Smokey Bear Turns 80

Today marks the 80th birthday of Smokey Bear. It was on August 9 1944 that the United States Forest Service authorized the use of an anthropomorphic bear in a new public service campaign. Since that time Smokey Bear has proven enormously popular, appearing in media beyond the the Forest Service's public service announcements. Indeed, the Smokey Bear campaign is the longest running PSA campaign in the history of the United States. Smokey's purpose is simple: to educate people on the danger of forest fires and fire safety.

The U.S. Forest Service was formed on February 1 1905 as an agency within the Department of Agriculture. From the beginning the Forest Service has fought wildfires. It was during World War I when many firefighters were serving in the military overseas that the Forest Service began using posters to educate the American public on the dangers of wildfires and how to prevent them. It was in 1942 that the U.S. Forest licensed characters from the Walt Disney movie Bambi (1942) to be used in a series of public service announcements. Eventually the licence for the characters from Bambi would end, so that the Forest Service had to develop a new PSA campaign.

Eventually a bear was chosen as the mascot to be used in the new campaign. It was artist Harry Rossoll who provided Smokey Bear's appearance, having made a rough sketch of the character. Smokey Bear was named after "Smokey" Joe Martin, a former New York City Fire Department deputy chief who had suffered from blindness and burns after fighting a fire at the Manufacturer's Transit  Company warehouse on July 18 1922. The first poster to feature Smokey depicted the bear putting out a fire with water while dress in his trademark campaign hat and blue jeans. Its caption read, "Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires!"

It was in 1947 that the slogan most associated with Smokey Bear was adopted: "Remember...only you can prevent forest fires." The slogan remained the same for decades until it was slightly modified in 2001 to "Remember...only you can prevent wildfires." This was in response to a series of wildfires in California that affected places beyond forests.

It was in the spring of 1950 at the a wildfire in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico that a bear cub who climbed a tree to escape the fire was rescued. The young bear was initially called Hotfoot Teddy, but was renamed Smokey in honour of Smokey Bear. He was cared for by anger Ray Bell of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish  and his wife. Eventually the cub was given to the U.S. Forest Service and sent to live at the National Zoo in Washington DC. Smokey would become a celebrity, so much so that when he died in 1975 obituaries were printed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other major newspapers.

Due to his popularity, there has been Smokey Bear merchandise from the beginning. It was in 1944, the very year the public service campaign began, that Knickerbocker Bears received a licence to produce Smokey Bear dolls. Ideal Toys began producing Smokey Bear dolls in 1952. Smokey Bear dolls are still being produced to this day. Since 1944 there have also been Smokey Bear lunch boxes, games, puzzles, t-shirts, hats, and even salt and pepper shakers.

As mentioned earlier, Smokey Bear would also appear in other media. On November 24 1966 The Ballad of Smokey Bear aired on the General Electric Full Colour Fantasy Hour on NBC. The special was produced by Rankin/Bass using their stop-motion technique known as Animagic. This would be followed in 1969 by a regularly scheduled, Saturday morning cartoon, The Smokey Bear Show, which was also produced by Rankin/Bass. Unlike the special, it used traditional cel animation. It debuted on ABC on September 6 1969 and ran on Saturday mornings until September 1970. ABC showed reruns of The Smokey Bear Show on Sunday morning during the 1970-1971 season.

Smokey Bear would also appear in comic books. He appeared in public service announcements in the Fifties. In 1955 Dell Comics The True Story of Smokey Bear. Smokey Bear would appear in issues of Dell's anthology Four Colour from 1955 to 1961. In 1970 Gold Key began publishing a regular title Smokey Bear, perhaps because of the contemporaneous Saturday morning cartoon. It ran for 13 issues. Smokey also appeared in a Little Golden Book published in 1955 titled Smokey the Bear, despite the fact that his official name is "Smokey Bear." He would also appear in other Little Golden Books and yet other books.

Smokey Bear has even appeared in song. In 1952 Eddy Arnold had a hit with song titled "Smokey the Bear." Its songwriters, Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, added "the" to preserve the song's rhythm. The song would later be covered by Canned Heat. Smokey Bear's slogan is quoted in The Beach Boys' 1964 song "Drive-In."

Smokey Beat has even had two balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The first Smokey Bear balloon made its debut in 1966 to promote the special The Legend of Smokey Bear, which debuted that evening. General Electric contributed $26,000 to the balloon's construction. The first Smokey Bear balloon proved to have some longevity. It flew in most Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons from 1966 to 1981. It made one last appearance in the parade in 1993 in honour of his upcoming 50th anniversary. The second Smokey Bear balloon first appeared in the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It has appeared in several parades ever since.

As might be expected, Smokey Bear would be parodied. One such parody so incensed the U.S. Forest Service that it wouldn't be seen again for decades. Dudley Do-Right was a segment of Rocky and His Friends and later The Bullwinkle Show that centered on a particularly dim-witted Canadian Mountie. The Dudley Do-Right episode "Stokey the Bear" featured a bear of that name who helped fight forest fires and educate people on fire safety. Unfortunately, archvillain and Dudley's archenemy Snidely Whiplash got hold of Stokey and hypnotised him to set fires instead of fighting them. This angered the Forest Service, who actually sent a representative to the offices of Jay Ward Productions to express their displeasure. The episode "Stokey the Bear" did not sit well with the show's sponsor, General Mills, either. As a result "Stokey Bear" was never rerun on network television and was not included in syndication packages for decades. It was finally released on home video in 2005.

Smokey Bear continues to be popular to this day. Aside from his balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, he continues to appear in PSAs on television and he even has a social media presence with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. And, as mentioned above there is Smokey Bear merchandise being produced to this day. There certainly aren't many PSA mascots with the longevity of Smokey Bear. It seems likely he will be around for another 80 years.