Bear Christmas

Bear Christmas

Teddy Bear Collecting

This article is dedicated to the Teddy Bear, a great and extremely loyal friend to man.  Like man, the teddy bear is a great explorer and a lover of adventures.  The teddy bear also, like man, has had his fair share of being in the limelight both on our screens and as a great and unforgettable character in books.

Since 1907, when the Thomas A. Edison Co. made The Teddy Bears, the first moving picture about teddy bears, films and television have been making the teddy bear famous on screen.  One of the very first teddy bears to appear on british television was a glove puppet teddy bear called Sooty.  In 1948, an amateur magician called Harry Corbett bought a teddy bear glove puppet whilst holidaying in Blackpool, England with his family.  The puppet was bought originally just to entertain his children and they named the puppet simply 'Teddy', however, Corbett then started to use him as part of his magic act.  Whilst appearing on a talent show called Talent Night in 1952, Corbett and his glove puppet were spotted by the producers of the chilren's series Saturday Special.  Teddy prompty received a make-over - his nose and his ears were blackened - and his name was then changed to 'Sooty'.  In 1955, Sooty was  given his own show called The Sooty Show.  Later on he was joined by his best pal 'Sweep' and his girlfriend (who happened to be a Panda) called 'Soo'.  Strangely Sooty and Soo were never allowed to touch on television.

Folllowing the death of Harry Corbett in 1975, his son Matthew took over, but in 1996, Sooty, Sweep and Soo was sold for £1.4 million to the merchant bankers, Guinness Mahon who were intent on increasing Sooty's audience, so hopefully, fingers crossed, at some time, once again, we may just see a lot more of him.

There was also the lovely little Chiltern Teddy Bear who was propelled into stardom in 1965, his name was Teddy Edward.  This gorgeous little teddy bear travelled the world for the BBC's famous children's programme, Watch With Mother.  Teddy Edward was purposely never dressed, although when he ventured into the mountains of Nepal, he wore a beautiful (and now famous) Napalese coat, which was given to him by his friend Domtuk (who was a Panda), he too wore a coat which was very similar to Teddy Edward's.

In December 1996, Teddy Edward was sold at the auction house Christie's in London to a Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, President of the Japanese toy company Sun Arrow.  Teddy Edward fetched the staggering sum of £34,500.  He is now on display in one of his teddy bear museums in Japan.

Another very famous T.V. bear was Andy Pandy's friend 'Teddy', a very handsome Chad Valley Teddy Bear.  Teddy was quiet, charming and was best friend to Andy Pandy and Looby Loo.

Teddy Bears such as Paddington Bear, although famous for television, originally made their names in the literary world.  It was Christmas Eve in 1956 when a young cameraman called Michael Bond was doing some last minute christmas shopping.  He was desperately looking for a christmas present for his wife when, whilst stopping at a famous London store, noticed a teddy bear looking at him.  He was the only teddy bear who hadn't been sold.  Hence, his wife received a teddy bear for Christmas that year.  The little bear was named 'Paddington' as Michael and his wife were living very close to the famous Paddington Station at the time.  Just a few days later, Michael Bond was simply inspired to write a story about this teddy bear and once the book was published, it became an instant success.  The book has now been translated into at least thirty different languages and was later followed up by even more novels, short stories and dozens and dozens of picture books, then of course, the television animation.  Very soon Paddington Bear became practically a household name, becoming very famous too for wearing wellington boots and a duffle coat.  There is loads of childrens clothes and various pieces of merchandise the whole world over with Paddington Bear on.  In Paddington Station, London, there is a special Paddington Bear stand, dedicated especially to him.

Then we have the very famous Rupert Bear and also Winnie the Pooh who started their lives in the literary world and went on to become stars of screen and in Winnie's case, his adventures were transformed into a series of feature length cartoons by Walt Disney Studios from 1966 on.

We have also seen the absolutely adorable Aloysius teddy bear, star of the Brideshead Revisited series and fallen in love with him.

Then we have the famous teddy bears whose claim to fame is accompanying their keepers on dangerous activites and adventures such as Mr Whoppit, the teddy bear who accompanied Donald Campbell (the British car and speedboat enthusiast).  Together Campbell and Whoppit broke the water-speed record seven times, reaching 444.7 kph (276.3 mph) in Bluebird on Lake Dumbleyung, Australia in 1964.  That very same year they also broke the land-speed record at Lake Eyre Salt flats, Australia with 648.7 kph (403.1mph).  Together they survived several major crashes but on the 4 January 1967 Donald Campbell's luck ran out.  On Consiton Water in England's Lake District, they both tried for a new world record with an outward run of 466.7 kph (290 mph).  Tragedy struck when Bluebird's nose lifted and Campbell and Whoppit were plunged into the depths at 482.8 kph (300 mph).  Mr Whoppit survived, he floated to the surface a few minutes after the impact, it is said he became buoyant due to his kapok stuffing.  Campbell's daughter, Gina, carried on with the record breaking attempts and Mr. Whoppit joined her.

However, these are just a handful of famous bears from the past and from the present, although, as all teddy bear lovers know, there are many teddy bears who are heroic and very special in their own right, who no-one has ever heard of and it is to these wonderful old friends that we take our hats off to, and we would just finish this article by saying, Long May They Reign......

 

About the Author

Gino loves fast cars, especially fast italian cars.  Gino also loves anything Italian. Gino also heads an old teddy bear site which is full of adorable old teddy bears and their friends.

Please visit his website at www.ginosbears.co.uk

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