A teddy bear is a soft toy that looks like a bear. They are usually made from synthetic fabrics.
The teddy bear was named after Theodore Roosevelt. The American president's childhood nickname was "Teedie," but his adult nickname was "Teddy" (which he despised and considered improper, preferring "T.R.").
Theodore Roosevelt started the fashion for Teddy bears when during a hunting trip in Mississippi on November 14, 1902, he refused to shoot a defenseless black bear that had been tied to a willow tree. Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman picked up on the story, drawing a cartoon showing President Roosevelt with a bear, which ran in the Washington Post two days later.
An alert Brooklyn shop owner Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and created a tiny plush toy bear cub with his wife Rose's help. He sent it to Roosevelt asking the president for permission to use the name "Teddy." Roosevelt replied: "I don't think my name is likely to be worth much in the bear business, but you are welcome to use it."
After receiving permission to use Roosevelt's name, Michtom put a plush bear in the shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear" on February 15, 1903. The sale of the bears was so brisk that Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which began making dolls in 1907 to complement its line of teddy bears.
Below is a Teddy bear formerly owned by the president's son Kermit Roosevelt, thought to be made by Michtom in the early 1900s
Around the same time in Germany, Richard Steiff, unaware of Michtom's bear, produced "Bear 55 PB", the first toy bear with jointed arms and legs. Steiff exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903, where it initially attracted little attention, but its fortunes were changed when an American buyer snapped up the entire lot of 100 bears and ordered another 3,000 just before the exhibition finished.
The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use of the term teddy bear to 1906.
1906 also saw the first advertisement for the "teddy bear", in the trade journal Playthings.
"The Teddy Bears Picnic" was originally called "The Teddy Bear Two Step." The song was composed in 1907 by JK Bratton; and around the same there were several other pieces of music with "Teddy Bear" in the title. The words by by Dublin University graduate Jimmy Kennedy were added in 1932.
At the height of the teddy bear's huge popularity in the 1900s, there is record of one Michigan priest who publicly denounced the teddy as an insidious weapon. He claimed that the stuffed toy would lead to the destruction of the instincts of motherhood and eventual racial suicide.
In 1919 British aviators Alcock and Brown make the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. They took teddy bear mascots with them on their record breaking journey.
One of the most famous teddy bears was an 18-inch-high one A. A. Milne and his wife brought from Harrods in London. It was a present for their son, Christopher Robin Milne, in honor of his first birthday on August 21, 1921. The bear was later named Winnie the Pooh.
A teddy bear in New Hampshire was responsible for killing 2,500 fish. It clogged the drain in a hatchery, preventing the fish from getting oxygen.
Manuel Noriega ruled Panama from 1983 to 1990. He was known to have dressed his teddy bears as soldiers. He put them on an office shelf between his graduation photo and a bust of Napoleon.
A British teacher in Sudan was arrested because she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad".
At 8,026 teddy bears, 68-year-old Jackie Miley broke the record for the largest teddy bear collection. The teddy bears she'd accumulated in her hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota, USA earned the 68-year-old a spot in the 2018 Guinness Book of World Records for the world's largest collection of teddy bears.
Here's a link to some songs about teddy bears.
Source Daily Express
 |
| Pixiebay |
HISTORY
The teddy bear was named after Theodore Roosevelt. The American president's childhood nickname was "Teedie," but his adult nickname was "Teddy" (which he despised and considered improper, preferring "T.R.").
Theodore Roosevelt started the fashion for Teddy bears when during a hunting trip in Mississippi on November 14, 1902, he refused to shoot a defenseless black bear that had been tied to a willow tree. Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman picked up on the story, drawing a cartoon showing President Roosevelt with a bear, which ran in the Washington Post two days later.
 |
| The political cartoon in The Washington Post that spawned the teddy bear name. |
An alert Brooklyn shop owner Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and created a tiny plush toy bear cub with his wife Rose's help. He sent it to Roosevelt asking the president for permission to use the name "Teddy." Roosevelt replied: "I don't think my name is likely to be worth much in the bear business, but you are welcome to use it."
After receiving permission to use Roosevelt's name, Michtom put a plush bear in the shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear" on February 15, 1903. The sale of the bears was so brisk that Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which began making dolls in 1907 to complement its line of teddy bears.
Below is a Teddy bear formerly owned by the president's son Kermit Roosevelt, thought to be made by Michtom in the early 1900s
 |
| By Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - https://www.flickr.com |
Around the same time in Germany, Richard Steiff, unaware of Michtom's bear, produced "Bear 55 PB", the first toy bear with jointed arms and legs. Steiff exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903, where it initially attracted little attention, but its fortunes were changed when an American buyer snapped up the entire lot of 100 bears and ordered another 3,000 just before the exhibition finished.
 |
| A replica Steiff model 55PB displayed at the Steiff-Museum, By MatthiasKabel |
The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use of the term teddy bear to 1906.
1906 also saw the first advertisement for the "teddy bear", in the trade journal Playthings.
"The Teddy Bears Picnic" was originally called "The Teddy Bear Two Step." The song was composed in 1907 by JK Bratton; and around the same there were several other pieces of music with "Teddy Bear" in the title. The words by by Dublin University graduate Jimmy Kennedy were added in 1932.
At the height of the teddy bear's huge popularity in the 1900s, there is record of one Michigan priest who publicly denounced the teddy as an insidious weapon. He claimed that the stuffed toy would lead to the destruction of the instincts of motherhood and eventual racial suicide.
 |
| Pixiebay |
In 1919 British aviators Alcock and Brown make the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. They took teddy bear mascots with them on their record breaking journey.
One of the most famous teddy bears was an 18-inch-high one A. A. Milne and his wife brought from Harrods in London. It was a present for their son, Christopher Robin Milne, in honor of his first birthday on August 21, 1921. The bear was later named Winnie the Pooh.
 |
| Christopher Robin Milne . Wikipedia |
TEDDY BEAR FACTS
A teddy bear in New Hampshire was responsible for killing 2,500 fish. It clogged the drain in a hatchery, preventing the fish from getting oxygen.
Manuel Noriega ruled Panama from 1983 to 1990. He was known to have dressed his teddy bears as soldiers. He put them on an office shelf between his graduation photo and a bust of Napoleon.
A British teacher in Sudan was arrested because she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad".
At 8,026 teddy bears, 68-year-old Jackie Miley broke the record for the largest teddy bear collection. The teddy bears she'd accumulated in her hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota, USA earned the 68-year-old a spot in the 2018 Guinness Book of World Records for the world's largest collection of teddy bears.
Here's a link to some songs about teddy bears.
Source Daily Express
No comments:
Post a Comment