Speaking of Smokey Bear

August 17, 2006

Speaking of Smokey Bear—well, we were, weren't we?—I figure it's worth noting that his birthday came and went again, on Aug. 9, and without a single acknowledgement, so far as I know.

More's the pity, and for what it's worth, he's 62.

I know people who have been in Smokey's camp their whole lives, just as I know some people who have held a lifelong grudge against him for bumping Bambi out of the picture. That's a fact.

Initially the Forest Service used Bambi on its posters, but Bambi was only loaned to them by Disney for one year, so a new animal mascot had to be created.

According to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, Smokey Bear became popular enough to attract commercial interest, so in 1952, Congress passed The Smokey Bear Ac to take Smokey out of the public domain and place him under the control of the Secretary of Agriculture.

The Act provided for the use of Smokey's royalties for continued education on forest fire prevention.

It is the longest running public-service campaign in U.S. history.

The cartoon character of Smokey was designed by Richard Scarry for Little Golden Books. At the height of his popularity, Smokey received so much fan mail that he was assigned his own ZIP Code, 20252.

And he's not Smokey THE Bear, either. Lord knows how that started.

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