Teddy Bears Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

While there is some dispute as to who was first, both of the two claimants to the original teddy bear created their first example in 1902. Richard Stieff designed a stuffed bear that was produced in his family's toy company in 1902, and displayed in March of 1903 at the Leipzig Toy Fair.

It was seen there by Hermann Berg, who organised to have them imported for sale at his toy store in New York City. Around the same time (later in 1902) Morris Michtom created a cuddly bear toy which he started selling from his Brooklyn store.

Answer: Steiff Baer 55PB

The designation of this prototype describes it in shorthand. Steiff was the name of the company that was going to manufacture the 'Bär' (bear). When posed erect, its height was 55 cm. The letter P stands for 'Plüsch', the plush material that covered the toy, and the letter B indicated that it had 'beweglich', movable limbs.

There are currently no known surviving examples of the 55PB. The 3,000 of them that were shipped to Hermann Berg following the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903 may or may not have ever arrived. There is a record that they were shipped, but not that they arrived. This may just be careless bookkeeping, but there is a story (first circulated in 1953) that the ship on which they were transported had been sunk en route. Again, no verifiable details.

Steiff's bid for the international market continued, and they received a Gold Medal at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 with their next model of bear. Sales were solid, spurred on by the interest created by the Michtoms, who were responsible for the name teddy bear.

Answer: True

The cartoon, drawn by Cliff Berryman and first published in the Washington Post on 16 November 1902, illustrated an incident that occurred while President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt was in Mississippi. His visit was officially to decide a dispute about a wilderness boundary between the states of Mississippi and Louisiana (hence one reference in the cartoon title). While there, he engaged in a day's bear hunting, which may well have been the real motivation for the trip.

Details of the day's hunting are not clear, but eventually the President was offered a chance to shoot a bear that had been tied up. (It may have actually been a large bear that had attacked some of their dogs, or it may have been a cub caught by a guide to make sure that all members of the hunting party would bag a bear, or something else entirely.) While Roosevelt was well known for his love of hunting, he was also an ardent conservationist, and unwilling to engage in unsportsmanlike killing, so he refused to take the shot. Hence the second level of meaning to the cartoon title, that he was drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable conduct.

"Drawing the Line in Mississippi" was a political cartoon that was interpreted at the time in several different ways. One of these was as an illustration of Roosevelt's criticisms of intentional killings (mostly by lynching) of southern blacks by white supremacist groups. Another, less controversial explanation, was that it simply displayed his humanitarian nature. Whatever the intent, the cartoon certainly was associated with increased presidential popularity.

The original cartoon apparently had a larger and more aggressive-looking bear than in the image used here, which is from one of the many reproductions. These reproductions steadily made the bear smaller and cuter as they appeared in newspapers around the nation. It was the cute cuddly image that got associated with the teddy bear.

Answer: Ideal Novelty and Toy Company

The image shows a replica of one of their earliest bears, displayed at a celebration of the company's centenary. Morris Mitchom saw Cliff Berryman's cartoon, and sent President Roosevelt a small plush bear cub (presumably as compensation for the one he refused to shoot) made by his wife. Roosevelt not only accepted the gift, he kept it with him in the White House and on the campaign trail, happy to remind voters of the original incident.

The Michtoms also asked Roosevelt's permission to attach his name to the toy, and placed one on display in the window of their candy shop, with a sign saying it was "Teddy's bear". They sold like hotcakes, and in 1907 the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company was established to produce them in bulk.

In 1938, the company name was changed to Ideal Toy Company. In addition to the teddy bear, they were responsible for some of the most popular dolls of the 20th century, including Betsy Wetsy and Thumbelina.

Answer: England

Somewhat surprisingly, it was not until 1984 that somebody set up a museum to display the huge variety of teddy bears created over the years. It was set up by Judy Sparrow in the shop used for the image to this question, and closed in 2006, with the display toys sold at auction.

There have been many more teddy bear museums established since then, some focusing on a specific manufacturer or country of origin, some trying to illustrate the universality of the teddy bear by including examples from around the world.

The first American example, the Teddy Bear Museum of Naples opened in 1990, and closed in 2005. It started with the personal collection of Frances Pew Hayes, and expanded over the years through donations. It included a number of exhibits, including a Teddy Bears' Picnic and a wedding.

Answer: Radar

Corporal Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly was part of the 4077th for the first seven seasons of the show. He was played by Gary Burghoff, who had also portrayed Radar in the earlier movie. The movie showed Radar as a worldly and sneaky character; this was changed early in the series to create a more personable character, as was done for several of the other characters. To help establish his youth and play up his naivety, he was endowed with a teddy bear.

At the start of the eighth season, Radar was given a discharge to go home and help his mother run the farm, following the death of the uncle who had been supporting her. To indicate the fact that he was maturing and taking on adult responsibilities, he left his teddy bear behind on Hawkeye's bed. In the final episode of the show, Hawkeye placed Radar's teddy into the unit's time capsule.

Answer: True

The paper, attributed to DK Blackmore, DG Owen, and CM Young, carried the title 'Some observations on the diseases of Brunus edwardii (Species nova)', and caused some controversy as it was felt by some that its tone was inappropriate for such an auspicious journal. The opening paragraph read:

"Pet ownership surveys have shown that 63.8 percent of households are inhabited by one or more of these animals, and there is a statistically significant relationship between their population and the number of children in a household. The public health implications of this fact are obvious, and it is imperative that more be known about their diseases, particularly zoonoses or other conditions which might be associated with their close contact with man."

Among the disorders discussed (and illustrated) were alopecia (lack of hair, presumably the sign of overzealous loving), torticollis (twisted neck), loss of limbs and lopsided squint. The bear in the image is clearly in need of urgent surgical intervention!

Answer: Picnic

Bratton cashed in on the popularity of the teddy bear with his dance tune, 'The Teddy Bears' Picinic'. The sheet music sold well, and recordings were made by a number of companies. It was not until 1932, however, that lyrics were added by the Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy.

"If you go down in the woods today,
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today,
You'd better go in disguise.
For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there together because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic."

Answer: False

The bear first appeared in the 1924 collection of poems titled 'When We Were Very Young', although then referred to as Teddy Bear or Mr Edward Bear (the nickname Winnie came later). The drawings, however, are clearly the bear that later came to be known as Winnie-the-Pooh. One of the illustrations, showing him standing in front of a mirror as he bemoaned his stout shape, includes a jacket which was coloured red in a later reproduction, and became the image utilised in the Disney adaptations of the character.

This first poem follows the bear's acceptance of his shape, which is in accord with the cheerful attitude displayed in the stories that were to follow:

"A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat
Which is not to be wondered at;
He gets what exercise he can
By falling off the ottoman,
But generally seems to lack
The energy to clamber back.
...
A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at.
But do you think it worries him
To know that he is far from slim?
No, just the other way about-
He's proud of being short and stout."

The success of this book of poems led to a further collaboration based on young Christopher Robin Milne's soft toy collection. 'Winnie-the-Pooh' and 'The House at Pooh Corner' featured Pooh (of course), along with Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, and Tigger. AA Milne added Owl and Rabbit, who were not part of the collection.

Answer: Peru

Michael Bond saw a forlorn teddy bear on a shop shelf on Christmas Eve, and bought it for his wife. He created a refugee character, similar to the refugees he had seen in World War II, with all their belongings in a small case, and identification tags around their neck. So evolved the resolutely optimistic bear who traveled to the United Kingdom to seek a better life, arriving at Paddington Station (because Bond lived near there at the time); he was originally planned to be from darkest Africa - but there are no African bears, so this was changed to Peru, and he became a spectacled bear to fit that origin.

The soft toy Paddington Bear was manufactured in 1972 by Shirley and Eddie Clarkson. The prototype was produced as a Christmas present for their children; they then proceeded to manufacture them, having been given toy licensing rights by Michael Bond. The toys have become so popular in Britain, perceived as a cultural icon, that the exchange of items between French and British tunnellers when the two sides of the Channel Tunnel were linked in 1994 included a Paddington Bear passed from the British to the French.