Winnie the Pooh: Silly Old Bear

In 1925, on Christmas Eve, the London Evening News published a short story called "The Wrong Sort of Bees" and introduced the world to a bear who was, in the words of his human boy, a "silly old bear." That bear was Winnie the Pooh, and the story of how he came to be involves a real black bear cub from Winnipeg, a shell-shocked World War I veteran who found solace in the woods with his son, and a stuffed animal named Edward that got renamed after a beloved zoo attraction. The episode traces the full arc of Pooh's creation, his explosive popularity, the bittersweet real-life consequences for the family who made him, and the strange second life he has lived as a symbol for everything from Taoist philosophy to political resistance in China.

From Winnipeg Bear to Hundred Acre Wood

The real story begins not in England but in Canada in 1914. Lieutenant Harry Colburn, a veterinarian from Winnipeg, arrived at military training with an orphaned black bear cub he had purchased from a hunter who had killed the mother. He named the cub Winnie after his hometown. When Colburn was deployed to World War I, he left Winnie at the London Zoo, where she became a sensation because she was so gentle that children could interact with her. By the time Colburn returned, Winnie was so beloved that he decided she belonged to London now.