99% Invisible 100 Objects #8: Billy Possum
95 snips
Jul 10, 2026 
Jon Mooallem, journalist and author who explores human-animal relationships, tells the tale of the ill-fated Billy Possum and the origin of the teddy bear. He traces how cultural shifts remade bears from monsters to toys. They compare possum marketing failure to the teddy’s success and follow how animals like the polar bear became potent symbols in environmental battles.
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How A Presidential Hunt Created The Teddy Bear
- Theodore Roosevelt spared a dazed bear during a 1902 Mississippi hunt, inspiring a Washington cartoon that depicted the moment.
- A toy maker turned that cartoon bear into the first Teddy Bear, launching a nationwide craze and merchandising boom.
Extinction Rewrote The Bear's Cultural Role
- As bears were eradicated from the landscape, cultural depictions shifted from monsters to sympathetic figures, enabling the teddy bear phenomenon.
- Writers like Ernest Thompson Seton recast bears as vulnerable protagonists while hunting policies simultaneously drove declines.
Taft Ate Possum And Got A Billy Possum
- William Howard Taft was served a whole roasted opossum at an Atlanta banquet and was presented a realistic stuffed opossum called Billy Possum.
- The Georgia Billy Possum Company launched merchandising immediately, but the craze fizzled within months before Christmas.
