The History of the Teddy Bear Part 2
The idea of the stuffed toy bear coming about in two
different countries in the same year wasn't a big issue back
in 1902. Poor transatlantic communication insured that
neither Michtom nor Steiff new that one or the other was
working on stuffed toy bears.
And neither of the bears looked like the other. Whereas the
Michtom bear resembled the cartoon bear that Berryman
depicted in his cartoon, the Steiff bear looked more like a
real bear cub.
At the Leipzig Toy Fair in March of 1903 Steiff introduced
his stuffed toy bear. The European buyers weren't very
interested in the bear, but an American buyer, knowing how
popular the "Teddy" bear was in America, ordered three
thousand of the bears from Steiff. Steiff had the right
product at the right time, as America had come down with
"Teddy" bear fever.
America was madly in love with the "Teddy" bear by 1906, and
society ladies carried their Teddy Bears everywhere.
Children had Teddy Bears and many pictures were taken of the
children and their bears. President Roosevelt used the Teddy
Bear in his second election campaign, which popularized the
Teddy Bear even more.
Seymour Eaton depicted Teddy Bears in the children's stories
series he wrote about "The Roosevelt Bears". And J.K.
Bratton composed the "The Teddy Bear Two Step" that became
the popular song "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" with the addition
of the words.
Because of the popularity of the "Teddy Bear," by 1906
American producers were coming up with every kind of
variations on the theme. Every color, size and accoutrement
that could possibly be thought up was used to push further
sales of the Teddy Bear. Teddy Bear became the accepted term
for these plush, stuffed bear dolls.
In American hundreds of bear-making businesses sprung up
during 1906 to compete with Ideal and Steiff. But most of
these companies closed down after only a short time. One of
the most notable companies that competed with Steiff and
Ideal was the Gund Manufacturing Company, which still today
produces stuffed toys and bears.
See History of the Teddy Bear Part 1 on our
Stuffed Teddy Bear page
See Part 3 on our Teddy Bear Day Planner Page
Go Here for All Teddy Bear & Animal Calendars
Fun Newsletter for Bears and All Animals
Tippy & Alfred have a Teddy Bear collection.
Why not, just because their a dog and cat doesn't mean
they can't collect teddy bears.
If you want to enlarge your life,
you must first enlarge your thought of it and yourself.
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