28. attend a Chautauqua
The daytime sessions at Chautauqua have been lecture or discussion formats. Tonight was my first evening at Chautauqua and it is a show. The scholar-actor presents a one-man, or one-woman, play as the historical character he or she is portraying. Tonight we were entertained by the exciting stories of the vigorous Theodore Roosevelt, as played by Doug Mishler.
My mother noted that many of the problems that Roosevelt discussed from nearly a century ago, continue to be present now (I suspect this may be a theme of the week):
- environmental issues
- the plight of the American farmer
- the bullying role of big business in politics
Theodore Roosevelt wanted to convince us that the values of rugged individualism and self reliance are the core of the American spirit. To cultivate that spirit we need wild spaces and animals and we need to save them for future generations of Americans.
After the play, Theodore Roosevelt took questions. We learned that the Teddy Bear was, indeed, named after him. He had refused to shoot an injured, treed bear--a story that made the newspapers. When asked by a toymaker if a stuffed bear could be named after him, Roosevelt granted permission. He expected the release of the "Theodore Bear" and was none to happy with the name "Teddy," a name he did not allow anyone to use after his mother died.
At the very end of the evening, the actor removed his wig and mustache and took questions as Doug Mishler, no longer in character. My favorite question came from Elizabeth Wills, who immigrated from Germany after World War II, about Roosevelt's attitude toward immigration. Mishler said that Roosevelt gets something of a bad rap regarding that because he detested the concept of the hyphenated American. Americans shouldn't be Irish-American or German-American, they should be 100% American. This was a concept that Elizabeth could support--I've heard her say similar things.
posted by Joy @ 11:19 PM
1 Comments:
TR went to Mississippi to settle a boundary dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. While there, he got in some bear hunting. They spent most of the day without success. Finally, the dogs cornered an old female bear. The bear was badly injured but his hunting guides urged him to shoot it (it would not have survived). TR refused. He was a great advocate of what has come to be known as Fair Chase hunting. He also knew the media attention the hunt was getting. He did leave instructions that the bear be put out of its misery after he left. It was later dispatched with a knife. There is a picture of the bear at Harvard.
A cartoonist, Clifford Berryman, was doing a cartoon about the boundary dispute and used a newspaper article about TR's refusal to shoot the bear as the basis for his cartoon "Drawing the Line in Mississippi." The cartoon showed TR in hunting gear with a rifle in one hand and the other hand held up as if to say no. Across a line in the dirt was someone holding a bear on a leash. His first cut of the cartoon showed an adult black bear (which is smaller than the brown bear - grizzlies and Kodiaks). The cartoon did not really convey the message of a helpless bear, so Berryman's second cut of the cartoon showed a bear cub, with lines around the back to show it was shaking.
The second cut of the cartoon took off, and was reprinted in newspapers around the country. A stationery and novelty store owner in Brooklyn, Morris Michtom, got an idea. He claimed he wrote to TR to ask his permission to use his name in conjunction with a stuffed bear his wife Rose was making. He also claimed that TR wrote back with his permission. I say claimed because neither of these letters has survived to back up the claim.
Anyway, Michtom placed the bear in the window of his shop, seated on a chair, with a sign that read 'Teddy's Bear.' Morris and Rose Michtom made so much money from sales of Teddy's Bears that they had enough money to found the Ideal Toy Corporation.
At about the same time, Margarita (spelling?) Steiff of Germany was making stuffed animals - starting out with making them for her nephew. She made a marvelous bear, with stitching for claws, etc. She may have made a bear before Michtom, but Michtom was the first to call a stuffed bear a Teddy's Bear. By making these animals, she created the foundation for the Steiff company that today still makes top of the line stuffed animals.
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