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The Cowboysterous Kangaroosevelt Bear

Posted by Marco on December 28th, 2008

Theodore Roosevelt’s refusal, in 1902, to shoot an imprisoned bear spawned a long series of political cartoons and, since the bound animal was often represented as a cub, and brought to the creation of the Teddy Bear.

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Teddy Roosevelt in Peter Newell's Jungle Jangle

Roosevelt’s hunting mania was the subject of a 1909 booklet by Peter Newell, Jungle Jangle, and of one of the earliest animated shorts.

Gustave Verbeek’s Terrors of the Tiny Tads, which ran in the New York Herald Sunday comics supplement from 28 May 1905 to 25 October 1914, did not usually refer to contemporary political or social issues, but did not miss an opportunity to introduce a “cowboysterous” “Kangaroosevelt Bear” in the stip for 21 April 1907. The arrival of this heroic chimera saves one of the Tads ― who, perhaps in honour of his saviour, becomes a “Taddy” in the next panel ― from the terrible Hippopotamuskrat:

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Verbeek's cowboysterous Kangaroosevelt Bear (click on the image to read the whole story)



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[...] Here is another from the strip for 19 May 1907, a few weeks after the appearance of the “Cowboisterous Kangaroosevelt Bear:” Here comes the Rockefellerphant, so wealthy and so bold, His stomach like a money bag, all [...]