Making a living in the arts
Cutting his program short at Oxford , Ted was ready to make a go at his career. He began submitting cartoons to magazines and newspapers and was published by The Saturday Evening Post not long after. This gained him attention from a weekly New York publication called Judge where he was offered a staff position. Many of his illustrations there resembled those in his later children's books. His work at Judge led to a contract with the advertising department at Standard Oil where he worked for fifteen years creating cartoon ads for a pesticide called Flit.

At 38, he left advertising to join the army and serve America in World War II. He created animated training films for new soldiers and was involved in producing other movies related to the war effort, two of which went on to win Academy Awards.