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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that gives a quick look it's something that

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Speaker 1: happened a long time ago. Today I'm Gay Bluesier and

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Speaker 1: in this episode we're talking about the origin of the

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Speaker 1: Teddy Bear, including the gruesome presidential hunting trip that gave

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Speaker 1: the bear its cuddly name. The day was February oh three.

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Speaker 1: A Brooklyn candy store advertised the world's first Teddy Bear.

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Speaker 1: The original stuffed toy bear was placed in a display

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Speaker 1: window next to a sign identifying it as Teddy's Bear.

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Speaker 1: Both the toy and its name were the invention of

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Speaker 1: Ruth and Morris meache Tone, a Russian Jewish couple who

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Speaker 1: had immigrated to the United States and opened a penny

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Speaker 1: candy store. Stuffed animals a k a. Plush or stuffies

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Speaker 1: were still a fairly new kind of toy in the

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Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds. Homemade soft toys like rag dolls had

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Speaker 1: existed long before then, but for the most part, they

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Speaker 1: hadn't been available commercially. By the twentieth century, though advances

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Speaker 1: in upholstery making made it possible to mass produce soft

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Speaker 1: toys and to give them greater flexibility and more lifelike

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Speaker 1: details than ever before. The German Stife company is generally

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Speaker 1: credited with having created the first stuffed toys in the

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Speaker 1: late nineteenth century. Its first such product was a stuffed

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Speaker 1: felt elephant, which was sold as a pincushion. Other animal

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Speaker 1: themed toys quickly followed, including dogs, cats, and pigs. Then,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen o three, around the same time as the

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Speaker 1: Meche Tomes, Stife began making their own stuff bears. However,

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Speaker 1: those weren't sold outside of Europe, and they weren't technically Teddy's.

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Speaker 1: That's because the name Teddy bear is actually a reference

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Speaker 1: to US President Theodore Roosevelt, whose public nickname, much to

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Speaker 1: his chagrin, was Teddy. The name was later applied to

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Speaker 1: stuffed bears all over the world, at which point the

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Speaker 1: word Teddy ceased to be capitalized. Roosevelt's association with bears

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Speaker 1: can be traced back to a fateful hunting trip he

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Speaker 1: took in nineteen o two. The President had traveled in

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Speaker 1: Mississippi that fall to help settle a border dispute between

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Speaker 1: that state and Louisiana. While in town, Roosevelt an avid hunter,

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Speaker 1: decided to go on a bear hunting excursion with some

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Speaker 1: colleagues and a local guide named Holt Collier. At some

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Speaker 1: point in the trip, a pair of hunting dogs cornered

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Speaker 1: and attacked an old black bear. After a bloody fight,

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Speaker 1: Collier knocked the bear unconscious with the butt of his

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Speaker 1: rifle and tied it to a tree. Roosevelt was later

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Speaker 1: encouraged to shoot the helpless bear, but after surveying the scene,

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Speaker 1: he refused. He reportedly told the guide quote, I've hunted

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Speaker 1: game all over America, and I'm proud to be a hunter.

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Speaker 1: But I couldn't be proud of myself if I shot

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Speaker 1: an old, tired, worn out bear that was tied to

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Speaker 1: a tree. The president's act of mercy became national news,

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Speaker 1: and papers like The Washington Post were quick to praise

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Speaker 1: his refusal to make a quote unsportsmanlike shot. It's worth noting, though,

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Speaker 1: that Collier did kill the bear that day using his

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Speaker 1: hunting knife, So while the incident gave Roosevelt a pr boost,

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Speaker 1: it didn't benefit the bear at all. And that's a

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Speaker 1: pretty self serving form of mercy, if you ask me. Not.

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Speaker 1: Everyone gave Roosevelt credit for not taking the shot, though

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Speaker 1: some of his opponents interpreted his refusal as proof of

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Speaker 1: a soft, indecisive nature. By and large, though people accepted

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Speaker 1: the narrative of Roosevelt the kindly hunter. On November six two,

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Speaker 1: the Post ran a comic strip along those lines. It

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Speaker 1: was the work of Clifford Berryman, a famous Pulitzer Prize

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Speaker 1: winning political cartoonist. His comic depicted an aloof Teddy Roosevelt

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Speaker 1: refusing to shoot a frightened bear, which the artist represented

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Speaker 1: as a cute little cub. The strip was titled drawing

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Speaker 1: the Line in Mississippi, a reference both to Roosevelt's involvement

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Speaker 1: in the boundary dispute and to the ethical line he

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Speaker 1: refused to cross as a hunter. Berryman's cartoon was syndicated

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Speaker 1: in papers throughout the country, forming an indelible link between

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Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt and small adorable bears. Rose and Morris MEAs

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Speaker 1: Tom liked the cartoons so much they decided to make

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Speaker 1: a stuffed toy representing the bear that Teddy had saved.

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Speaker 1: Ruth sewed the bear herself, using plush velvet for the

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Speaker 1: fur and a pair of shoe buttons for the eyes.

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Speaker 1: The Miston put their first Teddy's Bear and their candy

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Speaker 1: store window on February, and customers instantly got the joke.

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Speaker 1: At first, the couple didn't intend to make any more bears,

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Speaker 1: after all, they were candy sellers first and foremost. However,

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Speaker 1: so many people asked if they could buy the bear

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Speaker 1: that the Meaches Domes eventually gave in. They didn't want

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Speaker 1: to offend the President, though, so before making their next

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Speaker 1: batch of bears, Morris wrote a letter to Roosevelt asking

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Speaker 1: his permission to use the name Teddy. He also sent

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Speaker 1: along the original bear as a gift for Roosevelt's children.

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Speaker 1: According to family lore, the President gave the Meaches Domes

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Speaker 1: his approval, but wasn't convinced the name would actually help

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Speaker 1: them with sales. He was wrong. Teddy's Bear, also known

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Speaker 1: as Teddy Bears or Roosevelt Bears, were an immediate hit

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Speaker 1: with kids and adults alike. Other toy manufacturers rushed their

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Speaker 1: own stuffed bears to market, and the resulting craze spawned books, songs,

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Speaker 1: and even a stop motion film devoted to Teddy Bears.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen o seven, the meashes Stones doubled down on

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Speaker 1: their creation. They set aside their candy business and established

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Speaker 1: the Ideal Toy Company, a venture that later became the

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Speaker 1: largest doll maker in the US before the rise of Mattel.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of dolls, the Teddy Bear became so popular that

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Speaker 1: some people worried it might eclipse traditional baby dolls. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen o eight, a Michigan minister warned that toy bears

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Speaker 1: were a threat to the maternal instincts of little girls,

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Speaker 1: despite the fact that plenty of kids were dressing up

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Speaker 1: and caring for their Teddy Bears as if they were

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Speaker 1: regular dolls. As you might expect, the complaint never gained

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Speaker 1: much traction, and Teddy Bears have since gone on to

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Speaker 1: become the most popular plush toy in history. Some of

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Speaker 1: the original Teddy Bears still exists today, including one made

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Speaker 1: by the Meache Tomes that's on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty three, the then president of the Ideal

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Speaker 1: Toy Company decided to donate the historic toy in celebration

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Speaker 1: of the Teddy Bear's sixtieth birthday, But before he did,

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Speaker 1: he wanted Teddy Roosevelt's great grandchildren Mark an Ann to

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Speaker 1: pose with the bear for a publicity photo. The only

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Speaker 1: problem was that by the time the photo shoot was over,

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Speaker 1: the kids had grown fond of the bear and refused

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Speaker 1: to give it up. They eventually changed their minds, either

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Speaker 1: for the sake of posterity or maybe just because they've

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Speaker 1: lost interest. Either way, their loss was the public's gain.

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Speaker 1: Though the handover to the Smithsonian was still a bittersweet moment,

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Speaker 1: that's because it was likely the last time an original

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Speaker 1: Teddy Bear was ever handled by an actual child. Ever since,

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Speaker 1: the toys spent most of its time behind glass, touched

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Speaker 1: only by meticulous adults. For a generation raised on toy story,

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Speaker 1: that seems like a fate worse than death. But it's

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Speaker 1: also a reminder that a toy is never just a toy.

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Speaker 1: It's also a companion, a symbol, a work of art,

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Speaker 1: a cultural relic, and, in the case of the Teddy Bear,

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Speaker 1: a childhood institution. So while playtime maybe over for the

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Speaker 1: original Teddy Bear, it's descendants will go on picnicking for

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Speaker 1: as long as there are kids, and maybe even longer.

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Speaker 1: I'm gay, Bluesier, and hopefully you now know a little

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Speaker 1: more about Teddy Bear history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i HC Show.

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Speaker 1: You can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or you can send your feedback directly by writing to

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Speaker 1: This Day at I heeart media dot com. Thanks to

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Speaker 1: Chandler Mays for producing the show, Thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in History class