and declared Billy Possum “the new national toy.” It might seem ridiculous to suggest that the beloved teddy bear, named for the story of Theodore Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a restrained bear, could ...

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Teddy bears are now an internationally beloved children’s toy. But few remember the presidential hunting trip and state boundary dispute that led to the sale of the first such bear on this date ...

But children thought the toy looked “too much like a rat,” and it sold poorly Howard Dorre “If ‘Teddy Bear,’ why not ‘Billy Possum’?” That was the question posed by a political ...