Friday, June 5, 2009

History of the Teddy Bear




2002 marked the 100th birthday of the teddy bear. To many it comes as a surprise that this major 20th century icon and childhood classic is younger than electric light, the telephone and the motor car.
The cuddly children’s toy, - quite unlike a real bear- was invented almost simultaneously in the United States and Germany but the United States undoubtedly gave it its name. In November 1902 Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, was hunting in Mississippi. The President failed to make a kill so his hosts caught and tethered a bear, presenting it to the President as a sitting target. Naturally the President refused, uttering the immortal words, ‘Spare the bear! I will not shoot a tethered animal.’ Clifford Berryman drew a cartoon of the scene, which was published in the Washington Post.
(Left Theodore Roosevelt , and behind - his famous 'Spare The Bear' cartoon depiction)
That same month Brooklyn shopkeepers Morris and Rose Michtom made a soft bear toy, which they named ‘Teddy’s Bear’ and displayed in their window with a copy of the cartoon. America went bear mad almost overnight, the Michtoms went on to make their fortune with the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company and President Roosevelt had found a highly effective political mascot.

On the other side of the Atlantic Margarete Steiff, a disabled German seamstress with a soft toy factory in Giengen, had added a soft plush bear to the Steiff catalogue and sold 3,000 to America in 1903. Between 1903 and the First World War Steiff sold literally millions of bears, with their trademark button in the left ear, to the United States, Germany and Britain, as the teddy bear overtook the diabolo as the latest toy craze.
So sweet ahh flowers for me thanks


Feel Better
For anyone feeling hurt today and feeling lonly i hope you feel better real soon love always the teddy bear will always put a smile on your face when hurting and in pain just grab your teddy bear and squeeze it real tight and feel the love of the warmth of your teddy bear .









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