What's in a Nickname? by Cindy Regnier

 Perhaps most of you know that the Teddy Bear (both the term and the stuffed pet itself) came about because of President Theodore Roosevelt. But did you know it was a controversial item as well as a beloved toy? As the story goes, Theodore Roosevelt, well known for his big game hunting skills, was on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November of 1902. Andrew Longino, the governor of Mississippi had invited him, but even though the other hunters in the group had been successful in nabbing a bear, the president had not.

Some of Roosevelt's assistants, most notably Holt Collier, a former slave and Confederate cavalryman, cornered and tied a black bear to a willow tree. 

Holt Collier

I suppose they thought the president needed a catch as well, but I’d sure like to know how they managed to tie a bear to a tree without first shooting it themselves. Once the bear was captured, they showed it to Roosevelt and suggested he shoot it. Roosevelt surprised them by refusing, saying that would be unsportsmanlike. The retelling of this event spread through newspaper articles across the country, recounting the story of big game hunter, President Theodore Roosevelt, who refused to shoot a bear.

Clifford Berryman, a political cartoonist of the era, read the article and decided to satirize the event with a cartoon, which then appeared in the Washington Post.

Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn candy shop owner, saw the cartoon and came up with an idea. He and his wife Rose, who had made many stuffed animals, created a stuffed toy bear and dedicated it to the president who refused to shoot a bear. They displayed the plush bear in their shop window to honor the President. Michtom sought and received Roosevelt’s permission to use his name and so, needless to say, the loveable stuffed toy became known as a 'Teddy's Bear'.

Morris Michtom

To the delight of the Michtoms, everyone that saw the display wanted a Teddy Bear of their own, so of course he began mass producing the bears. They became wildly popular across the country, inspiring Michtom to establish the Ideal Toy Company.
Roosevelt’s children were some of the first to play with the Teddy Bear. It is widely believed that Michtom gifted a teddy bear to Kermit Roosevelt, who was thirteen at the time. A year later, Roosevelt, who generally disliked the nickname “Teddy,” nevertheless decided to use his lovable namesake as a mascot in his re-election campaign, prominently displaying a Michtom bear at the White House. That helped propel the animal to further fame. In 1906, one Manhattan store sold more than 60,000.

 And then the controversy…. It seems some of the social commentators at the time (or perhaps Roosevelt’s opposition) saw teddy bears as ominous: They claimed that girls’ preference for soft animals over humanlike dolls would become all-consuming, replacing the female urge to nurture babies—and eventually lead to childless marriages. (Really?) In 1907, the Rev. Michael G. Esper of Michigan warned his congregation that “the fad for supplanting the good old dolls of our childhood with the horrible monstrosity known as the teddy bear” would lead to falling birthrates. As you might guess, most people did not share Esper’s opinion and a few days after his tirade, Nevada’s Reno Evening Gazette ran a piece with the headline “Teddy Bears Rule Supreme,” in which a local woman rebuts Esper: “The teddy bear is only a fad, and I do not believe that it is at all harmful for children to play with them.” The nation seemed to agree, and the next few decades saw the teddy bears become a source of comfort when needed—even for those long past childhood. Soldiers even carried their own teddy bears, tucked into knapsacks, during both world wars. The bears soon occupied a spot in literature and pop culture. In 1921, English author A.A. Milne created the beloved Winnie-the-Pooh series and in 1957, when Elvis Presley performed “Let Me Be You Teddy Bear” in the film Loving You, fans expressed their delight by sending him thousands of stuffed bears.

To mark the bear’s 60th birthday in 1963, the Michtoms’ son, Benjamin, presented an original bear to Roosevelt’s grandson, Kermit. Though Kermit intended to donate the plush animal to the Smithsonian, his children had other plans. “They didn’t want to part with it yet,” his wife, Mary Roosevelt, confessed. About a year later the children relented and the historic toy finally made it to the Natural Museum of American History where it remains, a reminder of a president’s sportsmanship.

Any of you still have a few (or a lot) of teddy bears around? I’d like to think I’m not the only pushover for a pair of button eyes with squeezable built-in comfort attached.

 Scribbling in notebooks has been a habit of Cindy Regnier since she was old enough to hold a pencil. Born and raised in Kansas, she writes stories of historical Kansas, especially the Flint Hills area where she spent much of her childhood. Her experiences with the Flint Hills setting, her natural love for history, farming and animals, along with her interest in genealogical research give her the background and passion to write heart-fluttering historical romance.