| Event type: | Meeting |
| Date: | 16th November 2023 |
| Venue: | Kenilworth Methodist Church |
A talk by Dr Gillian White
Most people have, or have had, a Teddy Bear, so it was of considerable interest for our speaker, Dr Gillian White, to enlighten us on the history of one of the world’s favourite cuddly toys. Margarete Steiff was a German seamstress who was born in 1847. She normally made children’s clothing and with the surplus materials made small toy animals. The toys sold very well so she switched production to only make stuffed toys. Her six nephews joined her in this enterprise. One of Margarete’s nephews, Richard Steiff, wanted to branch out into making stuffed toy Teddy Bears but his aunt vetoed the suggestion. However, one of Richard Steiff’s Teddy Bears was displayed at the Leipzig Market in Germany in 1906 and an order was placed by a major American toy supplier for 3000 of the Teddy Bears. In America there was considerable demand for the toy following the story of President Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting trip in Mississippi. Game was very scarce, so the hosts tied a small black bear to a tree to give the President an easy target. Roosevelt refused the ‘sitting duck’ and his spin doctors subsequently portrayed him as being an ‘humanitarian’ President in the forthcoming elections. Hence his nick name ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt.
Other toy manufacturers quickly followed suite, but Steiff’s were in the forefront of Teddy Bear manufacture. By 1907 a lady bear was born and in 1912 a black bear was made for shop window display to commiserate with life lost in the sinking of the Titanic. In 1914 a miniature Teddy Bear was made to sit in the top pocket of soldiers’ uniforms who were fighting in WW1.
The Teddy Bear production grew:
• Character bears started to emerge - bears in military uniform, nurse bears, etc.
• Sylvia Parkhurst, the daughter of the suffragette, set up Ealon Toys for making toy bears and was one of the first employers to offer flexible working and equal pay for both men and women.
• By 1920 Teddy Bears were used as containers for lip sticks and powder compacts for lady’s fashion accessories.
Teddy Bears morphed into various characters:
• Winnie the Pooh – curtesy of the author A A Milne.
• Rupert Bear, who lasted for 40 years in the Daily Express.
• The Rupert Annual which started in 1936 • ‘The Teddy Bears Picnic’ – a song written over 100 years ago.
• Sooty and Andy Pandy appeared on TV in the 1950’s
• Paddington Bear had tea with the late Queen in a Bond film.
• Aloysius Bear appeared in Brideshead revisited.
• Bears were also manufactured from washable materials to make them more hygienic – even to the extent of squeezing the toys through the ringer!! Some early design bears have sold for considerable sums of money - £55,000 to £130,000. But what happened to them? Probably ending up in bank safes, not really where a lovable, huggable bear would want to be! The talk ended with Gillian White asking her audience to show their own bears that had been brought to the talk. Many furry friends subsequently popped out of pockets and rucksacks. A very engaging and interesting talk on the history of our favourite cuddly toy – the Teddy Bear!!