Winnie the Pooh: Silly Old Bear

Josh Clark (0:11)

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, and we're continuing on with our endless nostalgia talk, which is fine by me.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was raised on the Disney version. I don't know if I ever had any of the original storybooks, but as I became an adult, I grew pretty fond of those. So, you know, every night, you and me and I will read a couple to each other.

Charles W. Bryant (0:39)

Oh, that's nice.

Josh Clark (0:40)

I'm kidding.

Charles W. Bryant (0:41)

Well, that sounded like a nice evening.

Josh Clark (0:43)

It really would, for sure. Maybe we will start, because I was reading some of these again, and I'm like, God, these are sweet.

Charles W. Bryant (0:51)

Yeah, it's sweet stuff. I don't remember, I guess I was into it a little bit, but it doesn't stand out as a hugely formative piece of culture from my childhood.

Josh Clark (1:02)

What did you think about it rereading some of the stuff today?

Charles W. Bryant (1:07)

I mean, the same. It's wonderful stuff. And it's kind of like a little bit of a bummer, like the real life stuff.

Josh Clark (1:16)

Yeah, so much so I'm like, maybe we should just skip that part, because I watched that biopic or biopic, depending on your pronunciation.

Charles W. Bryant (1:23)

Which one?

Josh Clark (1:25)

Goodbye, Christopher Robin. And it is harsh.

Charles W. Bryant (1:29)

Yeah, I mean, that's the real story. I think Disney made the Christopher Robin movie that seemed to, I didn't see that one, the one with Ewan McGregor, but that seemed to be very much a Disney-fied version of the real Christopher Robin's adulthood.

Josh Clark (1:44)

I see, so this was about, they focused easily half the movie on his very, very early life. I'd say about two-thirds or three-quarters of the movie, maybe five-eighths, we'll just say that.

But it was based on a really exhaustive biography from the 90s, and man, it did not pull punches. It was tough to watch. The mom, Daphne, is not treated sympathetically at all. Essentially, if there's a villain in the movie, it's her.

Charles W. Bryant (2:17)

Yeah, I totally agree.

Josh Clark (2:19)

Well, at any rate, before we get off on that, we should probably talk about the celebrated Winnie the Pooh.

Hopefully, you can continue on separating the art, the work of magic that AA. Milne created from the real life behind the scenes stuff, because that's real life. Winnie the Pooh is not real life, and that's what makes it so magnificent.

Charles W. Bryant (2:41)

That's right. But it was birthed from a real life thing, which is, I mean, the story starts out incredibly sweet.

And it starts out in Canada in 1914 when a soldier shows up at basic training and has an orphan black bear cub. And this is Lieutenant Harry Colburn, who was a veterinarian from Winnipeg. Shout out Winnipeg, city we went to for the very first time on tour this summer.

Josh Clark (3:06)

Shout out Winnipeg.

Charles W. Bryant (3:08)

Had a great time. But he apparently, as the story goes, got this bear from a train platform on his way to the military base. It was for sale by a hunter who had killed the bear's mom. So he brings this bear along, who was a little girl bear, by the way.

And that's kind of set me down the path of like, wait a minute, was Winnie the Pooh a girl bear?

Josh Clark (3:29)

No.

Charles W. Bryant (3:30)

And apparently not. So we'll kind of get to that switch. But because he was from Winnipeg, he'd nicknamed this real bear Winnie and took this real bear to like the barracks and it became like a little base bear.

Josh Clark (3:43)

Yeah. That's so Canada too, you know?

Charles W. Bryant (3:45)

Oh, totally.

Josh Clark (3:46)

I love it. Also in my, in the version of the story in my head, Lieutenant Harry Colburn left that hunter a bloody pulp, just barely clinging to life.

Charles W. Bryant (3:56)

Yeah, sure.

Josh Clark (3:57)

So Colburn is at the base and he's like called off to World War I. And that's, you know, even Canadian friendliness has its levels. They're like, no, you can't take the bear with you.

Charles W. Bryant (4:09)

Yeah.

Josh Clark (4:10)

So he, because he was stationed in London, he took it to the London Zoo and said, can you hang on to my bear for me for a few years until I come back?

And the London Zoo said, sure. And in the meantime, while he was gone, Winnie, the bear became a huge sensation because she had been raised around humans. She was very gentle, so much so that kids were able to interact with her, you know, smartly or otherwise. But by the time Colburn came back from World War I, he found like Winnie was so beloved, he was like, I think you belong to London, now not me.