Only You Can (Part One)

I’m a child of the late 50’s and early 60’s so my memories are formed from such advertising icons as Tony the Tiger, the Sinclair Dino, and Smokey Bear. Of course, the influence of Smokey Bear was only through television as Big Spring never had a forest! However, Smokey Bear (also known as Smokey the Bear so it would fit well into the lyrics for the song) was still an effective mascot nationwide.

Even today animals are very good “spokespersons” for products (I love those Kia Golden Retrievers!). In 1942, the movie Bambi was extremely popular and Disney allowed the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) program to use the movie characters in their campaign to prevent forest fires at the start of World War II. Japanese submarines had surfaced in the spring of ’42 close to Santa Barbara, California, and fired shells that exploded on an oil field very close to the Los Padres National Forest. Fear of future incendiary shells exploding in the forests on the Pacific Coast that would ignite numerous wildfires caused the Forest Service to organize the advertising campaign. Realizing the Disney animals could be used only once, the CFFP began the search for an animal symbol that would belong to them, and the Black bear seemed to be the ideal choice. On August 9, 1944, the creation of Smokey Bear was authorized by the Forest Service and the first poster was created on October 10th by artist Albert Staehle. The poster showed a bear pouring water on a campfire and the image was immediately popular. By 1952, Smokey Bear had become commercially profitable and through an Act of Congress his image was placed under copyright control of the Secretary of Agriculture. Smokey’s catchphrase of “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” was updated in 2001 to “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires”.

In 1950, during a wildfire in New Mexico, a black bear cub was found badly burned but alive by firefighters. He was taken in by a Game Warden and flown to Sante Fe for treatment. News about the little bear spread swiftly throughout New Mexico. Soon, the United Press and Associated Press broadcast his story nationwide. Many people wrote and called asking about the cub’s recovery. The state game warden wrote to the chief of the Forest Service, offering to present the cub to the agency as long as the cub would be dedicated to a conservation and wildfire prevention publicity program.

The cub was soon on his way to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., becoming the living symbol of Smokey Bear.

Smokey received numerous gifts of honey and so many letters he had to have his own zip code. He remained at the zoo until his death in 1976, when he was returned to his home to be buried at the Smokey Bear Historical Park in Capitan,