Winnie the Pooh
In Episode 27, we learn about the history of Winnie the Pooh, and the stamps Canada Post created with Walt Disney Canada to celebrate a special milestone.
Originally this episode aired May 17th 2020.
Today I’m so excited to share the history Winnie the Pooh, a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear, created by English author A. A. Milne — and would become beloved by millions. However before the books came a real bear — and a Canadian connection. So let’s start there before we delve into the stamps.
In 1914, WW1 broke out in Europe. In Canada, many young men ran to the aid of England, including a fellow by the name of Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian from Winnipeg.
As his troop train was heading east. He gets off the train at White River, Ontario — and sees a Hunter selling the cubs of a bear he has killed for $20. Capt. Colebourn bought a cub bear, and named her “Winnie” after his hometown of Winnipeg.
During the time Harry spent training for the war with other members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Valcartier, he also trained Winnie. He would reward her with apples and a mixture of condensed milk and corn syrup. The cub slept under his cot and followed him around like a puppy. When not climbing tent poles or playing with her owner, the gentle bear posed for photographs with soldiers and became the regiment’s mascot.
In early October, Colebourn boarded the military transport S.S. Manitou with Winnie in tow as he sailed to England for additional instruction.
After seven weeks of training in England, the veterinary officer was called to the Western Front in France. On December 9, 1914, shortly before heading to the front, Colebourn brought Winnie to her new home at the London Zoo. They had just opened a new bear habitat that resembled a mountain landscape — so certainly a better place to keep Winnie safe than the front of a war.
Also the bear had a remarkable temperament. As a matter of fact, Zookeeper Ernest Sceales told a London newspaper in 1933 that Winnie was “quite the tamest and best behaved bear we have ever had at the zoo.” Children were allowed to enter the bear pit to ride on Winnie’s back or feed her out of their hands. Among the kids who had the fortune of getting up close with Winnie was a boy named Christopher Robin Milne.
When the war ended in that fall of 1918, Colebourn reunited with Winnie at the zoo. In spite of his promise to take the black bear back to Canada after the way, he knew that his pet no longer belonged to him. It belonged to the people of London. After saying his final good-bye to Winnie, Colebourn returned to Winnipeg, where he continued to work for the Department of Agriculture and opened a small animal hospital in the rear of his house.
In the meantime, Christopher Robin Milne grew very fond of the London Zoo’s star attraction and he changed his teddy bear’s name from “Edward” to “Winnie the Pooh,” an amalgamation of the black bear’s name and a moniker he had bestowed upon a swan he used to feed in the morning.
A.A. Milne, Christophers’ father, was a prolific playwright, screenwriter, and detective novelist. He was also a contributor to the humour magazine Punch when he first brought the character Winnie-the-Pooh to life in a poem in his 1924 book of children’s poetry, “When We Were Very Young.”
The quick popularity of this poem would then inspire his first collection of stories beginning with the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), followed by Now We Are Six (1927) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.
A.A Milne also took inspiration from many of real-life childhood nursery toys of his son Christopher. Many of the animals featured in Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, including Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, and the eponymous bear himself. All were bought from the Harrods toy store in London by Christopher’s mother, Daphne Milne at the time.
Winnie the pooh was a real phenomenon.
In January 1930, Stephen Slesinger purchased U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording and other trade rights to the “Winnie-the-Pooh” works from Milne for a $1,000 advance and 66% of Slesinger’s income, creating the modern licensing industry. By November 1931, Pooh was a $50 million-a-year business.
Sadly, Winnie, the real bear that has inspired it all, passed away Saturday, May 12, 1934 at the age of 20. Her fame was such, though, that her death made news all around the world.
This also did not slow down Slesinger who marketed Winnie the Pooh and his friends. He pushed the character to all sorts of mediums for more than 30 years. He created the first official Pooh doll along with records, board games, puzzles, U.S. radio broadcasted shows (NBC), animations and even motion picture film.
The first time Pooh and his friends appeared in colour was 1932, when he was drawn by Slesinger in his now-familiar red shirt and featured on an RCA Victor picture record. Parker Brothers introduced A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh Game in 1933, again with Pooh in his red shirt.
Although the most popular and among the first items Slesinger wanted to see produced were stuffed animals in order to fulfill the fantasy every child had of playing with his or her favourite character. He licensed a couple of companies to create the toys, but they never really looked like they did in the illustrations, but they would.
During World War II, a New Yorker named Mary Alice Clark got the right to create Winnie the Pooh doll under a license from Stephen Slesinger, Inc. She hired Agnes Brush to assist. She created the first plush dolls with Pooh in his red shirt. The original illustrator E. H Shepard had drawn Pooh with a shirt as early as the first book Winnie-The-Pooh, which was subsequently coloured red in later coloured editions. In 1948, Agnes Brush assumed the Pooh license and began to make Pooh and his friends at her home.
After Slesinger’s death in 1953, his wife, Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, assumed control of his enterprises. With a renewed vision, she launched a retail campaign that expanded the distribution of Pooh products nationwide. Agnes Brush who mde these high quality dolls could not satisfy the greater demand Shirley Slesinger’s marketing efforts created.
In 1961, after a period of being wooed by the irrepressible Walt Disney, Shirley Slesinger licensed certain commercial rights to the Pooh brand to the Walt Disney Company in return for royalty payments to Stephen Slesinger, Inc. As part of the agreement, Disney received the rights to make toys of the characters.
The same year, A. A. Milne’s widow, Daphne Milne, also licensed certain rights, including motion picture rights, to Disney.
In 1966, Disney released Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. It was the franchise’s big-screen debut as part of the Disney family. Subsequently over the years Disney released numerous animated productions starring Winnie the Pooh, including movies, tv shows, books and other merchandise… I don’t need to continue all that history, though- because we know Winnie the Pooh is popular and I want to get to the stamps!
So let’s fast forward to 1996, it’s the 25th Anniversary of the opening of The Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. It’s also when Canada Post signs a deal with Disney to create Winnie the Pooh stamps to feature the storybook bear on a series of 4 stamps, and highlight his Canadian heritage.
The stamps are marketed as the special release from Canada as part of the Celebration of International Stamp Month. On 1st October 1996, the Winnie the Pooh stamps were released in two product offerings: a stamp booklet and the other a souvenir sheet. Both contained domestic-rate stamps, which was 45 cents at the time.
The four stamps in the Winnie the Pooh set were designed in animation-style in collaboration with Walt Disney Company (Canada) Limited. The stamps were done in water colours by Wai Poon and under the direction of Anthony Van Bruggen both of the Walt Disney Company Canada.
A total of 30 million stamps went on sale October 1 1996, and the sales ended March 21st 1997. The stamps were printed by Ashton-Potter Canada ltd.
Now let’s look deeper at the design of the stamps. I will use the example of the Souvenir sheet to comment on the design. There are four stamps on the sheet, in a clockwise order linking the progression from Winnie’s early days as a real black bear owned by Colebourn all the way to being a part of the Disney family. You get a sense of the historical connection between these images represented on the sheet by the tree trunk in the middle that unites them. It’s also clear this is a Disney production on the souvenir sheet, with a 25 year celebratory logo with the Disney cinderella castle logo in the top right to the supporting Winnie the pooh characters Piglet and Tigger celebrating in front of Disney’s Magical Kingdom, as they approach Winnie the Pooh in his red shirt celebrating under a tree. The image in the bottom right has a Disney copyright logo in case there was any mistake.
Let’s look closer at each stamp. Each image is accompanied by a caption, in both English and French, identifying its source.
The first stamp at the top left is an animation of the Winnie, black bear being fed by Lt. Colebourn — it is noted as white river 1914.
Next to that stamp on the first row, is a young Christopher Robin, Milne’s only son with a date of 1925 and him holding up what looks like a toy bear.
In the second row to the left (and the third stamp)is a recreation of E.H. Shepard’s vision of Pooh and some of his friends. E.H. Shepard as we noted earlier was the original illustrator for Milne’s books.
Finally, the last stamp shows the modern Disney version of Winnie the Pooh sitting with a pot of ‘hunny’ in his lap and Disney’s iconic Castle in the background.
These are a beautiful stamp sheet for stamp collectors and fans of Winnie the Pooh.
However, at the time, that final stamp showing Winnie the Pooh sitting in front of an image of Walt Disney World caused a stir in some parts.
Simon de Jong, a New Democrat and the MP for Regina — Qu’Appelle,and critic for Canadian Heritage, held a press conference at the time to condemn these stamps. During the press conference, according to a Montreal Gazette article at the time, de Jong said:
“Winnie the Pooh often describes himself as a “bear of very little brain” — Well, I think Canada Post has entered into a campaign of very little brain. We are losing our identity. We are, as a country, promoting a foreign, privately owned theme park, and we’re promoting it on our stamps.’’
The controversy was highlighted on CBC’s Midday in November of 1996. Let’s listen in to the segment and co-host Brent Bambury
Midday co-host Brent Bambury further pressed the Canada Post spokesperson if they had anticipated criticism from “Canadian nationalists,” McGurrin admitted the postal service had expected some pushback.
“We did, and at the same time, we hoped that we would be able to explain our situation … and I believe that we have a very firm footing with the fact that we’re repatriating the bear,” said McGurrin.
“We’re bringing the bear’s legend back to Canada.”
How did the stamp public see it at the time? Well according to the Montreal Gazette, in an article from November 7th 1996, it was well received. As it notes, the stamps were very popular.
Tim McGurrin, spokesman for Canada Post noted ``It’s a very hot item,’’. Accessories are also sold. ``We’ve got T-shirts and sweatshirts. We have everything from Winnie-the-Pooh backpacks to fridge magnets available at participating postal outlets.’’
And what about those stamp collectors and dealers? How did they feel about the issue? Reporter Ken MacQueen from the same article noted the following:
Stamp dealers aren’t as critical. Last week, a Maryland-based company, International Collectors Society, placed a quarter-page advertisement in The New York Times under the headline: “Disney Winnie the Pooh Postage Stamps Incite Collector Stamp-ede.’’ It is selling the stamps for $12.95 (U.S., including postage and handling) to collectors of very little brain.
The Pooh stamp, the ad claims, “will be far more sought after, and be more desirable, than the U.S. Elvis stamp, the most popular stamp of all time.’’
Ottawa stamp dealer Ian Kimmerly calls this claim “hyperbole.’’ Kimmerly sells the same sheet of Poohs for its face value of $1.80 Canadian plus tax. “We’ve sold around $1,000 worth, which for us, is a phenomenal number of a single new issue.’’
Kimmerly figures Canada Post strikes a good balance between highly commercial stamps, such as this, and stamps of historical or aesthetic significance. Such stamps attract the non-collector into his Sparks St. shop, just as a “Collectors Month’’ issue should, he says. “Maybe if we sell 100 sets, one person will become a stamp collector.’’
So where do things stand now almost 25 years later? The stamps are still very popular, with numerous listings on eBay. With 30 million stamps out there, everyone in Canada could own one. So they certainly aren’t rare but nonetheless, when I am showing my friends my collection, who are non stamp collectors, this is always the stamp they stop to admire.
In terms of the controversy, personally I think it fulfilled an educational purpose of showing the origins of Winnie the Pooh, and celebrating how a little Canadian Black Bear became the inspiration for one of the most beloved characters ever created. This is something Canadians can be proud of and a story which belongs on our stamps.
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