For I have so much love to share
that I’ll go with you anywhere!
Linda Katzopoulos, Teddy Bear Poems
Humans just do not get over their fascination with bears, not even in the increasingly virtual world we live in. Bears can still be found everywhere. They are hardly seen anymore in the forest (i.e., modern, usually ailing, tree plantations that are called forests), but whole hordes of shrill, colorful, absurd, pathetically sentimental bear personalities can be seen in films, comics, advertisements, and cyber space. They have very little to do with nature but reflect the state of our civilization and its population. The following is an incomplete selection of some of these notorious bears.
Aloysius
Aloysius is a teddy bear that became famous in films and whose paw was embedded in cement in front of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood for “his exceptional acting performance.” Aloysius belonged to the eccentric British Lord Sebastian Flyte, who carried the stuffed bear everywhere he went. He treated him like a little brother. As is fitting for a blue-blooded bear, he had his own silverware, dishes, and even a hairbrush with the monogram “A” for Aloysius. The bear dined in fancy restaurants and went to the hairdresser regularly. Sebastian took him along on all his trips, traveling first class, naturally; the only exception was Venice. Sebastian did not want to take his teddy bear along because, so he wrote, “he would meet many terrible bears there and be exposed to bad influences.”
Evelyn Waugh wrote about the eccentric nobleman and his teddy bear in the novel Brideshead Revisited. The book was adapted into a successful television series, with Aloysius as the main character. Aloysius had to have a double, though, because Sebastian feared that his teddy bear would not be able to take so much excitement. A double, named Delicatessen, was found in Maine, and, looking very much like the original Aloysius, was also christened as Aloysius; he also led a feudal lifestyle from then on. He flew first class with Concorde and sat in the most expensive restaurants with, for instance, Jackie Onassis at the neighboring table. After his film career, his excellency, Aloysius, retired to the biggest teddy bear museum in the United Kingdom in Witney (Oxfordshire).1
Baloo
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), Victorian author and enthusiastic advocate of the British empire and colonialism, knew India. He was born in Bombay and lived for a long time on the subcontinent. He became famous for his statements concerning the civil tasks of the colonial empire and the moral duty of the whites (“the white man’s burden”) to educate the “backward, colored peoples.” But he became even more famous for writing The Jungle Book, which appeared in 1894 and tells the story of Mogli, a poor Indian wood cutter’s child, who is kidnapped by a pack of wolves. Baloo, a good-natured, lovable bear, adopts the boy and becomes his protector and teacher (reminiscent of the old myth that tells of a human child who grows up with bears or other animals in the wild). The boy lives with the animals in the jungle, free of the rules and constraints of civilization. But Baloo also teaches him that the jungle has laws. In the end, Mogli returns to the world of humans and becomes a wise and experienced teacher for his compatriots.
The Jungle Book was a worldwide, Nobel Prize–winning success. But the Walt Disney animated film of 1967 was even more successful. Since then, the lovable, singing, dancing Baloo lives on in people’s hearts. His song, The Bare Necessities, became a catchy tune for a society worn out from constant stress and lack of time. In 2016, Jon Favreau revived the story with another successful film.
Kipling gave his characters genuine Indian names. For example, in various northern Indian and Nepalese dialects, baloo means “bear.” (Mogli means “frog”; humans have a smooth skin like frogs.) Also, since ba means “harvest” and lu means “bringer,” Baloo is the harvest bringer, the protector of the harvest, a fact that brings us back to the “grain bear” of Indo-European folklore and the “vital force in vegetation” of the folklorists. Anthropologists Claudia Mueller-Ebeling and Christian Raetsch (Mueller-Ebeling, Raetsch, and Shahi 2000, 251) write about the Kirati, a shamanistic tribe of eastern Nepal: “The bear (baloo) is generally regarded as the protector and teacher of the shamans. The Kirati also call him the ‘god of the threshold,’ a sort of Stone Age Ganesha. The Kirati use bear paws, claws and/or teeth in healing ceremonies.”
Mogli and Baloo
Barnaby Bear (Rasmus Klump)
Barnaby Bear (known as Rasmus Klump in the original Danish version), a cute little brown bear that wears red pants with white polka dots, originated in Denmark. He and his merry crew sail all around the world on the boat that he built and named Mary, after his mother. The whole world is their playground, each desert a sand box and each ocean a pool to splash around in. Aboard the ship, happy anarchy rules. There are problems and catastrophes, but they are always resolved with humor, courage, and refreshing naiveté—and without violence. Even though the little bear travels around the world, he is always back home in time for pancakes.
Barnaby Bear’s friends on his adventures are the plump penguin, Pingo, a pelican who always has any tool or whatever else could be of use in his large throat pouch, two little rascals, a turtle, a parrot, and an old seal named Seabear, who sleeps and eats a lot, always smokes a pipe, and tells sailor’s yarns, but always has good advice when the crew is in a pinch.
The first Barnaby Bear comic appeared in 1951 and was created by Carla and Vilhelm Hansen. In 1952, it appeared in Germany with the little bear called “Petzi.” A worldwide hit, there are some thirty-seven adventure comics that have sold millions of times over. The little bear was especially popular in Japan.
Barnaby visits King Ursus.
Bart
Bart, a genuine Alaskan Kodiak bear, who was born on January 19, 1977, in a zoo and died of cancer on May 18, 2000, at the age of twenty-three, is surely the most famous film and television star among bears. Animal trainer Doug Seus adopted him when he was only five weeks old and brought him to his ranch in Utah. He was raised on a bottle in the house until he was one year old and weighed nearly three hundred pounds, at which time he got his own “house.” After he was eight years old, his trainer drove him around in the back of his pickup truck, taking him to the car wash where he got his daily shower. On one of these outings, two tame deer happened to see him and fell down dead on the spot out of fear. Bart grew to nearly ten feet tall and ate almost forty pounds of food a day. His trainer never used force, violence, or tranquilizers to teach him; he only trained with loving attention. When Bart did something right, he got a reward such as an apple, a pear, or a carrot. His preference was, though, a hamburger or pineapple milkshake (Busch 2000, 120).
Bart appeared in a dozen or more Hollywood films. He was a regular “John Wayne” of bear actors and starred with the likes of Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Daryl Hannah, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and others. For his role in The Edge, he was paid one million dollars. His most well-known film is The Bear in which he plays the leading role of a grumpy old bear that adopts an orphaned cub and outsmarts a trigger-happy hunter, converting him into a pacifist toward bears. In this classic film, this “hymn to nature,” viewers were shown dangerous meetings with mountain lions, coupling bears, and a psychedelic trip when the cub stumbled upon fly agaric mushrooms. The films that Bart starred in were shot in the Alps, the Dolomites of Austria and Italy, and the North American wilderness.
Ben (Bozo)
Ben, whose real name was Bozo, was a female grizzly and the star in a popular TV series called The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (NBC 1977–1978) with Dan Haggerty. The good-natured grizzly, who needed neither leash nor tranquilizers, gained one hundred pounds during the shooting because of the many jam sandwiches, hot dogs, and marshmallows given as rewards. She also appeared in films such as The Adventures of Frontier Freemont (1976) and Grizzly Mountain (1998). In the latter film, ranger, gold digger, and adventurer James Capen “Grizzly” Adams (1812–1860) is portrayed as a friend and protector of wild animals, who prefers the loneliness of the wilderness to civil
ization. In reality, he was an obsessed trapper who greatly contributed to the decimation of the California grizzly, and the wild animals that he didn’t kill (bears, wolves, pumas) he sold to zoos and circuses. He got his nickname “Grizzly” because he strolled through the streets of San Francisco with two nearly grown grizzlies without a leash; he had trained them with brutal methods.
“Grizzly” Adams (illustration from The Adventures of James Capen Adams, Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter of California by Theodore Hittell, 1860)
The Berliner Bear
Though a bear is depicted in Berlin’s coat of arms and the city is named after the bear (Berlin means “small bear”), compared to the Russian or Bernese bears (see the related entries), its role is not very convincing. Considering the history of the Prussian Berliner, one is inclined to say that the wolf, to give credit where credit is due, would be a more appropriate totem for the city. The nickname of Margrave Albrecht I, founder of the city, was Bear, which appears to be the origin of the animal’s place on the coat of arms, on the seal, and within the city’s name. Or was there maybe even a real bear involved that happened to be ambling along the Spree River through the alluvial forests?
The first Berlin coat of arms, from 1280
It was not until 1935, however, that the bear became the official totem of Berlin. And, in 1937, on the occasion of the seven-hundredth anniversary of the city, a bear pit, in response to the public request to have the totem animal in flesh and blood, was installed. Two years later, Urs, Vreni, and Purzel moved in as a gift from the city of Berne. The animals did not outlive the merciless bombings of the Second World War, unfortunately. However, in 1949, the Bernese sent two more brown bears, Jutte and Nante, to Berlin.
Contrary to the Bernese bear pit, the Berliner pit is practically unknown and is not listed in the city tourism guides. The Berliner bear only became known during the Cold War blockade of Berlin and as a result of the “Golden Bear” and “Silver Bear” prizes of the international film festival in Berlin. The secret mascot of Berlin, however, is a hippopotamus: Knautschke, a hippopotamus bull, was one of the few animals that survived the near-total destruction of the city’s zoo during the World War II bomb attacks on Berlin as well as the fodder scarcity brought on by Stalin during the blockade. With his stubborn will to survive and his “big mouth and thick skin,” it’s no wonder he became a symbol of the Berliner and the first zoo animal to be on a postage stamp in Germany.
Berlin seal from 1460—a bear with the imperial eagle on its back
The Bernese Bear
The Bernese soul is a bear soul. And living bears, which must always be called Urs (Latin = bear), live in the middle of the city. Chapter 19, Bear-opolis, provides an in-depth look at this particular type of bear.
Care Bears
These colorful, cute, furry little bears that are always smiling live up above the clouds in Care-a-Lot, which sounds similar to the Celtic fairy realm of Camelot. Care-a-Lot is a wonderland, a bubble bath for the soul, a huge playground with rainbows, sparkling stars, and clouds of cotton candy. When the Care Bears notice that someone on Earth is sad or facing difficulties, they come down to help. As their names—Love-a-Lot Bear, Friend Bear, Tenderheart Bear, Good Luck Bear, Funshine Bear, Cheer Bear, Superstar Bear, Harmony Bear, and so on—suggest, they incorporate the purest of positive vibrations. They are the storm troopers of the “Love Ideology” of an infantile New Age.
Whether one is inclined to dismiss the Care Bears as kitsch, in the real world of stocks and dividends they are absolute winners. The Care Bears were developed by the greeting card corporation American Greetings and marketed aggressively. Between 1983 and 1987, more than forty million Care Bear toys were sold, several Care Bear films and TV series were produced, and over forty-five million Care Bear coloring books, comics, and children’s books were sold—not to mention the over seventy million Care Bear greeting cards in the 1980s alone.
Dancing Bears
Dancing bears existed in antiquity, but they can still be found in Turkey and parts of Asia. Training a dancing bear begins, in most cases, very early after the mother is killed to get to the young cubs. To lead the animal, the trainer pierces the lips, or the nasal bone, puts a ring through the hole, and attaches the ring to a leash. The poor beings learn to dance on hot plates or a heated floor so that they lift their paws alternately to relieve the pain. The trainer plays a drum or tambourine so that the bear learns to associate the tact of the music with the pain under its paws. Tourists who take pictures of themselves with dancing bears should know that they are supporting one of the worst kinds of animal torture (Ames 2002, 204). Dancing bears should not exist.
Training dancing bears (medieval woodcut)
Ewoks
Ewoks, a sort of caricature of Stone Age people, were introduced by the Star Wars Trilogy and appear as friendly, shy inhabitants of the moon forest Endor. Their language is made up of grunting, growling, and wheezing sounds. They live in huts high up in trees and are connected to other trees by ropes and hanging bridges. Chiefs, elder councils, and shamans are the leaders of the Ewok tribes. Their religion revolves around big, old trees, and a tree is planted at the birth of one of these bear-like creatures. They fight with Stone Age–like weapons at the side of the Jedi warriors against a wicked empire. The hairy moon inhabitants were so popular that George Lucas made two successive films featuring them—Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985).
Fozzie Bear
Fozzie Bear is a character from The Muppet Show. The brown bear with googly eyes, a small hat on his head, and a bow tie would like to be a comedian, but no one finds his jokes funny.
Gentle Ben
Gentle Ben, an especially big black bear (Baribal), is a fictional character most often portrayed by an American black bear named Bruno in the leading role, with Dennis Weaver and Clint Howard, in the TV series Gentle Ben (CBS 1967–1969) and later in various films, such as Gentle Giant (1967), Gentle Ben (2002), and Danger on the Mountain (2003). The popular TV series shows Ben as the clumsy pet of a game warden and his family in the Everglades in Florida.
In real life, Bruno began his career as an orphaned cub from the forest in Wisconsin. He was brought to an animal ranch in California, near Los Angeles, where wild animals were trained to play film roles. Before his eventual fame, a flash flood destroyed the ranch; however, Ben was found three days later a few miles away covered with crusted mud and starving. Another time, a diesel locomotive that had gone out of control hit his cage, but the lucky black bear survived again.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears is as much a part of standard fairy tale lore as are The Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose. Every child knows Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. The three bears lived in a small house in the forest, and each had their own porridge bowl, chair, and bed that were just the right size. One morning, after having made their beds and cooked their breakfast porridge, they stepped out of the house for a while—the porridge was still too hot, anyway, and needed to cool. The little girl with the golden curls (“locks”)—in earlier versions, it was a wizened old woman from the forest—happened by and looked into the window. As it looked like no one was at home, she went in. Since she was hungry, she tried the porridge from the big bowl that was Papa Bear’s bowl and found it too hot. Then she tried Mama Bear’s porridge and found it too cold, but Baby Bear’s porridge was just right and she ate it all. She decided to rest a bit and tried Papa Bear’s chair, but it was too big. Mama Bear’s chair was too big, too. Baby Bear’s chair seemed just right, but when she settled into it, it broke into pieces. Then she decided she was so tired she needed a nap. She tried Papa Bear’s bed, but it was too hard; then she tried Mama Bear’s bed, but it was too soft. Baby Bear’s bed was just right, and she fell fast asleep.
When the bears came back home, they were shocked to see that someone had eaten from their porridge bowls, sat in their chairs, and trie
d out their beds—and there she was still asleep in Baby Bear’s bed! As Baby Bear exclaimed, “There she is!” Goldilocks woke up and ran away as fast as she could.
The story could describe a typical early morning dream in which, after the soul wanders in “the otherworld” during the night, the person wakes up and a change of consciousness occurs whereby the soul crosses the threshold and has to pass by the guardians—in this case, the three bears.
Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear (English children’s book)
Gummy Bears
The little gelatin bears are not candy like any other kind of fruit candy in Germany. They are part of the German way of life. Two hundred thousand tons are consumed each year in Germany alone—lined up, they would go around the Earth three times. Thomas Gottschalk earns millions just advertising them. Gummy bears inspire all kinds of side products in Germany, including gummy bear puzzles, gummy bear tarot cards, and a gummy bear oracle.
Dietmar Bittrich’s Das Gummibaerchen Orakel (as well as Gummy Bear Tarot, available in English) became a best seller in Germany after it was published in 1996. Its success is no wonder when one considers how many German women are interested in esoterica, horoscopes, and oracles, and how many eat gummy bears regularly. In this Dadaistic caricature, Bittrich tells how his mother set him out in the wilderness in Canada, and a grizzly bear family took him in. He lived with them until he was twelve years old and learned about the instincts and habits of the bears. He saw electric lights for the first time when he was thirteen, saw his first sink at fourteen, fell in love at fifteen, and saw his first gummy bear at sixteen. Since that fateful year of 1975, Bittrich lovingly and intensively studied the being and meaning of gummy bears. After twenty years of research, he presented the first and ultimate gummy bear oracle. In Germany, the book became the standard work on the subject from the first edition. Bittrich presently lives in Switzerland and works toward the resettlement of wild gummy bears in Alpine regions.
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