(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear Trivia Quiz

Answer: He refused to shoot an injured bear captured for him

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was President of the United States from 1901 until 1909. Because of his sickly childhood, he grew up determined to be as fit as he could. Accordingly he became noted for his skill at various sports, his hunting skills, his bravery while a soldier, his masculine attitude to life, and his active and dynamic political personality. Such is the legacy he left on his death, he has since became known as one of the great American Presidents. A permanent memorial to that greatness is his positions as one of the four famous Presidents carved into the face of Mount Rushmore - and a teddy bear.

The story behind the origin of the teddy bear springs from one of Roosevelt's many hunting expeditions. In 1902, when on one such, Roosevelt's attendants chased and eventually captured a bear that had put up a brave struggle to survive against the men and their dogs. Badly injured, and almost dead from its wounds, the bear was tied to a tree. The President was then brought to the poor creature and invited to shoot it himself to claim the bagging rights. An indignant Roosevelt refused point-blank to carry out such a despicable act, but ordered instead that the poor creature be immediately put out of its suffering by someone else. When the papers got hold of this story and printed it everywhere, a Russian Jewish emigrant, who owned a candy store and made stuffed toys at night, decided to make a stuffed bear to honour this act. So the little teddy bear was born.

Answer: Roosevelt Bear

A comical fact behind the name Teddy Bear, which proved to be the one that was most enduring, was the fact the President Theodore Roosevelt detested being called Teddy. However, such was the toy's astonishing popularity, and so canny a politician was Roosevelt, that he even used a Teddy Bear in his campaign when he ran for re-election.

It must have worked because he found himself at the head of his country for another term. It would seem that a stuffed bear was one of the most successful campaign managers in the history of politics.

Answer: England

Rupert Bear was created by English artist Mary Tourtel in 1920. She worked for the "Daily Express" newspaper, and the sole purpose behind Rupert's creation was to steal readers away from rival papers, "Daily Mail" and "Daily Mirror". Rupert's franchise was eventually taken over by artist Alfred Bestall in 1935, and this little bear's fame has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. He continues to appear in newspapers, in books, in annual magazines, and even in television, on a regular basis.

Rupert's best friends include an elephant named Edward Trunk, a Pekinese named Algy Pug, Podgy Pig, Ferdy Fox, Ming the dragon and, it would seem, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. Not only has Paul made an animated video starring Rupert, he even, in 1984, included the little bear in his music video "We All Stand Together". Such is the popularity of Rupert and his friends that forthcoming productions include the release of DVDs, more books, limited edition prints and even a film. The suspense as to where he'll appear next is almost "unbearable".

Answer: From blowing flies off his nose

A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories were based on a toy bear that his son, Christopher Robin, owned. Pooh, as he was often called for short, first appeared in the 1924 story "When We Were Very Young". In this we find the explanation for Winnie's full name: "But his arms were so stiff ... they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think - but I am not sure - that that is why he is always called Pooh."

This is amazing: Such was the popularity of the Pooh stories that, within six years of his first appearing in print, they were already a "$50 million a year business"! Today, Pooh is everywhere. He and his friends appear in books, on DVD, on television, in the sale of toys, in theatrical productions - imagine Pooh doing "Hamlet"? - on audio products, on radio, in film and on television. He's even been adopted by the Russians, where he is known as Winnie Pukh. In Budapest and Warsaw they have streets named after him, with the one in Warsaw called Ulica Kubusia Puchatka. Lord bless us, the tubby little bear is even used to explain the various theories of philosophers - Descartes, Kant, Plato and Nietzsche for example. Pooh's philosophy though is probably more along the lines of "I think, therefore I eat".

Answer: Peru

Today the Paddington Bear books are printed in more than thirty different languages that all speak Paddington fluently. His origins were very humble though. From an isolated toy bear left on a shelf all by himself in a store near the station of the name with which he was endowed, Paddington was purchased by writer Michael Bond, on his way home, as a present for his wife on Christmas Eve, 1958.

The bear's lonely appearance struck a chord in the writer's heart, and he forthwith set about creating a story built around him. He so reminded Bond of child evacuees during the Second World War lining up at the station with their small suitcases held tightly in hand that he endowed Paddington with the same qualities. Now known for his old hat, battered suitcase, coat, love of marmalade sandwiches and his extreme politeness in addressing everyone, the orphaned Paddington is believed to have stowed away on a lifeboat coming all the way from "darkest Peru" in search of a new home and someone to love him. Adopted by the lovable members of the kindly Brown family - a most appropriate name for a bear family - Paddington, who has appeared in more than 30 million copies of his books sold worldwide, tries his best to behave, but constantly finds himself in all sorts of trouble. And, as with all his other famous counterparts, Paddington today finds himself an international celebrity. Comically so, with the demand for toys modelled on Paddington's appearance, the ability of the manufacturing firm Dunlop to keep up with the supply of Wellington boots for the little bear fell behind schedule, so the company manufacturing Paddington began producing their own Wellington boots as a result. Each pair now comes imprinted with paw prints on the soles.

Answer: A department store

"Corduroy" is a 1968 children's book written by Don Freeman. Named in 2012 as one of the top picture books of all time by the School Library Journal, "Corduroy" tells the story of a bear who lived initially on a department store shelf. One day a little girl spots him and wants her mother to buy Corduroy, but her parent refuses on the grounds that a button is missing from one of the straps that hold up his trousers. After the store closes later that evening, Corduroy jumps off his shelf and goes in search of that missing article of clothing. Alas, however, the button can not be located.

The beauty and appeal of this most popular story is that it contrasts the luxurious items on display in a department with the true values that are all that are really important in life. The following day, Lisa, the little girl, returns to the store with the money she had been saving for a long while in her piggy bank. She buys Corduroy and takes him home where she sews one of her own buttons onto his pants for him, and the story ends happily ever after.

Answer: Pudsey Bear

The BBC first began holding miniature charity appeals for children in 1927. The first one of these was a five minute broadcast on the radio in that year and it raised, for the time, the impressive amount of more than one thousand pounds. That's approximately twenty-seven thousand pounds in 2014 currency values. Donated to four different children's establishments, and, sorrowfully so, there were staggering numbers of these at the time, these short radio appeals continued until 1955 when the first television appeal took place. The telethons continued until 1979, and raised over six hundred thousand pounds for children in that time.

In 1980 the name of the appeal was changed to Children in Need telethon. In 1985 Pudsey Bear made his debut on the program, and he has become associated with it ever since. Pudsey was introduced initially as a logo of a fluffy yellow bear with a red spotted bandana tied over an injured eye. The toys quickly followed. Twelve bears, clad in orange fur, were produced for each regional BBC studio in a giant link-up of the telethon, and these were auctioned off as part of the fund-raising effort. By 2013, however, the bear's profile was well and truly heightened when Moshi Monsters, with its world wide base of over eighty million registered users, created a Pudsey Bear "as an In-Game item for 100 rox". Where to from here, Pudsey?

Answer: True

That was a little disappointing to learn. I'd thought their original purpose was to give to sick children in hospitals, but it seems the lure of the dollar was too much to resist in that bear-eat-bear world. The little Care Bears though, no matter what gave spur to their creation, are absolutely delightful. They didn't solely remain as greeting cards for long, and, by 1983 onwards, such was their popularity, they also moved into the market of plush toys, DVDs, television shows, films, covers for mobile phones, stickers, supplies for schoolchildren and so on. You name it and the Care Bears are there. Their initial launching into the world of high finance in 1981 was described in US newspapers as "the biggest character launch in the history of retailing". Where most of the other assorted teddy bears sprang from a creation that grew over time, the difference with the Care Bears was that all the commercial planning had been put in place before their first market release.

These lovely little critters all come with different expressions, different colours, and, just in case, you missed the expressions, different labels on their bellies to explain their individual personalities. By 2014, there were a total of thirty-nine individual Care Bears. Even their very names are financially based, for they are designed to appeal to the buyers of different strands of society. They come with such monikers as Cheer Bear, Wish Bear, True Heart Bear, Bedtime Bear, Tenderheart Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Harmony Bear, Amigo Bear, Surprise Bear, Best Friend Bear, Good Luck Bear and the like.

Answer: Giving teddy bears to children in traumatised situations

Under this remarkable program, small, fluffy teddy bears are issued to those exceptional men and women - police, fire fighters, and emergency rescue workers - who work every day in life-threatening and emergency situations. This enables them to give an individual teddy bear to traumatised children who, sadly, are all too often casualties in these situations. Each bear, a small comforting toy with which children are familiar, helps stabilise and calm the poor little scraps of humanity in such cases.

The National Association of Police and Lay Charities (NAPLC) began in 1997 in the capital city of the United States. Not only is its purpose to help reduce the recidivism rate of offenders in US prisons, and to keep the Teddy Bear Cop Program going, it helps reduce illiteracy rates in school children (which can often have a flow on effect into criminal activity unless sorted out), and assists people with hearing disabilities learn sign writing skills. Aren't they champions?

Answer: Harry Corbett

Harry Corbett the actor lived from 1925 until 1982. Although one of Britain's most accomplished dramatic actors, he is most well known for his role as Harold Steptoe in the long running comedy "Steptoe and Sons" (1962-1974). Harry Corbett, the puppeteer, lived from 1918 until 1989. Initially wishing to pursue a musical career as a pianist, his life-long deafness in one ear put paid to that ambition. The world of entertainment was, however, Harry's eventual destination. Following a holiday in Blackpool in 1948, in an attempt to keep his children amused, he purchased a little yellow hand puppet bear, darkened his ears and nose with soot, immediately dubbed it Sooty as a result, and the rest is history.

Sooty has to be one of the most lovable creations ever. He can only communicate by whispering in his owner's ear, but that doesn't stop an endless stream of mischievous schemes and scrapes this imp of a little bear either creates or finds himself mixed up in. Sooty is warm-hearted, but cheeky and very naughty, and quite deliberately misunderstands any instructions given to him by his put-upon owner. Since his early beginning with a soot blackened face to amuse small children at a seaside holiday, and with his professional entertainment career commencing from the early 1950s onward, Sooty has continued to appear in what is now the longest running series of children's programs built around a single character on UK television. Eight different series, in fact, in addition to various videos, endless stage specials, books, even an album featuring music by his friends, and numerous guest spots on other programs. Now from Sooty, his owner and me, this quiz closes with that show's familiar signing off line of "Bye bye everybody, bye bye".