Smokey Bear Top 5

Beaver's Bend State Park in southeastern Oklahoma is in the middle of a heavily forested area that has been a big part of the lumber industry for years.  That industry, and its history, is celebrated at the park's museum.  Several displays include large murals painted by artist Harry Rossoll.  If you don't recognize the name, you'll definitely recognize his most famous creation:

Since good ol' Smokey fits right in with the Forest Heritage themes of the museum, they have a display of Smokey memorabilia.  So, as I sometimes do, I decided to rank them in a Top Five List.  Let's get started with...

5.  The True Story of Smokey Bear Comic

I've covered this comic before on the blog but I think it's worth mentioning again.  Several product mascots have appeared in comic format before (although not nearly enough) but this one chronicles real life events that led to the Smokey Phenomena.  It's a great piece of an American legacy.

4.  Smokey & His Friends One Act Play Kit

I've never been a huge theater guy but I'd love to see a production of this.  I'm guessing it would be kids in cardboard cutout masks portraying various woodland creatures with an overall message of "Don't light stuff on fire" and that's really all it would need to be. 

3.  Little Golden Book

Slight breach of etiquette here with the inclusion of "the" in Smokey's name but the Little Golden Book franchise is legendary and being included is quite the feather in his famous hat.  I've never seen the Pillsbury Doughboy or the Green Giant in one of these things (even though I'd love to) so Smokey is breathing rarefied air.

2.  Sheet Music

Smokey is not the only ad icon to have his own theme song but he may be the only one with a song that has four verses.  Gather round the piano with the rest of the choir and belt out the Ballad of Smokey...what could be better?

1.  Special Edition Doll

Look at this thing!  I wish there was something in the shot for perspective to show how big it is.  It's pretty good size, maybe slightly smaller than a Chucky doll (for lack of a better comparison).  I don't have any real info on it other than it's a "Special Edition," but it's clearly the star of the display.

Smokey's had a long and distinguished career and his influence has spread to a variety of mediums.  These few examples are hopefully just the beginning of of an even longer influence for years to come.

Burn Notice

Previously:

Fish Story  - -  Flash Fried  - -  About a Boy

You know not to play with matches, right?  If you do, it's probably, in part, because of Smokey the Bear.  The friendly, fuzzy fire prevention advocate has been watching over the American forests for decades.  But how did it all start for our hairy hero?  Like many great characters, his origin has been told in comic book format:

The setting was Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico in 1950.  For a story like this it's best to have an omniscient narrator...possibly an animal...and the comic delivers in the form of our storytelling hawk (or possibly some other kind of bird):

The comic goes into detail about the efforts of firefighters and soldiers who fought the great blaze of the Capitan Gap Fire which destroyed 17,000 acres of forest.  Once the inferno was under control a lone survivor was found:

Yep, the once and future Smokey survived the fire and was rescued by the friendly fire fighters but he was still burned and need medical help.  And once he was brought to the ranger station he began the healing process.

He was originally named "Hotfoot Teddy" but the U.S. Forest service already had a "Smokey the Bear" awareness campaign and, even back then, synergy was synergy and his name was quickly changed.  Stardom followed soon after...

And the rest...well, you know.  Smokey has appeared in pretty much any medium you can think of and is still going strong today.  As far as mascots go, he's changed very little and his message has remained consistent...