The Teddy bear is a man’s best toy, but how did he come to assume such a high place in our affections?
In 1902, Theordore Roosevelt, the widely-loved President of the United States, was asked to referee in a border dispute between the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. ‘Teddy’, as he was nicknamed, was a big hunter and during a break in the discussions he was invited to go on a bear hunt in Mississippi. Since no bears were shot, the embarrassed host invited Roosevelt to shoot a bear cub, which they had tried to a tree. A humane and gentleman, the President refused to shoot because it was unsporting. New of the incident quickly reached Washington. A newspaper cartoonist, Clifford Berryman, made the political cartoon “Drawing the Line in Mississippi".
At about the same time a Rusain couple, Morris and Rose Michtom, who owned a toy shop in New York, were trying to create a soft toy for boys. The Berryman cartoon gave them the idea for a jointed plush toy bear, which they displayed in their shop window along with the cartoon and a sign saying ‘Teddy’s Bear’.
The Michtom’s soft toy was a success and they asked Roosvelt if they could call their product ‘Teddy’s Bear’. The bewildered President gave his permission and the soft toy became a popular Roosevelt mascot. The Michtom’s later established the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.
However, the first soft toy bear may have actually been made in Germany. In 1877, Margarete Steiff started a dress shop in Geingen-an-der-Brenz, in southern Germany. At first she made felt underskirts but went onto experiment with felt elephant pincushions. Encouraged by her brother Fritz, she made more felt animals and a successful family business developed. In the 1890’s Fritz’s son Richard introduced a new design of a soft toy bear cub based on sketches made at Stuttgart Zoo. It was not until 1903 at the Leipzig Toy Fair that the Steiff ‘s Bears were ‘discovered’. From 1903 to 1907, the Steiffs employed 2000 people and exported a million bears to Europe and the United States.
The craze for the soft toy ‘Teddy’s Bear’ led to many cartoons and children’s stories. Most of these stories shortened ‘Teddy’s Bears’ to ‘Teddy’. By,1910, soft toy bears were referred to as ‘teddy bears’.
Before 1914, most teddys were similar to real bears, with large hind legs, elongated snouts and humpbacks. Manufacturers in America and Europe copied the early Steiff design. The teddys were stuffed with fine wood shavings and covered in the fleece of angora goats called mohair. The early teddys had black boot button eyes and many had reed squeakers or growlers fitted in their stomachs. The teddys became more humanized as manufacturers introuced “macho” teddys wearing different costumes of the police, navy, army and circus clowns.
