How Teddy beat Billy. . .
QUESTION Following the success of Theodore Roosevelt’s Teddy Bear, is it true that supporters of William Howard Taft brought out their own range of soft toys? The success of the Teddy Bear had much to do with its history, the name having originated in an incident on a hunt in Mississippi in November 1902.
Republican President Theodore Roosevelt had not succeeded in shooting a bear, so members of his party cornered an American black bear, clubbed it and tied it to a willow tree.
Roosevelt, however, refused to shoot it, deeming it unsportsmanlike, and ordered it be put out of its misery. The incident became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902, spawning the name and launching an industry.
In 1908, Roosevelt chose not to run for another term and endorsed his then close political ally and future adversary William howard Taft for the role. Taft was duly elected on November 3, 1908.
Many believed the Teddy Bear craze would die when Roosevelt left office, but on January 16, 1909, as Taft awaited his inauguration, he was guest of honour at a banquet in Atlanta where he was presented with a Southern speciality: ‘possum and taters’.
The dish comprises a whole opossum (the long- snouted marsupial, famous for its ability to play dead), roasted on a bed of sweet potatoes with its tail attached.
The one given Taft weighed 18lb, and he clearly enjoyed it, telling reporters: ‘I certainly like possum. I ate heartily of it last night, and it did not disturb in the slightest my digestion or my sleep.’
After the dinner, Taft was surprised by the gift from a group of supporters of a stuffed opossum toy, beady-eyed and baldeared, which became the Taft presidency’s answer to the Teddy Bear.
Within 24 hours ‘Billy Possum’ was being produced by the Georgia Billy Possum Company, and the Los Angeles Times announced: ‘The Teddy Bear has been relegated to a seat in the rear, and for four years, possibly eight, the children of the United States will play with Billy Possum.’
Soon Billy Possum toys, postcards, badges and posters were everywhere, and supporters could join the Possum Club. One pro-Taft postcard showed an opossum feasting on a cooked teddy, but the toy was a complete flop. Clearly the story of Taft eating a giant opossum did not have the resonance of the Teddy Bear tale of Roosevelt refusing to shoot the bear. Justin White, Pembroke.
QUESTION Who invented the trampoline? The modern trampoline, used for gymnastics and readily folded away when not in use, is generally attributed to Olympic diver George Nissen.
Nissen needed a way to practise somersaults away from the pool and devised the apparatus that has evolved into today’s equipment for international competition.
The trampoline’s origins, however, can be traced to earlier civilisations. There are records, notably in Alaska and eastern Russia, of acrobats being tossed into the air from a sheet of animal skins held by a group of people, rather like the circular frames which firemen used to catch people jumping from buildings.
Trampolines occasionally appeared in music hall acts, mainly as props for clowns. Unfortunately, these ones had to be assembled in situ, a time-consuming task unpopular with theatre managers. Nissen’s breakthrough was to design a frame that could be quickly folded up and stored away.
his original design of a canvas sheet tensioned by rubber cables is now a serious competitive apparatus, with a fine-webbed mesh bed tensioned by steel springs in a frame measuring five metres by three metres. International gymnasts, performing quadruple somersaults, need a ceiling clearance of ten metres. Ron Linton, North West trampoline
technical Committee, British schools Gymnastics association.
QUESTION Does anyone recall the words to a monologue that incorporated the names of many cigarette brands being sold in the Fifties? FURTheR to the earlier answer, the period lent itself to the making up of rhymes and monologues.
There were more than 100 brands of cigarette on sale in 1950 and during the following ten years another 80-odd were launched. It was a big canvas for the admen, and in 1959 Swiss cigarette maker Palette sold boxes of 20 and tins of 50 in a variety of colours.
In April 1953, the Odeon Cinema at Marble Arch showed in 3D an advert for Capstan featuring Dora Bryan. It was the first cigarette advertised on screen.
Capstan was also the first, in September 1955, to be advertised on TV. Featured were comedians Frank Muir and Dennis Norden, playing a pair of twits, with Wolverhampton Wanderers and england goalkeeper Bert Williams. As he comes off the pitch, they offer him a cigarette to celebrate a victory — a fitting reward for a professional sportsman! how times and attitudes have changed.
Hilary Humphries, Newmarket.