Teddy was really male. He smoked cigars, drank whiskey, loved bacon. He was a boxer, big game hunter, war hero. His nickname Rex, like the dreaded Tyrannosaurus, pleased him well. His other, Teddy, pleased him less. Nevertheless, allowed Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 US President, a cute stuffed animal after him to name.
Morris Mitchom had asked for it. The merchant sold candy in his New York shop. In the shop window he exhibited two bears that his wife had sewn by hand. As customers discovered the plush exhibits, they were no longer interested in cute rubber animals. They wanted a sweet stuffed bear. Mitchom's wife Rose had to diligently tailor and stuff to meet demand. The couple entered the bear business in 1907 and founded the Ideal Toy Company.
Mitchom had come up with an event five years earlier, when Roosevelt stalked the Mississippi woods back then, when almost all the hunters in the company had already killed game, only the president did not. Therefore, his companions tied a young bear to a tree and served it to the Head of State for launch.
Kill a helpless animal? That was against the Waidmannsehre. Roosevelt refused.
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Caricature of Clifford K. Berryman, 1902
The scene was sketched by the draftsman Clifford K. Berryman; his caricature appeared on November 16, 1902 on the front page of the Washington Post. The readers were enthusiastic. Berryman has since painted many more cartoons of the President with bears on the side, which were simply called "Teddy's Bears". A promotional product name for the Brooklyn Bears, confectioner Mitchom found.
With a button in the ear to world success
Around the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, a Stuttgart art student spent many afternoons in Nill's Tiergarten, one of the city's most popular destinations. He sat down in front of the private zoo, watching and drawing the animals. The brown bears had been particularly impressed.
The 25-year-old was named Richard Steiff, a nephew of the soft toy manufacturer Margarete Steiff. He wanted to create a bear doll that had moving arms and legs, unlike his aunt's then-felty elephants, camels, and monkeys. Using his sketches he made a furry mohair cover, filled it with wood wool and pulled a cord through the body.
Steiff
Richard Steiff with a teddy bear
Richard Steiff's creation had a pointed snout, a short hull, big feet and ears, and a lifelike hump. The nose was made of sealing wax, his eyes were made of black boot buttons.
"What a stuffed freak!" Exclaimed visitors to the Leipzig toy fair in 1903, if they even took notice of the bear. He was not a success at first. Maybe it was not just the look, but also the factory name, which reminded of the type designation of a robot: The Steiffs presented their new stuffed animal on the show as "Bär 55 PB" - P like plush, B like mobile, 55 for the size in centimeters.
Only on the last day of the exhibition did the representative of a New York company stop at the Steiff stand. He is said to have bought 3,000 copies for around eight marks a piece - a giant step for Steiff on his way to becoming a global company. None of the original teddies of this series ever reappeared.
Child star and toilet paper advertiser
Thousands of descendants were made. As Steiff proudly announced in the company chronicle, the annual production in Giengen an der Brenz in Baden-Württemberg reached almost one million bears in 1907, with the same trademark as in all figures: a button in the ear. They were now sold as "Teddy" and were later in the Steiff program "Petsy", based on "Master Petz", as bears in fairy tales and fables are called.
The stuffed bear, which gives so many boys and girls happiness all over the world, has two ancestors - in Baden-Württemberg as well as in the USA. He quickly left the children's world and became a star in the cinema and television. He advertises condensed milk, toilet paper or softener. And he achieves top prices at auctions.
For a copy in 2000, a bear lover, an "arctophile", converted around 215,000 euros. Luxury fashion designer Louis Vuitton designed the teddy with chic accessories and a gold button in the ear. The cuddling was rather not.
Always on November 7, the Americans celebrate the "Hug a Bear Day". Hugging a cuddly bear instead of a grizzly has proven to be much less dangerous. On the occasion of the curious holiday shows one day in the photo gallery Teddies who made their careers outside the nursery.