 |
| President Roosevelt in Hunting Costume - Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kansas), November 11, 1901, page 7. |
The standard
American origin-story for the “Teddy Bear” goes something like this:
President “Teddy” Roosevelt was bear
hunting near Smedes, Mississippi in September 1902, when he famously refused to
shoot a young, helpless bear tied to a tree for him to shoot. A cartoonist memorialized the event with a
cute bear cub character. Inspired by the
cartoon, Morris and Rose Michtom of Brooklyn, New York made a stuffed bear and
placed it in the window of their shop.
People liked it, wanted to buy more, and they recognized a business
opportunity. Morris Michtom sent one to
President Roosevelt for Christmas 1902, with a letter asking the President’s
permission to use his name. The
President agreed, the Michtoms started making and selling bears in early 1903, and
it was an “immediate success.”
The rest is
history. Or is it?
Elements of
the story are undoubtedly true.
President Roosevelt did have a widely reported hunting misadventure in
1902, and soon afterward political cartoonist Clifford Berryman created a
popular, recurring cartoon character of a bear cub as a sidekick to his images
of Teddy Roosevelt.
But other
elements of the story appear to be accepted as a matter of faith, without any
known contemporary, documentary evidence.
The earliest known suggestion that Morris Michtom “invented” the Teddy
Bear, for example, first appeared in widely circulated wire-service reports of
his death in 1938. But curiously, his
hometown obituary in the Brooklyn Daily
Eagle made no mention of his having created the “Teddy Bear,” even while crediting
him as a pioneer in the “unbreakable” doll business, creator of the wildly
popular “Shirley Temple Doll” and the founder of one of the Ideal Novelty and
Toy Company, one of the largest toy companies in the world. Is the omission telling? Or simply an
omission?
The story of
their being inspired by Roosevelt’s ill-fated bear hunt and securing President
Roosevelt’s personal OK to use the name “Teddy” first appeared in print in 1949. The source of the story appears to be a
toy-industry “White Paper” prepared with the cooperation of the Michtoms’ son, Benjamin,
then a Vice-President of the renamed Ideal Toy Company. Was the story created as part of a marketing
campaign or was it actual family lore?
The Michtom-letter story
was not the first time someone drew a direct line through Roosevelt’s hunt,
Berryman’s cartoon and the origin of the “Teddy Bear.” Nearly four decades earlier, a similar story connected all three of these elements to a different “Teddy Bear” maker, one with a better-documented connection
to the earliest stuffed, plush bears, and a more recognizable name – Steiff:
The Hamburg (Germany) correspondent of Toys and Novelties writes: “When a famous
American caricaturist sketched the return of Mr. Roosevelt from a hunting
expedition some years ago, showing the ex-president with a dejected and
crestfallen little bear in tow, all America was highly amused. The illustration naturally found its way to
Europe and it was not long before now deceased Frau
Margarethe Steiff put before the American public a small, very life-like bear,
an exact double of the one in the caricature, and this toy, now known all over
the world as the ‘Teddy Bear,’ immediately found its way to the heart of the
American child.”
Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer,
Volume 32, Number 4, February 15, 1910, page 116.
Ms. Steiff’s
connection with stuffed, toy bears is well documented, supported by company
business records and her diary.[i] Her nephew Richard designed the first bear, “Bär
55 PB,” in 1902, which is said to be the world’s first plush bear with movable
arms and legs. Margarete was skeptical,
but let her nephew show the bear at the Leipziger Spielwarenmesse, the
international toy fair in Leipzig, Germany, held in the spring of 1903. Her gamble paid off when an American buyer
placed an order for 3000 of the bears, although the name of the buyer and company
they represented have been lost to history.[ii]
It seems
unlikely that President Roosevelt’s ill-fated bear hunt had anything to do with
the creation of the first Steiff bear in Germany, although it may have
motivated the anonymous American buyer who placed the first large order in 1903. The coincidence of Steiff creating a
desirable bear toy at the precise moment a famous bear hunter was being stalked
by a cartoon bear cub in political cartoons may have created the perfect
storm.
It is
plausible, I suppose, that the same perfect storm inspired the Michtoms to
independently create their own bear at about the same time. But the oft-repeated narrative that the
Michtom’s bear and its clever name were an “immediate success” does not match
the written record. The name “Teddy
Bear” does not appear in print in association with stuffed, toy bears until
late-1905. And I have not found any
evidence of a universal interest in stuffed bears until 1906.
And in any
case, a toy bear carrying a big stick, suggestive of Teddy Roosevelt’s motto,
“speak softly and carry a big stick,” was sold at Wannamaker’s department store
in Philadelphia as early as 1901.
Whether or not it was called “Teddy” is not known, but the groundwork
for the name was already in place more than a year before either Steiff or the
Michtoms placed their first “Teddy Bears” on sale in early-1903.
 |
| Wannamaker’s advertisement, Cecil Whig (Elkton, Maryland), November 16, 1901, page 10. |
 |
| Wannamaker’s advertisement, Cecil Whig (Elkton, Maryland), November 16, 1901, page 10. |
Christmas 1902
The suggestion
that Morris Michtom sent President Roosevelt a stuffed, toy bear for Christmas
1902 is believable. But even if true, it
would not have been unique. President
Roosevelt received several bears for Christmas that year:
President
Roosevelt received enough toy bears as Christmas presents to start a small zoo.
Farmington Times and Herald (Farmington,
Missouri), January 1, 1903, page 2.
One of those
bears, in what may be the earliest reference to Morris Michtom’s bear,
reportedly came from New York City:
President
Roosevelt had great success hunting bear at the White House Christmas
morning. He started on the trail for the
library, where the Christmas presents were assembled, and there he found three miniature bears waiting for him. They were of three different varieties of the
bruin type, in the jungle of Christmas remembrances.
One
came from the sunny South, one from the northwest and one
from New York, a black, a brown and a grizzly. . . . These toys in size
and appearance were excellent imitations of the living bear. The one from the northwest was a mechanical
or dancing bear, and his performances created much merriment among the members
of the household.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 28,
1902, page 5.
None of the
several newspaper accounts of the gift-bears expressly describes them as
stuffed or plush, but the description of them as “excellent imitations of the
living bear” suggests that they may have been furry, fuzzy, plush or something along
those lines, raising the question of whether there were any such bears before
Steiff and Michtom entered the market.
The
mechanical bear from the “northwest” could have been something like ones
advertised at Wannamaker’s in 1901, or like one shown in cartoon image of a
mechanical bear in the Northwest from the same period. The bear was featured in a story about an Eskimo
boy who returns to his village after being rescued at sea, adopted by the sea
captain who rescued him, and receiving a conventional American education in New
York City. One of the most prized
possessions he brought back with him from the big city was his mechanical bear. The image shows a bear with a hairy or furry
exterior, not unlike a plush “Teddy Bear”:
Many of these simple marvels he treasured especially, and
among them the most wonderful was a mechanical white bear, a toy about 10 inches
high. . . . This bear would crouch on
all fours, rise slowly on its hind legs, open its red mouth, roll its eyes and
utter a faint, squeaky growl . . . .
“Downfall of
a Medicine Man: Wonders Performed by a Bright Boy Who Had Been Rescued By
Explorers and Returned to His Tribe,” The
Baltimore Sun, November 23, 1902, page 12.
The bear was
not merely an element of fiction. Robert
J. Clay received a patent for just such a bear in 1872,[iii]
and similar references to similar bears appeared in print several times before
either the Steiff’s or Michtom’s more docile bears would have been available
for purchase in 1903.
The third
bear, from the “sunny South,” most likely refers to the one sent to the White
House by little Edna
Orum of St. Louis, Missouri. The
text of her original letter and Roosevelt’s response appeared in her hometown
newspaper a few weeks after Christmas:
East
St. Louis, Dec. 23, 1902.
Mr.
Roosevelt.
Dear
President – Because I have heard so much talk about that you had no luck in
hunting bears, I thought I would send you one, and I hope you will like the
black one I send you for a Christmas present.
I wish you all in the White House a Merry Christmas, and wish that I
could take the bear there myself, but I am only a little girl 10 years
old. From your friends,
Edna
Orum
In
a few days she received the following reply:
White
House. Washington, Dec. 26 1902.
My
Dear Little Friend – I thank you very much for the toy bear. My children will appreciate it far more than
if I had succeeded in getting a bear myself.
It was very nice of you to send it.
Sincerely yours,
Theodore
Roosevelt.
The
letter from the President is typewritten, but it is signed by him.
St. Louis Post Dispatch, January 26,
1903, page 3.
A hard copy
of Roosevelt’s response, from an archive maintained by the Theodore Roosevelt
Center, substantiates the contemporaneous account.
 |
| Roosevelt letter to Edna Orum, Theodore Roosevelt Center.org. |
But, of
course, the lack of documentation for the bear from New York does not disprove the
Michtom claim. As Dr. John Gable,
executive director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association explained
to the New York Times in 2002, Roosevelt “sometimes dictated . . . and
frequently handled his own correspondence. ‘We don't know how many letters he
wrote by hand,’ Dr. Gable said. ‘If he wrote this by hand, there would be no
copy.’”[iv] But still, the lack of documentary evidence
from either the Michtom’s records or the National Archives is curious in light of similar
correspondence, of nearly the same subject matter, from the same Christmas season.
The Michtom “Legend”
Another
strike against the Michtom claim is that Morris MIchtom, himself, does not
appear to have openly claimed or been known for inventorship during his
lifetime.
When Morris Michtom died, his hometown newspaper, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, remembered him as an early “Teddy Bear” maker, but not its inventor. He was remembered as an inventor and creator of another toy fad, but not the inventor or originator of the “Teddy Bear” fad:
Morris
Michtom, 68, dean of the doll industry in this country and originator of the
“Shirley Temple doll,” died yesterday in his home . . . . He had been a resident of Brooklyn for nearly
40 years.
Mr.
Michtom, who was born in Russia, came to the United States in 1889. He was penniless, and after trying several
occupations started the Ideal Novelty & Toy Company in Brooklyn in
1903. At first
the concern made stuffed animals, including the “Teddy Bear,” but later
turned to the manufacture of dolls. Mr.
Michtom was responsible for the manufacture of the first “unbreakable” doll in
America.
Following
his first successes in this field, he continued to create revolutionary changes
in the industry and introduced such improvements as sleeping-eyed dolls and
rubber-jointed dolls. A few years ago he
saw Shirley Temple in one of her first pictures and conceived the idea of
making a doll in her likeness. Today the
success of the Shirley Temple doll is well known.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 22, 1938,
page 9.
 |
Shirley
Temple with Shirley Temple Doll, Quad-City
Times (Davenport, Iowa), December 25, 1935, page 20.
|
The obituary
went into great detail about Michtom’s charitable works, board memberships, and
civic engagement. He was a large
contributor to the American Ort Federation, the Hebrew Immigrants Aid Society,
the Palestine National Fund, the Jewish Workers National Alliance, the
Workmen’s Circle and Beth-El Hospital.
He was a member of the board of directors of the Toy Manufacturers
Association of America, member of the board of H. I. A. S., the New York Council
of the Jewish National Fund, the National Labor Campaign for Palestine and the
Beth-El Hospital, and was active in many other civic organizations. His daughter was President of the American
Women’s Ort Federation.
In other
words, Morris Michtom was a well-respected, successful lion of the community,
someone whose achievements and accomplishments were well known and well
documented, someone who had risen from operating newsstands and cigar stores in
New York City and Brooklyn[v]
to running one of the largest toy companies in the world. And yet, on the day he died, his local
newspaper did not find it necessary or appropriate to mention his invention of
the “Teddy Bear,” perhaps the single most successful innovation in children’s
toys of the twentieth century. Was this
omission simply an oversight or is it indicative of an underlying truth?
 |
| The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 22, 1938, page 9. |
Outside of
Brooklyn, the wire-services gave his connection to the “Teddy Bear” a different
spin. Most versions of his obituary skipped
his better-documented accomplishments, focusing instead on the more
entertaining, (and perhaps less truthful?) “Teddy Bear” claim. The Associated Press, for example, called him
the “Teddy Bear Inventor”:
TEDDY BEAR INVENTOR,
DOLL MAKER, SUCCUMBS
New
York July 21 (AP) – Morris Michton, 68, Russian immigrant doll maker whose
teddy bear was the childhood joy of millions of Americans, died at his Brooklyn
home today after a long illness. . . .
When
he started his business the majority of American childrens dolls came from
abroad, chiefly Germany. The teddy bear, his first creation, became an immediate success.
The Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware),
July 22, 1938, page 9.
Did the
wire-services misunderstand the original Brooklyn Daily Eagle piece? Did they misconstrue the original piece,
whether intentionally or unintentionally?
Or were the wire-services right?
Did the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reporters
who knew so much about Morris Michtom’s charitable and civic works simply
overlook what would have been, if true, his greatest, longest lasting contribution
to pop-culture?
If it was a
mistake (intentional or otherwise) Morris Michtom was not the only person to be
credited with inventing the teddy bear during the period. In November 1940, a flurry of articles made
the dubious claim that recently deceased Chicago clothing manufacturer,
Theodore Bear, had invented the teddy bear.
Theodore Bear was a creative and inventive businessman. He was reportedly the first clothing
manufacturer to use electric sewing machines to make children’s clothing. But it seems unlikely that he invented the
“Teddy Bear,” at least not the toy. Two
decades earlier, Theodore Bear was believed to have invented “Teddy Bear”
lingerie, now more commonly known as a “teddy.” Perhaps that’s what confused Theodore Bear’s obituary
writers.
[For more detail on the life and career of Theodore Bear, see
my earlier post, "Teddy Bears" and
"Teddies" - the Surprisingly Literal Etymology of "Teddies"
Lingerie.]
The Michtoms’
story is further complicated by variations in the story, as later told by
Morris Michtom’s son Benjamin to different reporters at various times. Although the gist of the story remained the
same, the wording of President Roosevelt’s response varies in significant,
arguably surprising ways, given that the President’s one-line response played
such a momentous role in both their fortunes and the history of the toy
industry.
In 1949, an
article said to be based on a toy-industry survey “completed for Ben Michtom,
vice-president of the Ideal Novelty & Toy Co.” gave Roosevelt’s response
as:
“I don’t think the name’s likely to be worth much
in the bear business,”
Roosevelt wrote back, “but you’re welcome to use it.”
Indiana Gazette(Indiana, Pennsylvania),
August 16, 1949, page 26.
A few months
later, the newspaper columnist Whitney Bolton published a version said to have
been heard from Benjamin Michtom in person:
He got longhand answer in a week: “Dear Michtom: I can’t imagine who would buy your Teddy Bear, but if
you think they would by all means go ahead.
Cordially, Theodore Roosevelt.”
The Lincoln Star (Nebraska), December 7,
1949, page 8.
Three years
later, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the “Teddy Bear,”
the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a
version similar to the August 1949 version:
Michtom sent one of the toy bears to
Roosevelt, along with a letter asking permission to call it the “Teddy
Bear.” Back came a reply on White House
stationery saying: “I don’t think my name is likely to
be worth much in the bear business, but you’re welcome to use it.” . . .
The original letter and first Teddy Bear are still in
the possession of the Michtom family.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York),
November 16, 1952, page 3.
But although
this 1952 article reported that the family was still in possession of the
original letter, there is no indication that the original is still in
existence, and I have not seen any published accounts by or about anyone who has actually seen the letter.
Three
decades later, Benjamin repeated a similar story with slightly altered text, but
this time with a new, demonstrably false, assertion about Roosevelt’s lack of a
typewriter in 1902:
The President of the United States – he didn’t have a
typewriter then – wrote out a letter in longhand to my father” recalled
Michtom’s son Benjamin, 76, of Harrison, N. Y.
The letter said; “I don’t think my name is worth
much for the toy bear cub business, but you are welcome to use it.”
Fort Lauderdale News (Florida), January 1, 1978, page 11H (130).
Was his
comment about the typewriter an innocent mistake by someone unfamiliar with the
history of writing machines in the White House?
Or an intentional ruse to justify the lack of evidence in the Roosevelt
archives? Was it part of a continuing ploy
to retain the marketing power of their association with the origin of “Teddy
Bears”? Or was it an innocent mistake by
an aging man four decades removed from his father’s death and whose age was the
same as the “Teddy Bear” (76 in 1978)?
We are asked
to believe that one of the world’s biggest toy companies had in its possession
an original letter from President Roosevelt documenting the moment the “Teddy
Bear” industry and name were born, and documenting the event that launched the
Michtoms rise from mom-and-pop store to global toy giant, somehow mislaid the
letter. It is possible, I suppose, but if
that were true, one might expect to see an explanation or justification for the
loss at some point, accounts that are missing from the record, at least as far
as I can see.
An early
newspaper account of Morris Michtom’s toy company also raises questions about
the extent of his connection to the origin of the “Teddy Bear.” In 1915, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle profiled a local company experiencing
unexpected growth as a result of a competitive advantage over Germany as a
result of the early stages of the “European War,” later known as World War I.
Eight years ago [(1907)] the nearest approach to dolls made
in this country were the Teddy Bears and rag dolls. Virtually the only dolls available were
German bisque dolls. Then the Brooklyn
company decided to take a try at the manufacture of unbreakable character
dolls, dolls which wouldn’t break at the least blow, dolls with real children’s
faces. The services of chemists were
secured to provide a formula for an unbreakable head, and I. A. Rommer,
secretary of the company, got busy devising machinery for the manufacture of
dolls. The start was on a small scale,
with only a few hands. And now the
concern has grown to the point where it is one of the largest doll factories in
the country, employing over 200 persons.
Morris Michtom, president of the concern, is enthusiastic over the future
of the doll-making industry in the United States.
“This war is giving us the chance we need,” he said; “not so
much in cutting off the supply of German dolls, for there is still an ample
supply in the country, with more coming that were held up at the beginning of
the war, but in making the doll buyers realize that before the end of the war
their foreign supply will be gone, and that they had better discount that event
by taking advantage of the domestic supply.
“Our dolls are better than the foreign ones, anyway,
continued Mr. Michtom. . . . “[Y]ou can’t break these doll heads with anything
short of a sledge hammer. . . . And you know how fragile the German and
Austrian bisque dolls are. You can’t
give one to a baby.”
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (New York),
August 29, 1915, page 12.
The entire
article is silent on Morris Michtom’s earlier connection to “Teddy Bears,”
which would be surprising if Morris Michtom had then been considered the
inventor of the “Teddy Bear” industry; and doubly surprising as Germany was
considered the primary source “Teddy Bears,” something that would have
dovetailed nicely into the subject matter of the article.
Even when
the “Teddy Bear” fad was in its infancy, Steiff
bears from Germany were generally considered the real thing, whereas American
bears were referred to as cheap, inferior imitations. If Morris Michtom had invented the “Teddy
Bear” in the United States and his invention had been an “immediate success,”
one might expect that his bears would have been considered the original and
best, and American patriotic feelings might have elevated them over foreign invaders,
even if inferior.
But several
of the early “Teddy Bear” origin stories are consistent with the official,
well-documented Steiff party line about German origins of the toy in 1902, with
the first big American order in early-1903.
The Teddy bear is a German product. The real article is made in the factories of
Madam Steif and is called the Steif bear.
A new York importing firm started the Teddy bear to this country. He placed them in the great department stores
of the east, and named them after our bear killing president, and they took
with the people, the demand immediately growing fast and furious.
The Holt County Sentinel (Oregon,
Missouri), December 20, 1907, page 1.
The staple article this Christmas will still be the Teddy
Bears, which has been a conquerer all over America. An inferior grade of
Teddy Bears are made in United States and England, the better grade
being made in Germany.
It was in Germany that a poor widow lady,
who is now worth several millions, made the first Teddy Bear, without
having a thought of Roosevelt in her mind.
It remained for a wily American, who chanced along, to recognize the
possibilities. He gave her a contract
for a number of them; now she is running six factories night and day. In the States there are said to be at least
thirty factories meeting the demand some of them keeping a real young bear as a
model.
The Bookseller and Stationer (Montreal,
Canada), Volume 23, Number 12, page 31.
 |
| Fabrics Fancy Goods & Notions, Volume 41, Number 5, May 1907, page 35. |
A curious fact worth mentioning in
this connection is that American manufacturers have not been able to imitate
these fuzzy bears successfully up to the present time. All the artistic ones
come from abroad.
The Courier (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), December 1, 1907, page 14.
 |
| Fabrics Fancy Goods & Notions, Volume 40, July 1906, page 26. |
Our Teddy Bears are made of imported plush and furnished with
voices. Cannot be distinguished from the
European article and at prices 25 per cent. lower . . . .
 |
| The Bookseller and Stationer (Montreal, Canada) Volume 23, Number 12, page 31. |
It is
possible that Morris and Rose Michtom created their first bear independently,
coincidentally at about the same time Richard and Margarete Steiff made
theirs. But one aspect of the standard
Michtom narrative is, in my opinion, demonstrably wrong. Typically, the various retellings recite
something along the lines of, “they put the bear in their window, people liked it, they got
permission to use Roosevelt’s name, they put them on public sale, and it was 'an immediate success' and the rest is history.”
But there is a nearly three-year gap between when the Michtoms would
have first sold their bear to the public and when the name “Teddy Bear” first
appears in print, as the name of a stuffed bear toy.
Just a few
months after the earliest example in print, the popular “Roosevelt Bears” series
of cartoons appeared with lead characters “Teddy B.” and “Teddy G.” By the summer of 1906, the “Teddy Bear” craze
was in full swing on the boardwalks of the seaside resorts along the East
Coast. “Teddy Bear” was everywhere.
But what
happened between the spring of 1903 and the Christmas shopping season of 1905? Did the Michtoms experience low-level success that helped them grow their company while remaining under the
radar? There are very few references to
stuffed, toy bears between early-1903, when both the Steiffs and Michtoms are
said to have placed their bears on sale, and late-1905, when the name “Teddy
Bear” first appears in print.
Early Stuffed, Toy Bears
Realistic
“wooly bears” of unknown provenance were available for Christmas shoppers in
London in December 1903:
After a tour of toyland, as it is represented this
Christmastide, one has a kind of haunting suspicion that, with the best
intentions in the world, we are really robbing our children of that most
blessed gift of youth – the power of “make believe.” . . . Their trains and
their signals actually work, their dolls talk, their clocks tick, their wooly bears growl . . . . what is there in the
wide world that any small boy or girl can “make believe” is not what it seem?
The Baltimore Sun (Maryland), December
29, 1903, page 8.
Margarete
Steiff exhibited her “toy animals and joint dolls” at the St. Louis World’s
Fair that ran from April 30 through December 1, 1904.[vi]
New-fangled
stuffed animals from Germany, including bears, were available for purchase in
St. Louis before Christmas of 1904, but not under the name “Teddy Bear”:
St. Louis is now, one of the capitals of Toyland. Toys by the trainload have been sent here
from the ends of the earth, so that Santa Claus may make selections to suit all
tastes of all children in the city and the region roundabout. . . . Surely the
wild beasts of the jungle and the meek flocks from the farm have been well fed
since last Christmas. It used to be that
a toy sheep was the size of a live mouse and a toy horse was no bigger than a
live terrier. But now the toy animals
are of heroic mold. There are elephants
and lions and tigers and bears and horses and
pigs and dogs and all of them are big enough and tame enough to be ridden. . .
. They come from Germany, do the stuffed animals,
mostly, and the prices have kept pace with the
growth of the animals.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 16,
1904, page 3.
At about the
same time, the son of Clifford Berryman, the cartoonist who immortalized
President Roosevelt’s tragic bear hunt (the bear was tortured and killed, just
not by the President) slept with his own “fuzzy toy bear” – not a “Teddy Bear,”
as one might expect to see if the name were in common use at the time.
Mr. Berryman’s ursine trade mark has
so identified him in the eyes of the world with the bear industry that admirers
known and unknown deluge him with bears of all sorts and conditions from all
over the country. . . . Young James
Thomas Berryman – he is the namesake of his grandfather in Woodford county, Ky.
– goes to sleep best with a fuzzy toy bear
snuggled close in his chubby embrace.
The Times Democrat (New Orleans,
Louisiana), December 4, 1904, part 3, page 11.
By Christmas
1905, stuffed, toy bears were becoming popular in England, but not as “Teddy
Bears”:
[W]here the needs of very young children have to be
considered it is a notable year for animals made of soft
fabrics and lightly stuffed. Bears are
perhaps in greatest demand.
“Polar bears or grizzly bears,” the shop assistant told me, “everybody
wants bears. There is a guinea bear over
there – the last we have, and that is sold.
I have been asked for one like it three times in an hour.”
The Manchester Guardian (England),
December 20, 1905, page 7.
Bears were
being sold for Christmas in the United States at the same time, sometimes under
the name “Johnny Bear,” after a popular cartoon bear cub character that had
been around since 1900.[vii]
 |
| Pittston Gazette (Pittston, Pennsylvania), December 18, 1905, page 13. |
 |
| "Johnny Bear," Ernest Seton-Thompson, Lives of the Hunted, New York, Scribners, 1901. |
The earliest
known reference to a “Teddy” bear (by that name) in print appeared the same season[viii]:
“Teddy” bears holding little cubs in their arms like real
mothers are the latest arrivals; be sure to see them; see all other things as
they come along, but most are already here.
Syracuse Herald, November 14, 1905, page
7.
The long
delay between Christmas 1902, when the Michtoms are supposed to have received
permission to sell their “Teddy Bears, and the first appearance of the name,
“Teddy Bear,” in print, calls into question the stock characterization of the
Michtoms’ “Teddy Bear,” under that name, as an “immediate success.” And even if it were true that the Michtoms did
place “Teddy Bears” on sale in early-1903, the name was not particularly
remarkable, surprising or original.
Early “Teddy” Bears, Real and Fake
Two actual bears
named “Teddy” marched at Roosevelt’s first inauguration as Vice President under
President McKinley in 1901, nearly two years before his ill-fated hunting trip
to Mississippi.[ix] Roosevelt had already been famous for his
bear-hunting exploits for more than a decade at the time.[x] Later the same year, and still more than a
year before the Mississippi hunting trip, the Bronx Park Zoo displayed a bear
referred to in the press as, “’Teddy Roosevelt’ the Terror of the New York
Zoo.”[xi]
 |
| The Washington Times (Washington DC), August 4, 1901, Part 2, page 4. |
In early
1903, at about the same time the Michtoms (it is said) would have started
selling their bears in Brooklyn, a group of former “Rough Riders” in Arizona
tried to donate a bear they called “’Teddy,’ the bear” to the Washington Zoo. [xii]
As noted
earlier, a mechanical toy bear carrying a “big stick” was offered for sale at
Wannamaker’s department store in November 1901.
But of course, a stick-wielding mechanical bear is not quite as
comforting as a cute, cuddly, plush bear cub, a lesson poor, little Richard
Henderson, 10, of Philadelphia, learned the hard way on Christmas morning 1904.
The child’s parents had purchased a quantity of toys as a
surprise for him, among them a small brown bear which walked on its hind legs,
holding a stick back of its neck. When
the boy awoke yesterday morning he saw the bear walking along the edge of his
bead.
He screamed with fright and his parents rushed into the room
and found him in convulsions.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 26,
1904, page 12.
At President
Roosevelt’s second inauguration as President in March 1905, street vendors sold
“Teddy’s bear” buttons[xiii]
and wind-up, mechanical “dancing” bears, referred to as “Teddy’s Bears.”[xiv] When I wrote an
earlier piece about the history of “Teddy Bear,” I considered it likely
that these dancing bears were cast-iron dancing bears, descriptions of which
date to at least 1902. But in light of
the several references to two or three other types of larger, possibly furry,
mechanical bears, they may have been more like “Teddy Bears” than I originally
thought.
In April and
May 1904, the Pettijohn company used cartoon bear cub characters they called
“Petti-Johnnys” in advertisements for their hot breakfast cereal, “Pettijohn’s
Flaked Breakfast Food.” The name
“Petti-Johnny” played off the name of the company, and may also have been an
allusion to Ernest Seton-Thompson’s popular “Johnny Bear” cartoon character.
“The Petti-Johnnys plow for Pettijohn
wheat.”
Buffalo Evening News (Buffalo, New
York), April 29, 1903, page 6 (one of several advertisements with the same
characters and name).
But in
September 1904, Pettijohn’s new ad campaign changed the bears’ names to “Pettibear”
and “Cub.” The name played off the
company’s name and appears to rhyme with “Teddy Bear,” raising the question of
whether the name coincidentally rhymed with what would later become the
standard name for stuffed, plush toy bears, or was an intentional allusion to a
name that was already in existence?
“Bub and the Cub and Pettibear gazed
at [the pears] longingly” (a panel from one of at least two separate
comic-strip advertisements with the same characters with the same names).
Munseys Magazine, Volume 31, Number 6, September
1903.
Based on
such a small sample-size, it is hard to say.
But at nearly the same time, crunchy Post Grape-Nuts cereal used the
name “Johnny Bears” in an advertisement that might be read as a response to the
cooked, presumably mushy Pettijohn Flakes.
“Gone to Bear Heaven by the Mushy Food Route.
Some little Johnny bears ate too freely of pasty, undercooked oats and wheat . . . .”
St. Paul Globe (Minnesota), September 2,
1903, page 3.
Michtom’s Bears
But even if
the Michtoms were not the first or only originators of the “Teddy Bear,” the
toy or the expression, it does not necessarily mean that their family lore is
completely flawed. It is entirely
possible that Roosevelt’s bear hunt and Berryman’s cartoon bear inspired them
to create their first bear, give one to the President, and eventually make and
sell more bears as demand increased.
And whether
or not the Michtoms started precisely when and how their son claimed four
decades later, they did operate a “Teddy Bear” manufacturing firm in Brooklyn
at least as early as 1907 where, presumably, they made some of the cheap, inferior,
American bears complained of in the press.
But despite the success of the “Teddy Bear” industry in 1907 (or perhaps
precisely because of their success), they faced labor trouble.
A strike for
higher wages took the stuffing out of the industry:
TEDDY BEAR MAKERS WANT MORE MONEY.
New York, Sept. 4. – The first strike in the Teddy bear trade
has occurred in this city. A strike of
Teddy bear makers took place yesterday in the factory of the Bruin
Manufacturing company. Only the stuffers quit work, the leg, arm, trunk and
head artists refusing to strike in sympathy.
The strike was against a reduction of prices paid to the stuffers for
piece work.
The Daily Review (Decatur, Illinois), September
4, 1907, page 1.
 |
| Teddy Bear Stuffer (undated image from the Library of Congress). |
Apparently,
the “boy stuffers” had been switched from piece work to a salary at their
request, which resulted in reduced production, after which they were switched
back to piece work against their will.[xv]
But
nevertheless the strike had legs, as the President refused to intervene,
despite his obvious personal connection to the conflict.
The President has steadily refused to intervene in the
telegraph dispute, but how could he possibly resist an appeal to step in and
save the teddy bear industry?
The Times-Democrat (New Orleans),
September 7, 1907, page 6.
Two months
later, in what is the earliest contemporary documentation of the Michtom’s
“Teddy bear” factory I have seen, the Michtoms were swept up in the crisis –
this time the strike cut more deeply.
TEDDY BEAR MAKERS FIGHT
Strike at Skin Toy Factory Results in
Row on Streets.
NEW YORK, November 10. – There is trouble in the Teddy bear factory in Brownsville, and as a result
three young men were arrested this morning for fighting in the street. The factory where the little skin toys are
made has been in a turmoil since Wednesday, when all the stuffers and cutters went out on strike, because the
boss refused to let them unionize.
TheTimes Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia),
November 11, 1907, page 2.
Lizzie Dobkin . . . and Benjamin Pinkers . . . were . . .
charged with assault, having interfered with two other persons, it is alleged,
while on their way to work at the Ideal Novelty Company,
which makes a specialty of the manufacture of Teddy
bears, whose employes are now upon strike. . . .
The strike began a few days ago, when the employer discharged
a girl, partly because she did very little work and partly because she was
trying to organize a union. One hundred
and twenty men and women went out.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 12,
1907, page 1.
 |
| Teddy Bear Cutters (undated image from the Library of Congress). |
Cooler heads
prevailed and they were all back at work, along with some of the
strike-breakers who retained their jobs, a few weeks later.
ART IN TEDDY BEAR MAKING
Union Says Strike Breakers Miss the Half Human Expression
New York, Nov. 27. – The Teddy
Bearmakers’ union, the latest on the list of labor organizations, has
decided to make a demand for the closed shop in the Teddy Bear trade, now that
Christmas is coming on. They started
with the firm of Michton & Co., which has a
factory in Brooklyn. The company began
to hire strike breakers, but the trade being a comparatively new one, according
to the strikers, they could not get enough competent men.
According to the union, it requires workmen of an artistic
temperament to make Teddy Bears with the half-human expression on their faces
that they are supposed to wear, and the strike breakers missed the expression.
The Wichita Beacon (Kansas), November
27, 1907, page 6.
 |
| Finished Teddy Bears (undated image from the Library of Congress). |
So was
Morris Michtom really a friend of the workers as the first manufacturer to
contract with the Teddy Bearmakers’ Union?
Perhaps not.
Eight years
later, Morris Michtom would tell a reporter that he had been in the
“unbreakable” doll business for the past eight years. And nine years later, Michtom’s Ideal Novelty
and Toy Compny would end up on the wrong side of another strike by another
newly-formed union:
What promises to be a general strike among the toy and doll
makers of Manhattan and Brooklyn began today when 200 employees of the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company at 273-187 Van Sinderen
avenue, walked out, demanding recognition of the newly formed Stuffed Toy and
Doll Makers Union. . . . Morris Michstrom, president of the company, said this
morning that he would close up the shop rather than concede to the [demands].
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 22, 1916,
page 4.
On the
following day, it became a general strike.
The wartime economics of the doll industry were playing out exactly as
Morris Michtom predicted in 1915, giving his workers the leverage to strike:
With the season for making Christmas dolls approaching and
with few dolls coming from Europe to stock Santa Claus’s pack, the 1,800
members of the Stuffed Toy and Doll Makers’ Union went on strike
yesterday. The workers, more than half
of whom are women, quit work at 10 o’clock yesterday morning and went to
Astoria Hall . . . and spent the afternoon dancing. They demand shorter hours, longer luncheon
time, and more pay, as well as recognition of the union.
The New York Times, June 23, 1916, page
14.
It’s only
speculation, but the circumstances suggest that Michtom might have abandoned
the manufacture of “Teddy Bears” in favor of dolls to avoid dealing with the
union. If not, I apologize for casting
aspersions. But he does seem to have operated
a non-union doll-making business for nine years beginning shortly after
entering into a contract with the Teddy Bearmakers’ union, and the 1915 article
about his doll-making business was completely silent on any connection to “Teddy
Bears.”
Or perhaps
he abandoned the trade in 1909 when the entire industry is said to have tanked
(unless it was just written as a joke):
 |
| Sullivan County Record (Jeffersonville, New York), July 8, 1909, page 1. |
I have been
unable to find any additional information about Michtom or Ideal’s connection
to “Teddy Bears” after the Teddy Bearmakers’ strike of 1907. But the Teddy Bearmakers remained active,
with or without Michtom. They took part
in a “Socialist” May Day parade in New York City in 1913.[xvi]
They went on strike four weeks later.[xvii] And in 1916, the Teddy Bearmakers went on strike
at the same time that the new Stuffed Toy and Doll Makers Union went on strike against
Morris Michtom’s doll-making business.
But in no case were there reports of a specific connection between the
Teddy Bearmakers and either Michtom or Ideal.
During the
same period, none of the references to Morris Michtom and/or the Ideal Novelty
and Toy company relate to “Teddy Bears.”
In 1910, Morris Michtom obtained a patent for a cold-weather muff in the
shape of a doll, In 1912, the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company was enjoined from
selling a knock-off quacking duck toy[xviii] and filed articles of incorporation in
Brooklyn.[xix] But none of those reports made reference to company’s connection to
“Teddy Bears.”
In later
years, the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company became primarily known for various
models of “unbreakable” plastic dolls.
“Flossie
Flirt,” the original rolling eyes doll – 1924:
The “Shirley
Temple” doll, the original celebrity promotional doll – 1935:
Betsy Wetsy,
the original bottle-fed, diaper-wetting doll – 1937:
In 1952, in
conjunction with the celebration of the Golden Anniversary of the Teddy Bear,
Ideal again distributed the “story of the teddy Bear, as told by Toy Guidance
Council,” first published three years earlier in 1949. They also claimed to be the largest
manufacturer of “Teddy Bears” in the world.
To celebrate the occasion as the world’s most popular toy, a
New York manufacturer, Ideal Toy Corporation, is bringing out a “golden Teddy
Bear” for sale this Christmas. . . .
Today, Ideal Toy Corporation claims to be the nation’s
largest manufacturer of Teddy Bears.
The Central New Jersey Home News (New
Brunswick, New Jersey), November 30, 1952, page 9.
The Toy
Guidance Council was still celebrating the golden anniversary more than a year
later, with an image of an Ideal bear.
 |
| The Kane Republican (Kane, Pennsylvania), December 3, 1953, page 29. |
That same
year, Ideal scored a licensing deal with the United States government to market
“Smokey Bear,” giving the Toy Guidance Council another opportunity to go the
full-Michtom, complete with the bear hunt, cartoon, and letter to Roosevelt.
With special permission from Congress, 1953’s official teddy
bear will be “Smokey,” symbol of fire prevention for the U. S. Forest
service. Before the end of the year over
60,000 “Smokey” bears, bedecked with a ranger hat, trousers and red shovel,
will be in the hands of youngsters from coast to coast.
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana)
December 12, 1953, page 30.
And yet, the
original letters to and from Roosevelt have never been made public, raising the
question of whether the story is merely a cynical marketing ploy concocted by
Ideal and the Toy Guidance Council, a son’s sentimental vision of a father’s
early start in business, or factual family history. You be the judge.
For my part,
I am unconvinced. I acknowledge that the
Michtoms may well have been inspired by the President’s bear hunt and
subsequent cartoon bear cub, and that they may have named the bear “Teddy Bear”
or “Teddy’s Bear.” The report that President
Roosevelt received a bear from New York for Christmas 1902 is consistent with
the claim, but the lack of contemporary evidence weighs against the claim,
particularly in light of evidence related to another bear received at the same
time. The Michtom’s claim that they
still had President Roosevelt’s response in their possession five decades
later, yet never saw fit to display the original or a facsimile, is also
suspicious, particularly in light of the importance of the letter to the
family, the business and the history of toys, generally. The similarity of the Michtoms’ early bears to
the “original,” more respected, better-documented, and earlier Steiff bears, also
suggests that the Michtoms’ bears might have been a cheaper, inferior knock-off
of another original, and not the originals themselves. I am also struck by the absence of “Teddy
Bears” in the 1915 article about Morris Michtom’s wartime advantage over German
doll makers, and in his hometown obituary.
I believe
that Michtoms may well have decided to name their bear “Teddy,” whenever they
made their first one, but I doubt that their decision was a significant factor
in the name becoming standard. The name
was already in use for several actual bears before Roosevelt’s Mississippi bear
hunt, based on the long-time association between Roosevelt and bears,
generally. And in any case, there was
nearly a three year gap between when the Michtoms are said to have first put their
bear on sale and the first known use of “Teddy Bear,” for a stuffed, plush bear
toy, in print.
Ideal’s Near-Miss
But whether
or not Morris and Rose Michtom originated the Teddy bear, Benjamin Michtom
missed out on creating his own revolutionary toy. He passed on a “Marilyn Monroe” doll three
years before Mattel scored big with Barbie.
In 1956, Ideal
broke the mold of baby and toddler dolls, displaying a prototype of a
physically maturing, teenaged doll, designed by the doll sculptor, Bernard
Lipfert. Lipfert’s granddaughter later described
“Revlon” as one of the first “dolls with boobs.”[xx]
Before they
gave it its name, Ideal described the prototype as a toned-down, “Marilyn-Like”
doll:
The Marilyn Monroe-type dollie doesn’t exactly follow the
famous Monroe dimensions of 37- 23½ - 37½.
“We thought that might look a little too sexy,” [Benjamin]
Michtom said, “so we toned the dimensions down to the scale equivalent of
33-25-33½.”
. . . The toy manufacturer, whose father, Mortimer Michtom,
made the world’s first Teddy bear, thinks there’s nothing wrong with little
girls wanting to look like their teen-age sisters.
Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio), September
20, 1956, page 27.
Two years
later, Ideal disclosed that it had originally considered a more mature
bombshell “Marilyn Monroe” doll:
Melvin Helitzer, advertising director, Ideal Toy Corp., told
the Sales Promotion Executives Club of New York, “Ideal makes dolls which talk,
walk, cry, wet and blow their noses, but recently we were approached with the
idea of making a Marilyn Monroe doll.
After a good deal of thought, we decided against it. Nobody could figure out what the doll should
do.”
Courier-Post (Camden, New Jersey),
February 18, 1958, page 5.
Ideal may
not have known what to do with a physically mature doll, but Mattel did. Mattel put their first “Barbie” dolls on sale
in 1959. The rest is history.
 |
| Mattel’s “Barbie” as Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Hollywood Legends Series, 1997. |
[iii]
Robert J. Clay, U. S. Patent 131,849, October 1, 1872.
[iv] “Unraveling
the Great Teddy Bear Mystery,” Marcelle S. Fischler, New York Times, Long Island Journal (online), March 24, 2002.
[v] In
1894, Morris Michtom placed a “paper stand and route for sale,” with a business
address at 305 East 24th Street on Manhattan. In 1895, “Morris Michton [(sic)]” was awarded
a license to operate two sidewalk newsstands across the street at 437 and 438
Second Avenue. Proceedings of the Board
of Aldermen of New York City, Volume 219 (1895:3), page 167. In 1897, he still operated a newsstand at 437
2d Avenue (apparently on Manhattan). Wilson’s
Business Directory of New York City – 1897, page 699. In 1899, he was
listed as a “cigar dealer,” with a store at 404 Tompkins Avenue in Brooklyn. Trow’s Business Directory of the Boroughs of
Brooklyn and Queens – 1899, page 94.
[vi]
Frederick Skiff, Official Catalogue of
Exhibitors, Universal Exposition, Saint Louis, The Louisiana Purchase
Exposition Company, 1904, page 91.
[vii]
See my earlier post, Teddy
Roosevelt and his Bears – a Grizzly History and Etymology of “Teddy Bear”.
[viii]
Identified by Sam Clements, and posted on the American
Dialect Society ADS-Listserve message board in 2009; the same ad also
appeared on November 14 (Syracuse Herald,
November 14, 1905, page 7) and 18 (Post
Standard (Syracuse, New York), November 18, 1905).
[ix] See my earlier post, Teddy
Roosevelt and his Bears – a Grizzly History and Etymology of “Teddy Bear”
(citing, Watauga Democrat (Boone,
North Carolina), March 14, 1901, page 1).
[x]
See my earlier post, Teddy
Roosevelt and his Bears – a Grizzly History and Etymology of “Teddy Bear”.
[xi]
See my earlier post, Teddy
Roosevelt and his Bears – a Grizzly History and Etymology of “Teddy Bear”
(citing, The Washington Times
(Washington DC), August 4, 1901, Part 2, page 4).
[xii]
See my earlier post, Teddy
Roosevelt and his Bears – a Grizzly History and Etymology of “Teddy Bear”
(citing, The Spokane Press
(Washington), May 26, 1903, page 2).
[xiii]
Washington Times (Washington DC),
March 5, 1905, page 7 (“Fakers finding there was no longer a sale for ‘Teddy’s
bear,’ photographs of the ‘big stick,’ ‘I’m out on a --- of a time,’ and other
buttons, decided to put something new on the market.”
[xiv] The Katonah Times (Katona, New York),
March 17, 1905, page 2 (“The air is continually rent with the cries of the
fakirs who have everything from souvenir badges to “Teddy’s Bear” for
sale. The latter is an ingenious toy in
the shape of a bear, which, when wound up executes a dance that is very
amusing.” A cast-iron “dancing bear” was
advertised in The Adirondack News
(St. Regis Falls, New York), December 20, 1902, page ).
[xv] The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana,
September 26, 1907, page 7.
[xvi] The Calumet News (Calumet, Michigan),
May 1, 1913, page 1.
[xvii]
Oakland Tribune (California), May 28,
1913, page 9.
[xviii]
Scientific American, Volume 107,
Number 14, October 5, 1912, page 291.
[xix] The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 10,
1912, page 24.