Why are they called Teddy Bears?

Joy, I think I finally got Hermie the elephant's trunk just right. Look, you nailed it! That's the most perfect plushie I've ever seen. Most people would think to buy peanuts for their pet elephant's birthday, but Hermie the elephant who lives in my closet is no ordinary pet. He deserves something special, like a tiny stuffed version of himself. What do you think of the stuffy I made? Is that a plushy can opener? Yes, I'm naming it Candace.

Who knew a can opener could be so cuddly? Me, I did, I knew it, Luke, because I sleep with one every night. How do you think Herm got so obsessed with them in the first place? My influence is powerful. Okay, so we've got Candace the can opener, a tiny stuffed elephant version of Hermie. What about a teddy bear? Teddy bears are the stuffed animal. Yeah, why is that? Why not a stuffed bunny or cat or axolotl? And what's with the name teddy?

Well, the teddy bear's fame is all thanks to a couple of toy makers and an American president. Whoa, a president? Sounds like an excellent podcast topic. Ooh that just inspired another plushie idea. Let me guess, a stuffed microphone? I was thinking of a plushie microphone stand. Always thinking outside the box. Well, you know, they don't call me Joy Outside of the Box thinker Dolo for nothin'. You're listening to Forever Ago from Brains on Universe.

Joy Dolo and I'm here today with Luke from Hanover, Massachusetts. Hello! Today, we're talking all about the history of stuffies, which are fluffy stuffed animals. And one of the most popular plushies, the teddy bear. Luke, I want to know. Do you like stuffed animals? Uh, I do like stuffed animals. Um, I have a favorite one. He's a tiny I don't actually know what he is. It's kind of like an elk. Ooh. And his name is Ted. What does it look like? Um it's like

Half a foot tall, it has a big head, it has horns. Oh wow. Have you ever had a teddy bear before? Um, yeah, I have a teddy bear now. I go to builder bear sometimes and um the last time I went I made a Harry Potter bear that when you clicked its paw, it said Expecto Patronum. So Oh wow, that's so neat. What about you, droid? Did you have a favorite stuffed animal? I actually grew up with a lot of stuffed animals because I have four sisters and I'm the third one.

So like whenever my oldest sister was done with her toys, I would get them. So I always had bears and things coming down. But the one that I remember the most wasn't a stuffed animal. It was um my little pony. Do you have you seen that show? That my little pony it's like a little pink. Pony with a horn with a unicorn. It it must be from

A long time ago. But um but they were not fluffy, they were hard and they were plastic, but their hair was really silky. So I used to love to just like brush their hair and braid it. And I used to sleep with mine all the time.

Joy, you said the teddy bear started with tour makers and an American president? It's true, but hold your horses. I'm already holding my horses. This stuffed horse I made for Hermie. So so People have been making stuffed toys for thousands of years, long before the teddy bear. Folks in ancient Egypt and Rome made fabric dolls stuffed with paper and rags. Dolls made from rags, also known as rag dolls.

And these rag dolls were popular across different cultures for centuries, but stuffed animal toys, at least how we know them, didn't become popular until the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was a period in history during the eighteen hundreds. When people started making all sorts of People could use machines to make more things more quickly. Including stuffed animals. One of the first mass-produced stuffed animals was made by a German seamstress named Margarita Steit.

In eighteen eighty. As lots of other stuff was invented, like the telephone or light bulb. Right. And this first stuffed animal wasn't a toy, it was a felted elephant originally sold as a pincushion for sewers to stick their pins and needles in. Awww, a stuffed elephant, just like the Hermi plushie I made. Exactly. And just like your stuffed Hermi, the pincush was so

So cute that lots of kids started using it as a toy. Okay, so how do we get from a stuffed elephant pincushion to a teddy bear? Well, there's two stories. So one starts a few years later with Margarita's nephew, Richard, who started working at his aunt's toy factory. Richard wasn't a seamstress like his wife. I'm an artiste. Richard loved to draw and often visited the zoo to sketch animals. That's where inspiration struck. That brown bear is so cute.

Oh, it would make the perfect toy. So in 1902, Richard created the stif bear, a plush stuffed bear with movable limbs. A potable stuffed bear? That's unbearably cute. But why did we start calling them teddy bears?

That has to do with our twenty sixth president of the United States. But before we dive any deeper, I can't bear it any longer. It's time to play. This is the game where we take three things from history and try to put them in order of which came first, second, and most recent in time. Today's three things are three famous bears. We've got Winnie the Pooh, Kung Fu Panda, and Paddington Bear. So look, do you know these three bears?

Uh yeah, I I've heard of them all. Yeah. Yeah. So which do you think came first, which came second, and which came most recently in history? Because I've liked watched the Kung Fu Panda Uh like movies? Um, I think that's most recent. Like Oh yeah. And then um Paddington in the middle because like I just feel like Winnie the Pooh is kinda old. So like Winnie the Pooh is from like the nineteen forties maybe. Oh yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, so I think the order is

Um, Winnie the Pooh oldest, Paddington Bear second, and Kung Fu Panda third. Alright. Well we'll hear the answers at the end of the episode, right after the credits. So stick around. Hey, we're doing an F- You know words like Like beastie. That's a beast who's also your best friend. Yeah, you know I'm talking about you, Hermie my b- We want to hear your slang word. Make up a word and tell us what it means. Then send it to us at brainson.org slash contact.

You're listening to Forever Ago. I'm Joy. And I'm Luke. And today we're talking about the history of stuffed animals. Especially one of the most iconic stuffed animals, the teddy bear! Before the break, we learned people have been making stuffed toys for centuries. But stuffed bears didn't become popular until after the Industrial Revolution. Some people say stuffed bears started with German toy makers. Others point to the twenty sixth president of the United States and

Theodore Roosevelt. I've heard of that president. He loved being outside, right? Yeah, Roosevelt loved the great outdoors, adventure and hunting, which was a very popular sport back in the early 1900s. And a hunting trip is where our next story starts. It was 1902, the same year the stifed German toymakers made their poseable stuffed bear. Meanwhile, President Roosevelt was in Mississippi hunting for bears.

There was just one problem. There are no bears. Roosevelt couldn't find any bears to hunt. Panicked, his assistants found an old black bear and tied it up to a tree for Roosevelt to shoot. Mr. President, we found a bear for you. But Roosevelt didn't like the idea of shooting this poor old bear. It didn't feel very sportsmanlike. He was rumored to have said, I couldn't be proud of myself if I shot an old, tired, worn-out bear that was tied to a tree.

Saving an animal like that sounds like the bare minimum to me. Totally. But this story was quite a hoot at the time. News spread fast about Roosevelt and the bear. A cartoonist even drew up the scene for the newspaper, showing Roosevelt refusing to shoot the cuddly bear, see? It's a very fluffy-looking bear with Mickey Mouse-shaped ears.

A certifiable cutie patootie. This cartoon inspired New York candy shop owners Rose and Morris Mitchum to make and sell a stuffed bear of their own. They called it Teddy's Bear, named after President Teddy Roosevelt. They even got the president's permission to use his name. Teddy's Bear, you say? It does have a nice ring to it.

Teddy's Bear was a wild success. So much so that the Mitchum stopped making candy altogether just to become full-time toy makers. So teddy bears got their name from President Theodore Teddy Roosevelt. Uh, why is it always Teddy Bear and never Billy Possum, huh? A giant possum just walked into the studio Oh okay it has pointy teeth, long snout, and long skinny tail. Kind of looks like a big rat, but joy, possums are not that big That's because it's me. Let me take off this headpiece real quick.

It's forever ago, producer and professional yapper Nico Gonzalez Whistler. Don't forget, president of the Billy Possum Fan Club. Hi Nico. I guess that explains why you're in that possum suit. That explains nothing. I've seen Nico wear that to the grocery store. No, I wear my raccoon suit when I go grocery shopping. It's a totally different tale. Oh yeah, and way fewer teeth. My mistake. So you're the president of a possum fan club, huh? Not just any possum, Billy Possum.

Who is Billy Possum? Only the greatest stuffed animal inspired by an American president ever. Another presidential plushie? I gotta hear more about this. And we will right after the break. We love getting fan art from our listeners. We love fan art like Nico loves Billy Possum. Since this is an audio-only podcast, I can't exactly show them to you, so I'm going to describe one of these wonderful drawings. Okay, so I am there with the beautiful sunshine and a beautiful purple top and some jeans.

And my best friend Hermie is next to me with these lovely round ears and a giant trunk and a little bubble that says, hi, which is classic, Hermi. It's a wonderful drawing. Thank you so much. So if you want to send us a drawing of a teddy bear and Billy Possum line dancing or a sonnet to your favorite stuffy, please send us mail. You can visit brainzon.org/slash contact to reach out. Thanks!

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I'm Luke. I'm Joy. And I'm Nico, president of the Billy Possum Fan Club, aka the best presidential stuffed animal ever invented. Why am I just learning about Billy Possum now? Because Our world is filled with teddy bear propaganda. Don't even get me started on Care Bears. It all started with the next president after Teddy Roosevelt, President William Howard Taft. It was January 1909.

Months before President Taft was officially inaugurated. He was invited to an honorary dinner in Atlanta, Georgia, where the president-elect requested a dish he was excited to try for the first time. Possums and taters. AKA roasted possum and sweet potatoes. Wait, people used to eat. Yep. It was considered a Delicacy back then. Yeah. Wow, so this dude really

Really wanted to eat possum? Yeah, it was a big spectacle. News of the dinner spread far and wide, once again inspiring a cartoonist to draw a picture of Taft holding up a possum. See? Let me take a little look, C's. The cartoon reads, If Teddy Bear, why not Billy Possum? It even calls Billy Possum the new national toy.

That very cartoonist presented Taft with a tiny stuffed possum pin at his possums and taters dinner. It was sort of a joke, but it inspired a woman named Susie Wright Allgood to go all in on possumania. Roosevelt's tennis. Nice! It sounds like Susie was all in on Billy Possum. Were they as popular as teddy bears? Well, no. Turns out some people don't find stuffed possums very cuddly compared to stuffed bears. One paper even claimed Billy Possum gave babies nightmares.

Oof, that's a tough review. It also didn't help that their company got hit with a lawsuit over contracts and a warehouse fire. Impossibly bad luck. Billy Possumania ended as quickly as it started. But He lives in my heart forever. And I live inside his head, in this possum suit. As president of the Billy Possum Fan Club, I'm determined to revive his chaotic legacy.

I'm down for the cause. Can I join? Me too. I can even sew up some Billy Possum plushies for all of us right now. I bet Herm would like one too. Possumania. Some people think the Bear started with German toy makers after the Industrial Revolution. Others think it was created by New Yorkers who were inspired by American president Theodore Teddy Roosevelt. William Taft After Roosevelt. Billy Posse. This episode was written by Ruby Guthrie. It was produced and fact checked by Nico Gonzalez.

Engineering help from Reddit. With sound design by Rachel Breeze. Original theme music by Mark Sanchez. Jason Scott. And if you want access to ad-free episodes and special bonus content, subscribe to our Smarty Pass. Okay, Luke. Are you ready to hear the answers for first things first? No. Come on! It's gonna be super fun!

Yay. Okay, so as a reminder, we're putting these three famous bears in order from oldest to most recent. And yours were Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear, and then Kung Fu Panda. Is that your final answer? All right. Oh wow. Oh no. Oh ye sh You were right. Luke's the smartest kid I know So Winnie the Pooh, you were right, was the oldest and that was created in nineteen twenty five.

It first appeared as a children's story published in a London newspaper for Christmas Eve. And it was written by author A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepherd. I've never heard of either of those people. Me neither. You know, Winnie the Pooh is actually based off of a real bear named Winnie who was at the London Zoo. Oh, that's neat. Milne and his son Christopher Robin

would go to the zoo often and even bought a stuffed bear, which inspired the lovable, honey loving, no pants wearing character. Did they buy um one of the Teddy's bear? From the Toymakers? Oh, maybe. I'm I'm not sure, but I am familiar with the name Christopher Robin because that was on the show, the Pooh Bear Winnie the Pooh Bear. It was Christopher Robin who was his best friend. Uh next up, again, you were right, it was Paddington Bear, and that was 1958 that he appeared.

for the first time in a book called A Bear Called Paddington by British author Michael Bond. So the story follows a lost bear from Peru who finds himself in London, complete with a big hat, raincoat, and suitcase. And the book sold over thirty-five million copies around the world and translated into over forty languages and have inspired several hit animated movies.

Have you seen any of the Paddington Bear movies? I've seen the most recent one on a field trip last year with my class. Oh. We saw Paddington in Peru. Oh, was it good? It was really good. Oh great. It's when he made it back to Peru. Oh that's cool. It's nice. He had a full circle. So Paddington's favorite food is a marmalade sandwich. Because marmalades grow in Peru. where he he's from. Mm. Have you ever had marmalade uh jelly before? Yeah, my dad always has marmalade

Um jam at at our house. So Yeah, I like it too. I like it with on toast. I put it on rice cakes, but yeah. Oh yum, that's good too. So marmalade is a type of jam made from citrus, like oranges. After the first Paddington's film release in two thousand fifteen, the UK saw spikes in marmalade sales across the country, possibly inspired by Paddington himself. Maybe. And last but certainly not least is Kung Fu Panda from 2008.

So the Kung Fu Panda is the smash animated movie that came out in two thousand and eight. And it features Po, a lovable panda who dreams of becoming a Kung Fu master and is voiced by Jack Black, who's like one of the funniest folks. A kung fu panda's filmmaker spent years researching Chinese art. And kung fu movies. The movie's animators even took kung fu classes to get a better understanding of the character's movement. Whoa. I didn't know they did so much work on that. And how.

Yeah. So out of these three bears, which one is your favorite? Probably Paddington. Yeah, yeah. It's the Peru, it's the Marmalade, it's all of that. I still have to go with uh Winnie the Pooh because Pooh Bear Winnie. Thanks for listening.