A bear so famous that he needed his own Zip Code to handle all his fan mail lurks behind the scenes of today’ #stampoftheday, a 4-cent stamp honoring Forest Conservation that was issued on October 26, 1958. It was released in conjunction with the American Forestry Association’s annual meeting. It also marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Theodore Roosevelt, who oversaw the creation of 150 national forests, as well as 51 federal bird reserves, 4 national game preserves, 5 national parks and 18 national monuments on over 230 million acres of public land.
The behind-the-scenes bear, however, is not the Teddy Bear, which was named after Roosevelt after he refused to shoot a bear during a hunting trip in November 1902. Rather, it’s Smokey Bear. The connection is the stamp’s designer, Rudy Wendelin, a longtime Forest Service employee who created and managed the iconic images of Smokey.
In 1933, Wendelin, who had studied both architecture and art, got a job as a draftsman and illustrator with the then new Civilian Conservation Corps. His signs, displays, and publications were so good that in 1937 he was promoted and transferred to the Forest Service’s national office in Washington, DC. After serving as a Navy artist during World War II, he returned to Forest Service where he was put in charge of Smokey Bear, a character the Forest Service had created in 1944. (Smokey was named after “Smokey” Joe Martin, a firefighter from New York City who became famous in 1922 when he was blinded and badly burned while making a daring rescue.)
Wendelin changed Smokey from a full-grown animal with a long snout, fangs and fearsome claws into a more human-looking bear who wore a ranger’s hat and belted blue jeans and carried a shovel in his paws, which had been transformed into hands. In 1947, the Wartime Advertising Council (later renamed the Ad Council) developed Smokey’s iconic slogan: “Remember…only YOU can prevent forest fires.” (In 2001, in response to a massive outbreak of wildfires in all kinds of natural areas, the slogan was changed to “only you can prevent wildfires.”)
Smokey became a real bear in 1950 when firefighters found a live but partially burned five-pound, three-month old American black bear cub clinging to a tree after a forest fire in New Mexico. The bear became a celebrity when the national press reported that he was being nursed back to health by Raymond Bell, a local ranger with help from a local veterinarian. But he was soon growing too big to live with the ranger and his family.
The state agreed to give him to the National Zoo but there was a small problem: how do you transport a lively bear cub 1,800 miles from Santa Fe to Washington? Driving or going by train would take too long. Going by air seemed promising but the airlines and freight operators were unwilling to let a handler travel with the bear, who obviously couldn’t fly as a passenger. Finally, Piper Airlines agreed to fly the bear, who by then was had been named Smokey, on a one of its Piper Cub plane so long as they could paint his image on both sides of the fuselage. A special room was prepared for Smokey at the St. Louis zoo for an overnight fuel stop during the trip, and when he arrived at the National Zoo, several hundred spectators, including members of the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, photographers, and media, were there to greet him.
The bear soon became a star attraction at the zoo and his image, which was in the public domain, began appearing on a variety of products. So in 1952 Congress gave the Secretary of Agriculture rights to his name and the power to develop a licensing program, which could generate revenues that would fund educational efforts to prevent forest fires.
Soon, thousands of dolls, toys, and other collectibles were on the market. More than a half-million children, for example, sent in cards asking to be Junior Forest Rangers that were included in packaging for a new Smokey Bear doll. Smokey even had his own song, which was penned by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins and performed by Eddy Arnold. To keep the song’s rhythm, Nelson and Rollins changed Smokey’s name to Smokey the Bear. That variant widespread both in popular speech and in print, including at least one standard encyclopedia and several children’s books. But Smokey’s official name was never officially changed.
And during the 1950s and 1960s, a series of radio advertisements featured Smokey “in conversation” with prominent American celebrities such as Bing Crosby, Art Linkletter, Dinah Shore and Roy Rogers. And in 1964, the Beach Boys quoted Smokey in “Drive-In,” which includes lyrics saying: “If you say you watch the movie you’re a couple of liars / and ‘Remember only you can prevent forest fires.'”
In total, it’s estimated that Smokey’s image appeared on more than $8 million worth of products annually and that he annually received more than $45 million in donated air time and print space. And by the mid 1960s, Smokey also was getting more than 13,000 letters a week, so much mail that the US Postal Service gave him his own ZIP code (20252), which is still in use.
In 1962, Smokey was paired with a female bear, “Goldie Bear,” with the hope that perhaps they would produce an offspring who could take over the family business. After none were born, in 1971, the zoo announced that the pair had “adopted” a cub, named “Little Smokey,” that like Smokey had been orphaned in New Mexico.
Smokey, who officially retired in May 1975, died in November 1976 and was buried in New Mexico’s Smokey Bear Historical Park. A host of newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, all ran obituaries. The one in the Post noted that “Bear” was a transplanted New Mexico native who had resided for many years in Washington, D.C., where he had spent many years in government service. The obituary also reported that he left behind his wife, Goldie Bear, and “adopted son” Little Smokey Bear and noted that Smokey and Goldie were not blood-relatives, despite the fact that they shared the same “last name” of “Bear.”
All this makes me wonder, what made Wendelin’s bear so appealing? Richard Earle, author of “The Art of Cause Marketing,” suggests that: “Smokey is simple, strong, straightforward. He’s a denizen of those woods you’re visiting, and he cares about preserving them. Anyone who grew up watching Bambi realizes how terrifying a forest fire can be. But Smokey wouldn’t run away. Smokey’s strong. He’ll stay and fight the fire if necessary, but he’d rather have you douse it and cover it up so he doesn’t have to.”
Given the horrific wildfires in the West and all of the other natural and man-made troubles we’re having, we could use a bear like Smokey again.
Be well, stay safe, fight for justice, prevent forest fires and wildfires, and work for peace.