National Teddy Bear Day
Want to bring a smile to someone’s face? Show them a picture of a teddy bear. Better yet, give them a teddy bear. Teddies may be for children—but they’re for children of all ages, young and old.
Teddy bears are so popular that they even have their own day—National Teddy Bear Day is September 9th of every year.
No one seems to know the origin of the day, though it’s thought to have started around 2002 when the teddy celebrated its 100th birthday. Nor why it is September 9th. But that’s the designated day, so put it on your calendar and prepare to celebrate the lovable huggable teddy bear.
And don’t forget to give your teddy a great big hug and ask forgiveness for any accidental mistreatment you may have given him.
Beginnings
United States. It was November 1902 and U.S. President Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt was going hunting—bear hunting to be exact—in Mississippi. But there were no bears to be found, until finally members of his party managed to corner a bear and tie him to a tree. When Roosevelt saw the badly beaten bear, he refused to shoot it saying it would be unsportsmanlike. He did, however, direct that the bear be put out of his misery.
The story naturally made headlines, and cartoonist Clifford Berryman drew a cartoon of the event. In New York, candy store owner Morris Mitchtom saw the cartoon and asked his wife Rose to make a stuffed bear in its honor. The bear proved popular, so Mitchtom sent a bear to Roosevelt asking for permission to name it after him. Roosevelt agreed, and the ever popular “teddy” bear was born. Mitchtom went on to found the Ideal Toy Company to make his bears.
Germany. Meanwhile, it was late 1902 when German toy maker Richard Steiff, unaware of what was going on in the United States (no fast transatlantic communication back then), talked his aunt Margarete Steiff into letting him design a plush bear with movable arms and legs. He later took the prototype, PB55, to the March 1903 Leipzig Toy Fair. The bear, however, didn’t prove as popular as Richard had hoped it would be and he was about to give up when a buyer for an American toy company stopped by his booth, liked the bear, and ordered 3,000 of them.
Although the bears were shipped but never received—a true mystery—the Steiff bear became very popular, fueled in large part because of the teddy bear craze in the U.S. and President Roosevelt’s use of the “teddy” bear in his re-election campaign. And in 1908, when the Steiffs began using “teddy” with their bears’ names, the name teddy bear was set in stone on both sides of the Atlantic.
Childhood
It wasn’t long before England began producing teddy bears, a trend that continued until World War II. World War II had a dampening effect on teddy bear production all around, and the partition of Germany made it even worse as a couple of the premier teddy bear makers were caught on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall.
But the teddy bear rebounded, its jolly ebullient self unable to stay down for long, helped by collector British actor Peter Bull. Bull owned a large collection (called a “hug”) of teddy bears and made teddy bear collecting an acceptable adult activity with his 1969 book Bear with Me. The reunification of Germany also helped the European manufacturing market which turned to custom teddies instead of mass producing them.
Maturity
Today the teddy bear is popular around the world. Many, though not all, of the manufacturers in England, Germany and the U.S. have gone out of business, replaced by companies in the Far East and Asia who manufacture teddies en masse and sell them cheaply. But Steiff remains, setting the standard for what a teddy should be. And those that have survived have followed suit.
For although teddies started out as toys, and they still fill that role admirably, they are much much more than “just” a toy. They are confidants, friends, someone to tell out secrets to. Ask a girl what she would want most of all, and chances are good that she would say a plush teddy bear.
Teddies are given as gifts on many holidays and special days—not just Valentine’s Day—Christmas, birthdays, births, graduations and get well wishes. They’re so popular they can be used for most any occasion and be acceptable. For who wouldn’t love to receive an adorable teddy bear as a gift?
So gather your old childhood teddies from the attic, cedar chest or closet, dust them off, and let them know you still care. They’re well worth it. For they give far more than they receive.
Happy Teddy Bear Day! May the teddy live long and prosper!