Smithsonian Magazine on MSN16d
How a Stuffed Animal Named Billy Possum Tried—and Failed—to Replace the Teddy Bear as America's National Toy
If ‘Teddy Bear,’ why not ‘Billy Possum’?” That was the question posed by a political cartoon in the January 10, 1909, issue of the Atlanta Constitution. Inspired by a highly anticipated “possums and ...
Smithsonian Magazine16d
How a Stuffed Animal Named Billy Possum Tried—and Failed—to Replace the Teddy Bear as America’s National Toy
As Kaufman explains, Billy Possum was “so out of [the company’s] purview of the aesthetic of what they were making.” That seemed to be the consensus. Allgood’s beauty may have been ...