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The Teddy Bear Craze
By John Gibb
The golden age of teddy bears lasted from 1903 right up to the start of
World War II. Teddies were hugely popular, a craze on the scale of Beanie
Babies or Pokemon, and everyone who was anyone had a teddy, especially
upper-class ladies and their children, and as they were still relatively
expensive toys they were treated with great care and pride.
Teddies could not yet be reliably and cheaply manufactured, and so were
hand-made, artisan objects. German and American companies stepped teddy bear
production into high gear, but the Germans’ long experience in toymaking
meant that their bears were of much higher quality and for a lower price
than the Americans could manage. German industry quickly came to dominate
the worldwide teddy bear industry – but then, unfortunately, fell headlong
into World War I.
The war allowed the American teddy industry to recover and grow to many
times its previous size, as America was scarcely involved in the fighting –
but, ironically, the Great Depression a few years later almost killed off
the industry in America, at which point most teddy manufacturing moved back
to Germany. The Germans were even more innovative with their bears this
time, making teddies that could do all sorts of tricks, including dancing
and playing little tunes.
The reason that World War II is the end of the golden age is that it ended
teddy manufacturing pretty much everywhere, but also led to the development
of technology that could be used to mass-manufacture teddies. When teddy
bears came back after the war, they were no longer hand-made, but were
mass-produced in automated factories. These bears were made from artificial
materials so that they could be machine-washed, with plastic eyes and foam
stuffing. Worse, manufacturing moved entirely to the East, where factories
could churn them out at a fraction of the price. As teddy bears got cheaper,
they became even more popular, but the quality of the teddy would never
quite be the same again.
John Gibb is the owner of TeddyBear information, For more information on
Teddy Bears check out
http://www.TeddyBear-information.info
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Gibb
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