DBWI : Teddy Bear Being A Commercial Success?

Dolan

Banned
You might ask when visiting the White House, on why did a huge Plush Bear being displayed alongside the memorabilia of President Theodore Roosevelt. Yes, that Plush Bear is indeed being named as Teddy's Bear, but then, there are another "Teddy's Bear" around, as you could see the Photo of President Roosevelt posing with his pet bear, Pooh, in front of the White House.

It was recorded that there was attempt to commercialize the bear doll, made by Morris Michtom and the Ideal Toy Company, but it seem that they are failed to took off the Pet Bear craze that was started by President Roosevelt.

Of course, the Presidential Pet Bear, Pooh, actually originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite of Roosevelt's attendants, led by Holt Collier, cornered, lassoed, and tied an American black bear cub to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but after personally releasing the rope that hold the cub, it was said that the little bear end up hopelessly trailing behind the President for some reasons, and so, instead of being killed as a trophy, Theodore Roosevelt decides that he would adopt this bear as his pet instead, naming him as 'Pooh'. The news of the President having a pet bear become the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902. The image of Roosevelt holding a cute bear cub on his arms being immortalized as one of the most well known political cartoon in early 20th century.

Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a toy bear out of the Cartoon. He created a tiny soft bear cub and sent that bear to Roosevelt, asking his permission to use his name for the toy, that would be christened as Teddy Bear. Roosevelt did gave his permission for the toyline, but after enjoying some intial success, the public started to equate Teddy Bear not with a cute tiny cub, but the big 500 pounds Black Bear, 'The Pooh' who receive much publicity due too his role as unofficial greeter at the White House during Roosevelt's Presidency.

Now, while plush animal toys is still being common household item, plush bears are rarity compared to other animals. With this in mind, what if the "Teddy Bear" end up being a commercial success at the first place?

...

OOC : The POD is, ironically, Roosevelt end up adopting the bear instead of ordering to 'put it out of his misery'.
 

Dolan

Banned
No TEDDY BEARS!!?? This most assuredly edges in to Vlad Tepes territory.
OOC : Teddy Bear OTL end up being popular because of Roosevelt ordering the poor bear to be euthanized, thus ironically making the Public only remember the bear cub. Here, Roosevelt ADOPTED the bear as Pet, so the Public ITTL would see the bear grow and becoming a big, scary bear.
 
Okay, first of all, I think they could have become a success even though Roosevelt adopted the bear if the bear's name was not something that was connected with, you know, number two. Oh, Vaudeville performers had so much fun with that.

Presidential pets just became a bit too common though, the jokes about Taft and the plush hippo or Wilson and the mule aside. Those were personifications of the men, Taft for his weight and Wilson, you know.

But, then you had marketers trying to market some of the Republican president pets, and then Fala when FDR was in office. I think when Charles Schulz started Peanuts and Snoopy became the most popular plush animal, with many variations of Snoopy and different colors, it was filling a void that was there but which came about naturally, rather than trying to force the issue with presidential pets being marketed as stuffed toys.
 

Dolan

Banned
Fala when FDR was in office.
Fala Plush Doll has been taken mascot for US Air Force though, as during WW2, many pilots supposedly carry them to bring good luck.

But yeah, the most famous Bear Mascot turned out to be Wojtek of Polish Army. But even then, his popularity is rather limited at Eastern Europe.
 
. . . Roosevelt did gave his permission for the toyline, but after enjoying some intial success, . . .
And that’s the norm. There are many more ways of being medium successful than highly successful. Think of the fat part of the bell curve, versus the skinny tail.

I’ve argued and debated this, with examples from both statistics and the messy real world, and so far, with at best —

medium success! :openedeyewink:
 
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