Big Bear Day

For good news, today marks an anniversary: On February 15, 1903, the first Teddy Bears went on sale.

The first “Teddy bear” was put on sale on this day in history, Feb. 15, 1903. Named after President Theodore Roosevelt, the stuffed bear was first sold by Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn, New York , resident who owned a candy shop, the website for the National Parks Service (NPS) says. Michtom’s wife, Rose, who made stuffed animal toys, actually created the first teddy bears.

Michtom was inspired to call the toys “Teddy’s bear” after reading a political cartoon published in the Washington Post on Nov. 16, 1902, notes the parks service website.  The cartoon was drawn by artist Clifford Berryman. It satirized an incident on a  hunting trip in Mississippi in which Roosevelt refused to shoot and kill a black bear that had been tied to a willow tree.

Fox

Couple of Teddy related  stories:

In 1963, for the Teddy bear’s 60th birthday, Benjamin Michtom — the son of Rose and Morris Michtom — attempted to unite the original bear with a descendant of its namesake.

“He first contacted Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter, to offer her one of the original Teddy Bears if she would pose with it,” says the Smithsonian.

Longworth apparently declined the offer, reportedly asking, “What does a 79-year-old doll want with a 60-year-old bear?”

And in an item better suited to Wretched’s column: Teddy is one of the only, if not the only, Presidents to coin an advertising slogan. While staying at the Maxwell House, a nice hotel near the Andy Jackson museum he had visited, at dinner he was asked if he wanted another cup of coffee. He accepted, saying their coffee was “good to the last drop”. They later obtained his permission to use the phrase for their coffee, and have used it ever since.

And his influence even extended to the rock and roll era – an old blues man name of Mississippi John Hurt recorded his “Coffee Blues” about his love for Maxwell House, saying one teaspoonful of MH would do him as much good as two or three cups of other coffees – and called it his “Lovin’ Spoonful.”  Music folks will know the association.