I walk by a home and there perched on a wrought iron bench in the middle of landscaping close to the street is a giant teddy bear. It is dripping wet, having survived the downpour the night before. I can only imagine why it happens to be in this particular place at this particular time.
According to Wikipedia, a teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Moris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff in Germany in the early years of the 20th century, and named after President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the teddy bear became a popular children's toy, celebrated in story, song and film. Since the creation of the first teddy bears which sought to imitate the form of real bear cubs, "teddies" have greatly varied in form, style, color and material. They have become collectors’ items, with older and rarer teddies appearing at public auctions. Teddy bears are among the most popular gifts for children and are often given to adults to signify love, congratulations or sympathy.
The teddy bear in the photo is is a replica Steiff model 55PB displayed at the Steiff-Museum, Giengen, Germany in 2006.
History
The name teddy bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who was commonly known as "Teddy" — though he loathed being referred to as such. The name originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt's attendants — led by Holt Collier — cornered, clubbed and tied an American black bear to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery, and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. While the initial cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a handler and a disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons made the bear smaller and cuter.
Morris Michtom, a Russian-born businessman, saw the drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a teddy bear with his wife Rose. He was born to a Jewish family and immigrated to New York in 1887. He sold candy in his shop at 404 Tompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn by day and made stuffed animals with his wife Rose at night. Mitchom created a tiny, soft bear cub and put it in the shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear," after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toys were an immediate success, and he founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co. which, after his death, became the largest doll-making company in the United States.
At the same time in Germany, the Steiff company, unaware of Michtom's bear, produced a stuffed bear from Richard Steiff’s designs. While attending the School of Arts and Crafts in Stuttgart, he would regularly visit the nearby Nill'scher Zoo (closed 1906) and spend much of his time drawing the residents of the bear enclosure. His sketches of the bears were incorporated into the prototype of the toy bear he created in 1902.
Steiff exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903, where it was seen by Hermann Berg, a buyer for George Borgfeldt & Co. in New York — and the brother of composer Alban Berg. He ordered 3,000 to be sent to the United States. Although Steiff's records show that the bears were produced, they are not recorded as arriving in the U.S., and no example of the type, "55 PB", has ever been seen, leading to the story that the bears were shipwrecked.
However, the story is disputed. Author Günther Pfeiffer notes that it was only recorded in 1953 and says it is more likely that the 55 PB was not sufficiently durable to survive until the present day. Although Steiff and Michtom were both making teddy bears at around the same time, neither would have known of the other's creation due to poor transatlantic communication.
At the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, the Steiffs sold 12,000 bears and received the Gold Medal, which was the highest honor at the event. Steiff bears, with a small metal "Steiff" clip in the ear, can now be quite valuable.
Early teddy bears were made to look like real bears, with extended snouts and beady eyes. Modern teddy bears tend to have larger eyes and foreheads and smaller noses, babylike features intended to enhance the toy's "cuteness.” Some teddy bears are also designed to represent different species, such as polar bears and brown bears, as well as pandas and koalas.
While early teddy bears were covered in tawny mohair fur, modern teddy bears are manufactured in a wide variety of commercially available fabrics, most commonly synthetic fur, but also velour, denim, cotton, satin and canvas.
In 1906, the American composer John Walter Bratton wrote a musical piece originally titled "The Teddy Bear Two Step." It became popular in a 1908 instrumental version renamed "Teddy Bears' Picnic," performed by the Arthur Pryor Band. The song regained prominence in 1932 when the Irish lyricist Jimmy Kennedy added words, and it was recorded by the then popular Henry Hall and his BBC Dance Orchestra, featuring Val Rosing (Gilbert Russell) as lead vocalist, which went on to sell a million copies. "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" resurfaced again in the late 1940s and early 1950s when it was used as the theme song for the Bi Jon and Sparkie children's radio show. This perennial favorite has appeared on many children's recordings ever since, and is the theme song for the AHL's Hershey Bears hockey club.
Commercial production
Commercially made, mass-produced teddy bears are predominantly made as toys for children. These bears either have safety joints for attaching arms, legs, and heads, or else the joints are sewn and not articulated. They must have securely fastened eyes that do not pose a choking hazard for small children. These "plush" bears must meet a rigid standard of construction to be marketed to children in the United States and in the European Union.
There are also companies — like Steiff — that sell handmade collectible bears that can be purchased in stores or over the Internet. The majority of teddy bears are manufactured in countries such as China and Indonesia. A few small, single-person producers in the United States make unique, non-mass-produced teddy bears. In the United Kingdom one small, traditional teddy bear company remains, Merrythought, which was established in 1930. Mohair — the fur shorn or combed from a breed of long haired goats — is woven into cloth, dyed and trimmed. Alpaca teddy bears are made from the pelt of an alpaca because the fiber is too soft to weave. In addition to mohair and alpaca, there is a huge selection of "plush" or synthetic fur made for the teddy bear market. Both these types of fur are commercially produced.
Amateur production
Teddy bears are a favorite form of soft toy for amateur toy makers, with many patterns commercially produced or available online. Many "teddies" are homemade as gifts or for charity, while "teddy bear artists" often create "teddies" for retail, decorating them individually with commercial and recycled ornaments such as sequins, beads and ribbons. Sewn teddy bears are made from a wide range of materials including felt, cotton and velour. While many are stitched, others are made from yarn, either knitted or crocheted.
Cultural impact
Retail sales of stuffed plush animals including teddy bears totaled $1.3 billion in 2006. The most commonly sold brands include Gund and Ty Inc. Brands associated with teddy bears that enjoyed strong popularity in the 1980s and 1990s are Teddy Ruxpin and Care Bears. Various TV shows and movies have a teddy bear depicted, such as Super Ted and Mr. Bean.
Teddy bears have seen a resurgence in popularity as international "do-it-yourself" chains have opened. Among the largest and best-known are Build-A-Bear Workshop and Vermont Teddy Bear Co.
Some popular mass-marketed teddy bears made today include Rupert, Sooty, Paddington and Pudsey Bear. Books have also been written with the teddy bear featured as their main character. These include Winnie-the-Pooh, Corduroy, Teddy Tells Time, Tristan the Teddy Bear — from the Teddy Bear Tales and Teddy Dressing.
“Paddington” is a 2014 live-action animated comedy film written and directed by Paul King from a story by King and Hamish McColl and produced by David Heyman. Based on the stories of the character Paddington Bear created by Michael Bond, the film stars Ben Whishaw as the voice of the title character, with Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi and Nicole Kidman in live-action roles. The film tells the story of the eponymous character Paddington, an anthropomorphic bear who migrates from the jungles of Peru to the streets of London, where he is adopted by the Brown family. Kidman plays the role of a taxidermist, who attempts to add him to her collection.
“Paddington 2” was released on 10 November 2017 in the United Kingdom. A third film has also been confirmed.
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