberry Street, arguing that only his page design improved in later books, better keeping children's attention without confusing them. Philip Nel found the artwork in Geisel's later books to have a greater energy and looseness than in Mulberry Street or his earlier cartooning. Nel felt Geisel began loosening up toward his classic style as early as Horton Hatches the Egg (1940) and reached fruition with 1950's If I Ran the Zoo (1950). Adaptations Composer Deems Taylor adapted Mulberry Street into an orchestral work, Marco Takes a Walk. The work opens with a theme that represents the horse and wagon, which is followed by six variations that represent the various changes in Marco's story. The work's premiere, conducted by Howard Barlow, occurred at Carnegie Hall on November 14, 1942. A short film based on the book was released by Paramount Pictures in 1944. It was made by George Pal as part of his Puppetoons series, which featured an adaptation of Geisel's The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins the year before. The Mulberry Street adaptation was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) in 1945. Footage of the short was featured in the 1994 TV film In Search of Dr. Seuss. Legacy As Mulberry Street is Geisel's first children's book, Donald Pease calls it "the scene of origin for all of Dr. Seuss's children's books". After several books in prose, Geisel returned to verse for 1940's Horton Hatches the Egg, using the same "galloping, rollicking, anapestic tetrameter rhyme scheme" he had used for Mulberry Street. In a later series of children's stories for Redbook magazine, Geisel reported "the latest news from Mulberry Street". In "Marco Comes Late", Marco attempts to explain why he is two hours late to school. Geisel returned to fictionalized versions of his home town in three later books, which, together with Mulberry Street, form what Donald Pease calls the Springfield Cycle. McElligot's Pool (1947), If I Ran the Zoo (1950), and If I Ran the Circus (1956) take place in different fictionalized versions of Springfield. Each also features a young protagonist who, when prompted by an adult, responds with "a series of increasingly fantastic scenarios". McElligot's Pool also marks Marco's return as a main character in a Dr. Seuss book. When Geisel returned to Springfield in 1986