Pop Culture Flashback: Winnie-the-Pooh's Alter Ego (Oct. 14)

Winnie-the-Pooh becomes 100 years old today and the bear “stuffed with fluff” still looks fantastic without the use of plastic surgery. But he’s not the only cartoon character celebrating a birthday on this day.

1926 – ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ is First Published

The origin of the name of the bear that was “stuffed with fluff” began years before A.A. Milne published Winnie-the-Pooh on this day in 1926.

During the first World War, Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn caught a bear and named her “Winnie” after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was brought to the London Zoo where Milne’s son, Christopher Robin would visit.

Christopher re-named his own teddy bear, (Edward Bear), to Winnie-the-Pooh. His father named the characters in his book after Christopher’s stuffed animal names including Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger. (Mr. Milne added the characters of Owl and Rabbit).

In 1961, Walt Disney Productions bought the rights to the stories to create a series of cartoon shorts beginning with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree which debuted in 1966. Pooh’s iconic voice was supplied by Sterling Holloway. Today, Jim Cummings voices Pooh. The last full-length animated movie from Disney, simply titled Winnie the Pooh, came out in theaters in 2011.

A live-action movie about the inspiration of the stories, Goodbye Christopher Robin by Fox Searchlight Pictures, arrived in theaters in October of 2017. The next year, Disney created a live action/CGI movie about an adult Christopher Robin returning to the 100 Acre Wood. In 2022, the original book and E.H. Shepard’s illustrations entered the public domain.

Sadly, in 2023, Rhys Frake-Waterfield wrote the directed the movie that showed Pooh’s darker side. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey which depicts the bear and his friend Piglet as feral killers. It was followed up in 2024 with the sequel, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2.

1957 – Everly Brothers’ First #1 Hit

The Everly Brothers in 1959 *(Wikimedia Commons)*

It is said that it was the Everly Brothers’ close harmony singing style that was the inspiration for such groups as Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles and the Byrds.

Don and Phil’s first hit was “Bye Bye Love” followed by “Wake Up Little Susie” which made the top of the Billboard pop chart on this day in 1957.

The achievement was met with some controversy as the song hinted at teenage sex. But the song actually told just the opposite. It is a song about two teenagers who have accidentally fallen asleep at the movies and woke up at 4:00 a.m.

1956 – TV’s Forgotten Bird Duo

Heckle and Jeckle *(Terrytoons via TVDB)*

Although Disney and Warner Bros. are best known for their enduring theatrical shorts, they were not the only studios who made them. Heckle and Jeckle, a pair of magpies, have been one of Terrytoons more popular cartoon series. Created by Paul Terry, the first cartoon to feature them was The Talking Magpies released on January 4, 1946.

Originally, the birds were a married couple, but that setup quickly changed making the birds brothers. The two are identical twins despite the fact that tough guy Heckle sounds like he’s from New York while Jeckle is gentler and has a British accent. (Which is kind of strange given that they are brothers.)

Altogether, Terrytoons created 52 cartoons featuring this duo from 1946 to 1966. Like many Warner Bros. cartoons, every Heckle and Jeckle cartoon was filled with bizarre and often violent antics.

In 1955, the Terrytoons studio was sold to CBS and on this day in 1956, The Heckle and Jeckle Cartoon Show debuted on the network. It featured a variety of Terrytoons besides just the birds including such characters as Mighty Mouse and Gandy Goose. The show aired on CBS for one year before moving to NBC in 1969 and stayed there until the fall of 1971.

On September 8, 1979, the black birds made a comeback on CBS for The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle which was produced by Filmation. Similar in concept, the show was only mildly successful with kids, but their parents were not thrilled with the monotonous violence.