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TEDDY BEAR

For other uses, see Teddy bear (disambiguation).

The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear for small children. It is an enduring, traditional form of stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of comforting upset children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become expensive collector's items. Teddy bear collectors are known as arctophiles from the Greek words 'arcto' (bear) and 'philos' (lover). The world's first Teddy Bear Museum was set up in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, in 1984. In 1990 a similar foundation was set up in Naples, Florida.

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Naming

Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was "Teddy", enjoyed big game-hunting. According to one legend, the teddy bear received its birth at Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. To cheer Theodore Roosevelt after an unsuccessful day of hunting, Hotel Colorado maids presented him with a stuffed bear pieced together with scraps of fine material. Later, when he did bag a bear, his daughter Alice admired it saying, "I will call it Teddy." The term caught on.

According to another legend (and the one most often cited), the name derives from a bear-hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902, when Roosevelt's tracker, noted African-American hunter and sportsman Holt Collier, found and caught an old injured bear. Roosevelt refused to kill the lassoed animal, calling it "unsportsmanlike", and "Teddy's Bear" was immediately publicized by political cartoonists, taking journalistic licence and changing it to a young cute bear. The first such cartoon appeared the following day, November 16: Clifford Berryman, an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post, immortalized the incident as part of a front-page cartoon montage. Berryman pictured Roosevelt with his gun beside him with the butt resting on the ground and his back to the bear, gesturing his refusal to take the trophy shot. Written across the lower part of the cartoon were the words "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which coupled the hunting incident to a political dispute (see picture to the left).

Producers

Morris Michtom and his wife Rose displayed two stuffed bears in the window of their Brooklyn store shortly thereafter (February 15, 1903), and said they had received President Roosevelt's written permission to call them "Teddy's bears".

German toy maker Margarete Steiff had started to produce stuffed toy animals in 1880; the first one was a little elephant. Her nephew Richard Steiff convinced her to produce a toy bear cub in 1902. It was not very popular in the German Empire, but at the March 1903 Leipzig Toy Fair they were able to sell a shipment of 3,000 to an American merchant. Michtom's bear had a more endearing, baby-faced appearance, while Steiff's more closely resembled a real bear cub. The Steiff company continues to produce teddy bears in modern Germany for worldwide export.

The Dakin Company and Applause are two American companies based in California known for production of large volume and high quality plush bears.

Kinds of teddy bears

Some Teddy bears are intended for children to play with. Others, for adults, are referred to as "collector items" or "Designer bears". The first type is usually an unjointed bear where arms, head and legs are stitched to the body. The other type, for adults, are almost always fully jointed, which means that the arms legs and heads are movable by being attached with disks and cotter pins.

Fictional teddy bears

Notable fictional teddy bears include

See also List of fictional bears.

Teddy bear massacre

In August 2006, a collection of hundreds of rare teddy bears was ripped to pieces by a museum guard dog gone "berserk". One of the bears, a Steiff bear named Mabel, was once owned by musician Elvis Presley. The dog, Barney, tore the head and limbs off Mabel, leaving them on the floor of the Wookey Hole Caves museum. The collection included bears nearly a hundred years old and was valued at more than $900,000.[1]

Teddy bears in video games

In the 1995 RPG Earthbound, teddy bears could be used to absorb damage normally inflicted on the heroes.

In 2001, Teddy Bears starred as villains in a popular Nintendo 64 Game. Conker's Bad Fur Day casted the evil 'Tediz' in a war with the heroic Squirrel High Command. The Tediz were based on Germans, this can be seen by the Red/Black/White flags they wave, along with the weaponry they use (officers wield luger pistols, and foot soldiers carry classic stick-grenades). In 2005, Tediz returned for the 'Reloaded' version of Conker, sporting a new look. Grunts were outfitted with classic German helmets and outfit. Sword-wielding 'sneekers' were dressed as Gestapo members with long, dark trench coats, and monocles. The rest of the soldier classes also had similar German WW2 atire. In 2006, the Teddy Bear 'Sunshine' was an NPC in the Nintendo Gamecube game Chibi-Robo!. He was one of the toys that came to life when Humans were not around. He had a nectar addiction so strong that when hungry, Sunshine could go into a violent rage. Chibi-Robo helped Sunshine beat his obsession by giving him legendary nectar.

Alcoholic drink

A Teddybear is also a shot of vodka and Bailey's Irish Cream.

See also

External links