Smokey Bear, the Spokesman and National Zoo Highlight (2024)
A bear of great distinction was born 67 years ago today. On August 9, 1944, the figure of what would become Smokey Bear began to take shape when Richard Hammett, the director of the Wartime Forest Fire Prevention Program took up pen and set down the characteristics of a short-nose bear—”appealing, knowledgeable, quizzical”—that would become the icon for one of the longest running and most famous advertising campaign slogans of the 20th century.
The first few were clearly duds—”Your Forest, Your Fault, Your Loss,” “Please Mister, Don’t be Careless,” and “Careless Matches Aide the Axis” (more later on that one). None of those roll quite so trippingly off your tongue as “Remember, Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires,” or today’s variant: “Get Your Smokey On, Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.”
Smokey’s story begins during World War II, when a two-man Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. People began to fear that Japanese submarines could bomb West Coast forests and destroy one of America’s most precious resources—trees that could be turned into rifle cartridges and other valuable war-time products. Forest fire prevention became a goal. Some Mad-Men-style advertising execs were hired to come up with a slogan. That marked the debut of the not-so pithy “Aide the Axis,” as well as “Our Carelessness, Their Secret Weapon.”
Walt Disney’s Bambi got some play in this effort. In 1944, that earnest forest creature appeared on a poster with a beseeching message, “Please Mister, Don’t Be Careless,” but once that campaign ended, forest fire prevention was left without a spokes-animal.
A bear was just what was needed, said Hammett, “perhaps wearing a campaign (or Boy Scout) hat that typifies the outdoors and the woods.” Artist Albert Staehle (1899-1974) got the call because he had a passion for drawing cutesy-type animals. In 1937, he had drafted a devoted mother cow feeding her calf a bottle of Borden’s milk, the first of what would become the long-lashed Elsie the Cow. Staehle’s Smokey Bear poster depicts a well-muscled bear pouring a bucket of water over a campfire with the cautious message: “Smokey Says: Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires.”
Both the bear and the slogan took some time to evolve; sometimes he was fat, other times thin, one time he appeared in a hat that wasn’t regulation. “One year he came out looking like a cross between a bear and a chimpanzee that had eaten too many bananas,” wrote advertising executive Ervin Grant in Boys’ Life in October 1957. Grant is credited with coming up with the “Only You” slogan in 1947.
A forest fire in May 1950 destroyed 17,00o acres in Capitan, New Mexico, and a seriously injured bear cub was found. “When it was all over, we heard this little strange noise and here was this bear cub up in a burned tree,” Forest Service ranger G. W. Chapman toldSmithsonian magazine in 2005, Adopted by the Forest Service and awarded the name Smokey, the bear a month later came to live at the Zoo. Fan letters arrived with such frequency, the Post Office decided the Zoo’s new fire prevention celeb need his very own zip code—20252.
Smokey Bear, in the flesh. Image courtesy of the National Zoo
“Smokey was an instant success from 1950 until his death in 1976,” says Pam Henson, the director of the Smithsonian’s Institutional History Division. “He was the recipient of hundreds of gifts of honey and money, about 5,000 letters each week poured in from people all over the country.
Smokey Bear lived a long and happy life at the Zoo and even took a wife. Earnest zoo keepers introduced him to a female name “Goldie” in 1962. (The pair never actually hit it off and no little cubs ever came of the match.) Smokey Bear died in November 8, 1976 and was widely eulogized. Albert Staehle, for his part, was paid tribute in the Congressional Record in 1994. The Zoo also had a second Smokey Bear on view.
“Smokey Bear was really a national icon for several generations,” says Henson. “When I was five years old in 1953, I broke my arm. To console me, I was allowed to pick out a toy and I chose a Smokey Bear stuffed animal, complete with uniform, badge, ranger hat and shovel. It was my favorite toy for many years. So of course, when I came to Washington and visited the National Zoo, Smokey Bear was my first choice to go see.”
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Smokey's original catchphrase was "Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires." In 1947, it became "Remember... Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires." In 2001, it was again updated to its current version of "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires" in response to a massive outbreak of wildfires in natural areas other ...
The original Smokey Bear, playing in his pool at the National Zoo, sometime during the 1950s. At first he was called Hotfoot Teddy, but he was later renamed Smokey, after the character created a few years prior. Ranger Ray Bell of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish heard about the cub and took him to Santa Fe.
The first Smokey Bear PSA produced featured his original catchphrase, “Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires.” By 1947, the phrase was changed to the even catchier, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” In 2001, the phrase was updated again to, “Only you can prevent wildfires,” to clarify the distinction between ...
After a long and successful career, Smokey Bear is retiring in an effort to change the way people think about fire. Stefan Hood of the BC Wildfire Service says they are trying to shift people's focus away from how to suppress fire toward how to live with it.
The bear was very caring and did not harm people around. The Bear Story also tells us how the lady took care of the bear with all care and affection needed. He was also punished for not listening to the lady. However, his punishment includes being chained for days and he did not like to be chained.
According to the U.S. Forest Service website on Smokey, the original Smokey Bear was a fictional bear dreamed up as a symbol in 1944 for the Forest Service's campaign on forest fire prevention. However, in 1950, his name was bestowed on a bear cub who was rescued from a forest fire in New Mexico.
The new mascot is Ember the Fox. Ember was designed and made in Canada, where the idea originated. Although Smokey is an icon of past generations, Ember's brightly colored fur and animated look are more appealing to the younger kids of today.
An Andean bear named Ben escaped from his habitat twice, even after it was reinforced. The Saint Louis Zoo said Ben's "specific and unique personality" meant the best option was to move him. Ben's new home at a zoo in Texas comes with a moat, which may be harder for him to maneuver around.
For much of the last century, Smokey was the pitchman for the federal government's aggressive wildfire suppression policy. Some scientists believe that tactic, along with climate change, may have contributed to making American forests vulnerable to combustion over the long term.
Smokey Bear was born on August 9, 1944, when the USDA Forest Service and the Ad Council agreed that a fictional bear named Smokey would be their symbol for forest fire prevention.
He remained at the zoo until his death in 1976, when he was returned to his home to be buried at the Smokey Bear Historical Park in Capitan, New Mexico, where he continues to be a wildfire prevention legend.
Smokey officially retired on May 2, 1975 in a ceremony which anointed Little Smokey as Smokey Bear II. He remained at the National Zoological Park until his passing on November 9, 1976.
His messages have received more than $1.6 billion of donated media support. His historic campaign has been inducted into the Advertising Walk of Fame for being “America's Favorite Advertising Icon.” He's been to outer space. Smokey Bear is the only “person” to have their own zip code, besides the president.
In order to maintain the correct rhythm, the writers added a "the" between "Smokey" and "Bear." As testament to the song's popularity, Smokey Bear became known as "Smokey The Bear" to many adoring fans, but in actuality his name never changed, and he is still known correctly as Smokey Bear.
For much of the last century, Smokey was the pitchman for the federal government's aggressive wildfire suppression policy. That tactic, some scientists believe, may have contributed along with climate change to making American forests vulnerable long-term to combustion. They call it “the Smokey Bear effect.”
Smokey Bear was born on August 9, 1944, when the USDA Forest Service and the Ad Council agreed that a fictional bear named Smokey would be their symbol for forest fire prevention.
(also Smokey Bear, Smokey) (old-fashioned, informal) an informal US name for a member of the highway police, so called because the hats they wear in some states are similar to the one worn by Smokey the Bear.
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