Nursery Favourite 60 This Year

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31079, 7 June 1966, Page 2

Nursery Favourite 60 This Year

He is beady-eyed, big-eared and unashamedly fat. The only conversation you will extract from him is a grunt or a growl. Yet this year, as he celebrates his sixtieth birthday, millions will toast him with an affection reserved only for their nearest and dearest.

He is one of the world’s most loveable figures, the teddy bear. There is no doubt that this old gentleman of the nursery has never been so popular, writes Stella Bruce.

His annual world sales are estimated at about £2O million. In spite of the glut of walkie-talkie dolls, spacerockets and killer-ray guns that festoon every child's bedroom, it is a fair bet that only Teddy will occupy the honoured place on the pillow when bedtime comes. When an international toymaking combine recently ordered researchers to ask children about their favourite toy, 50 per cent named the teddy bear as their favourite. The most sophisticated dolls, gollywogs and mechanical toys were “also-rans." All this is a far cry from the summer day in 1906 when an American toymaker constructed a large bear of brown velvet and wrote hesitantly to President (“Teddy”)

Roosevelt requesting permission to name the bear after him. PRESIDENT’S PET “I don’t think my name is likely to be worth much in the bear business.” the President replied. “But you are welcome to use it.” Many people think that Teddy is in fact short for Edward .nd that he was named after Britain’s King Edward the Seventh, a chubby, cheerful monarch! - In fact, he was bom after “Teddy” Roosevelt, on a bearshoot in the Rockies, discovered a small, bewildered bear cub. The President, too soft-hearted to shoot, adopted the bear as a pet. The next day, a newspaper cartoonist drew the incident, calling the picture “Teddy’s bear.” When the first “Teddy bears” appeared—with the President’s blessing—on the American market, orders poured in. NYLON COAT Within a few months, the bear was an international figure. In his early days, he was made from plush or velvet in a dull brown shade and filled with sawdust or wood shavings. But the contemporary Teddy cuts a much more sophisticated figure. The kapok stuffing and gold mohair plush which distinguished the well-dressed bear of 10 years ago is considered “old hat” today. Today’s fashionable bear wears a nylon fur coat which can be washed and brushed. There are also teddies which can join their owners in the bath—foam-rubber filling ensures that you do not get a waterlogged bear which slowly sinks below the surface.

Nevertheless toymakers take care that whatever the refinements, the basic and benign appearance of a Teddy bear remains unaltered. At one of the world’s largest bear-making factories, where 4000 are produced a week, a special department keeps a dose check on Teddy’s appearance. He must be furry, cuddly and, above ail, friendly. When a consignment of bears was recently found to have the eyes and mouth set at an angle which made them look positively menacing, all were sent back for a face-lift.

Potential customers, however, do demand the latest refinements in their bears, although the basic appearance must be strictly “trad.” There are musical bears containing tiny gramophones which will croon “Happy Birthday,” talking bears which grunt pithy remarks like “Kiss me,” and “I want some honey.” Others will yawn and stretch when a built-in alarm dock goes off. The latest American development is a tiny transistor-

driven tape recorder hidden in the bear’s head. Press a button and say anything you like. Then press another button.

The bear’s eyes light up and it repeats what you told it—through a tiny loudspeaker which deepens the voice to a growl. PENSIONED OFF

For the energetic, there are battery-driven walking bears and even a bear with a built in gyroscope which enables it to ride a tiny two-wheeled cycle! In disguises, such as Winnie the Pooh, and Rupert, Teddy has appeared in books translated into 30 languages. His theme tune, the “Teddy Beer’s Picnic,” written a year after his birth, has been recorded by a jazz band and a symphony orchestra. In hospitals and nurseries, he is regarded as essential equipment for making children feel secure. Some doctors advise children undergoing operations to bring their bears with them to the hospital. For those who do not, there is usually a large selection of “staff” bears to choose from. One major children's hospital in London buys at least 50 a year to replace bears being pensioned off. Of course, no-one suggests that bears are just for children . . . Britain’s Princess Alexandra lost hers on a recent Far Eastern tour. The poet, John Betjeman, has one to “comfort him,” A 25-year-old American film actress recently left London Airport for New York clutching a huge Teddy bear which had cost her £25 in excess baggage fees. But she refused to leave him behind. Recently, a middle-aged man queued all night outside a store to buy a monster Teddy in a sale. He said it was for his daughter, but the assistants were not so sure. Teddy has even been a lifesaver. Last year a child in Germany fell from a fourth-floor window, dropping her large toy bear as she fell. She landed on top of it, breaking her fail and suffering only minor injuries.