Pics

Teddy Bears Poems

Teddy

Teddy Bear

If Teddy Bears Could Talk

 

Teddy

Was The Teddy Named After The "Teddy Roosevelt"

“It” was clearly the wickedest thing in America, if not the world, assuming that the clergyman in Michigan was right. From his pulpit he thundered that “it” was destroying all the natural instincts of Motherhood, and that “it” was leading God’s Own Country, the U.S.A., to race suicide.

The preacher in question was always regarded as being slightly unbalanced, anyway, so not many people paid much attention to him. After, all his hearers reasoned, what possible harm could “it” do to their children?

“It” was the Teddy bear.

Most of our readers have once owned a Teddy, now perhaps bald, battered, no longer beloved, or banished to the attic or the bottom of a trunk. However, older children love their Teddy bears still. Surprisingly enough, an amazing number of adults cling on to theirs, as others do to medals won in war, to sporting caps and cups, and to things that bring back memories of times long gone.

Clearly, the man who thought of this cuddliest of toys was inspired indeed, but like so many other inventions, we are not absolutely certain who did create the first one. It was probably a Russian immigrant to America, named Morris Mitchom, who had his brainwave in 1902.

It was triggered off by his President, Theodore Roosevelt, and “triggered” is the right word. Like Nimrod in the Bible, “Teddy” Roosevelt was a mighty hunter. This hearty, bespectacled Easterner of impeccable family, went West when he was young to be a cowboy, or, more accurately, a rancher, in the 1880s. He startled the locals in many ways and not least by his cheerfulness. “By Godfrey, but this is fun!” he would shout in the middle of a drenching prairie storm, or at the height of a lethal cattle stampede, or even when set upon by rattlesnakes or outlaws.

Later, he became President, partly because he had led a daring charge in the Spanish-American War at the head of a tough outfit of Westerners he called Roughriders. This exploit captured the public’s imagination and Teddy became one of the most popular presidents in American history.

One day, when hunting in Mississippi, he refused to shoot a captive bear cub. “Bully!” he probably cried, for it was one of his words. “Capital little animal, by Godfrey!”

A cartoonist called Clifford Berryman drew his version of the incident for the Washington Evening Star of November 18, 1902. He captioned it: “Drawing the Line in Mississippi”, and the cartoon also appeared in papers in other states.

Which is where our friend, Morris Mitchom comes in, for he saw this cartoon and, though a sweetshop owner in Brooklyn, New York, decided to branch out and make a bear cub just like the one in the drawing, a cuddly little fellow. He cut one out of brown plush, gave it moving legs and arms, and he put it in his shop window and labelled it with the immortal words, “TEDDY’S BEAR”.

Morris was a polite man and decided he ought to ask the President’s permission before bandying about his name, so he wrote to Teddy the First and got back a pleasant reply: “I don’t think my name is worth much to the toy bear cub business, but you are welcome to use it.”

Unfortunately, when Mitchom died in 1951, this key letter could not be found, by which time Germany had claimed the credit for the Teddy bear. It transpired that the Steiff Company, widely known for its soft toys, had produced a bear in 1902. Richard Steiff, nephew of the firm’s founder, was a keen artist, and often sketched bears at the Stuttgart Zoo. Finally, he made a toy bear, but his aunt thought little of it. However, the next year at the Leipzig Fair, a representative of an American firm so liked the bear that he ordered 3,000.

Now there is no doubt that the Steiff Co. was in the bear business early, but in its eagerness to grab the credit, the family came up with a story that has been flatly denied by the Roosevelt family. Allegedly, when Teddy’s daughter, Alice, was married in 1906, all the table decorations were Steiff bears and – again allegedly – when Roosevelt was asked what sort the bears were, he replied: “A new species called Teddy bears.” No member of the Roosevelt “inner circle” present at the wedding will allow the truth of the story. It seems that the Steiffs started making bears about the same time as Mitchom, but that to him goes the credit for the real thing.

For the record, it was not just children who responded to the new toy. From the beginning, adults adored them, especially as car mascots. Berryman and Mitchom had started something which still continues to the present day.

Images Of The First Teddy Bears

Theodore Roosevelt: The First Teddy Bear

       The producers at BIO.com review hundreds of photos of famous figures each week, from award-winning actors and popular singers, to headliners and scandal makers. While we're digging through these archives, we often come across amazing photos that we're just dying to share. So, without further ado, here's the one image that stands out to us this week:

A political cartoon based on the original by Clifford Berryman depicting Roosevelt declining to shoot the small cub.

Once upon a time, President had gone hunting in Mississippi. On this trip he encountered a wounded black bear. From here, the story gets murky: Some say the bear was young, others say it was old. One legend has Roosevelt ordering a mercy killing of the animal, while another claims he had set it free. Whatever the real story was, the event spawned a political cartoon by artist Clifford Berryman that showed the President's restraint and compassion for the wounded bear.

The depiction, seen in the Washington Post, inspired a toy inventor named Morris Michtom, who wrote to the President and asked if he could use his nickname, Teddy, to describe a toy bear he had made. The President agreed and on February 15, 1903, the first teddy bear went on sale and the rest is history.

Roosevelt later went on safari after Taft took office and killed 296 animals, including nine lions. Suffice it to say, Michtom was not as inspired to create a teddy line of those creatures.

Teddy Pictures 

Who made the first toy bear called teddy bear?

Well there are several stories, below is the most popular one:

Morris Michtom made the first official toy bear called the teddy bear. Michtom owned a small novelty and candy store in Brooklyn, New York. His wife Rose was making toy bears for sale in their store. Michtom sent Roosevelt a bear and asked permission to use the teddy bear name. Roosevelt said yes. Michtom and a company called Butler Brothers, began to mass-produce the teddy bear. Within a year Michtom started his own company called the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

However, the truth is that no one is sure who made the first teddy bear, please read the resto the right and below for more information on other origins

   

History of the Teddy Bear

Teddy Roosevelt and the Teddy Bear

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, is the person responsible for giving the teddy bear his name. On November 14, 1902, Roosevelt was helping settle a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. During his spare time he attended a bear hunt in Mississippi. During the hunt, Roosevelt came upon a wounded young bear and ordered the mercy killing of the animal. The Washington Post ran a editorial cartoon created by the political cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman that illustrated the event. The cartoon was called "Drawing the Line in Mississippi" and depicted both state line dispute and the bear hunt. At first Berryman drew the bear as a fierce animal, the bear had just killed a hunting dog. Later, Berryman redrew the bear to make it a cuddly cub. The cartoon and the story it told became popular and within a year, the cartoon bear became a toy for children called the teddy bear.