 Cover of the first edition of the book | |
| Author | Frank Tashlin |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Frank Tashlin |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature, satire |
Publication date | 1946 |
| Publication place | United States |
The Bear That Wasn't is a 1946 children's picture book written and illustrated by filmmaker and Looney Tunes alumnus Frank Tashlin.
A bear settles down for his hibernation and while he sleeps, the progress of man continues. He wakes up to find himself in the middle of an industrial complex, where he gets mistaken by the foreman for a worker and thus is ordered to get to work. When the bear responds that he doesn't work there, and that he's is a bear and not a human, the foreman denounces him as merely being a "silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat", and takes the bear to each of his successive bosses (general manager and a trio of vice-presidents, all of whom tell him their own version of the same claim), reaching all the way up to the elderly president of the factory, who concludes he cannot be a bear because "bears are only in a zoo or a circus; they're never inside a factory." To prove that he's not a bear, the bosses take him to a zoo, where the zoo bears themselves also think he's not a bear on account that he would be in the cage with them otherwise. With his hopes seemingly dashed, the bear concludes that he is indeed a "silly man" and promptly buckles down to work hard at the factory – much to the satisfaction of the foreman and the other bosses, all of whom shake hands happily as the bear works.
Months later, the factory closes for the winter and the bear finds himself turned out of doors in the cold snow, wishing that he were a bear. For a while, he just sits there, unsure of what to do, due being torn between what he has been told so far. Finally, he discards the trappings of his human existence, seeks out a cave to hibernate, which he enters feeling comfortable and bear-like once more, because he has realized that even though the foreman, the bosses and even the zoo bears had told him he was a "silly man", that did not necessarily mean it was really true (in fact, the narrator even asks the readers in the book version if they think he actually believed it). The narrator concludes that he "wasn't a silly man, or a silly bear, either".
At National Public Radio , Daniel Pinkwater opined that, although appearing as a children's book, the story is a critical satire towards aspects of society. [1] It revolves around the concept of people believing a repeated idea even though it may not be true. People have a tendency to shift their views if a concept is hammered into them over and over again, like the bear being told he is a "silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat". The bear eventually succumbs to this mistaken assumption, believing he is a man even though he had previously known otherwise, just as humans shift their views on a topic because of repetitive information, or because "they all say it is true, therefore it must be". Yet, in the end, the bear, who is cold in winter, reverts to what he really is – a bear – and finds shelter in a cave. This idea covers the concept of people never changing due to outside influence. Though people may change for someone else, when placed in a difficult position, they revert to old habits – just like the bear hibernating. Whether something is fact or fiction, it is what it is and does not change – no matter how many people believe otherwise, hence that "he wasn't a silly man. And he wasn't a silly bear, either."
The book also presents a visual satire of corporate culture. Each time the bear appears before a higher-ranking man in the corporation, the offices get progressively more elaborate, for example, progressively more phones, more waste-baskets, more secretaries, all according to rank (the secretaries in particular melodically tell the bear and bosses to "come in" in the animated version). There are also progressively more chins and less hair on each higher-ranking person as the bear ascends all the way to the president's office. [2]
An audio version was issued by MGM Records in 1947, narrated by Keenan Wynn. [3]
In 1967, Tashlin's former Warner Bros. Cartoons colleague Chuck Jones directed an animated short film based on the book for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Tashlin's book inspired Swiss writer Jörg Steiner to create his children's book Der Bär, der ein Bär bleiben wollte (1976; German: "The Bear Who Wanted to Stay a Bear"), which was translated into English and published by Atheneum Books the next year as The Bear Who Wanted to Be a Bear, whose cover states "From an idea by Frank Tashlin".
A Belgian singer has also adopted the moniker "The Bear That Wasn't" for recording and released an album entitled And So It Is Morning Dew in 2010. The German book Der Bär, der ein Bär bleiben wollte on the other hand inspired German singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey to write a song of that name, appearing on his 1978 album Unterwegs.
The American black bear, also known as the black bear, is a species of medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. It is an omnivore, with a diet varying greatly depending on season and location. It typically lives in largely forested areas but will leave forests in search of food and is sometimes attracted to human communities due to the immediate availability of food.
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is a 1957 American satirical comedy film starring Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall, with Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, Lili Gentle, and Mickey Hargitay, and with a cameo by Groucho Marx. The film is a satire on popular fan culture, Hollywood hype, and the advertising industry, which was profiting from commercials on the relatively new medium of television. It also takes aim at the reduction television caused to the size of movie theater audiences in the 1950s. The film was known as Oh! For a Man! in the United Kingdom.
The Jungle is a novel by American muckraker author Upton Sinclair, known for his efforts to expose corruption in government and business in the early 20th century. In 1904 Sinclair spent seven weeks gathering information while working incognito in the meatpacking plants of the Chicago stockyards for the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, which published the novel in serial form in 1905. The novel was later published in book format by Doubleday in 1906.
Frank Tashlin, also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator and filmmaker. He was best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated shorts for Warner Bros., as well as his work as a director of live-action comedy films.
The Asian black bear, also known as the Indian black bear, Asiatic black bear, moon bear and white-chested bear, is a medium-sized bear species native to Asia that is largely adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. It lives in the Himalayas, southeastern Iran, the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, Mainland Southeast Asia, the Korean Peninsula, China, the Russian Far East, the islands of Honshū and Shikoku in Japan, and Taiwan. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and is threatened by deforestation and poaching for its body parts, which are used in traditional medicine.
Willy Wonka is a fictional character appearing in British author Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, its 1972 sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and several films based on those books. He is the eccentric founder and proprietor of the Wonka Chocolate Factory.
Eric Carle was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. Carle's career as an illustrator and children's book author accelerated after he collaborated on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Carle illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.
The Baskervilles is a British-French-Canadian animated children's television series about a British family living in the most twisted theme park in the world. The show was originally created by series co-director Nick Martinelli and series co-writer Alastair Swinnerton, and was a co-production with CINAR, Alphanim and France 2, and produced in association with Carlton Television and Blue Nose Productions, with the participation of Teletoon. 26 episodes were produced.
The Bear is a 1988 French adventure family film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and released by TriStar Pictures. Adapted from the novel The Grizzly King (1916) by American author James Oliver Curwood, the screenplay was written by Gérard Brach. Set in British Columbia, Canada, the film tells the story of an orphaned grizzly bear cub who befriends a large adult male Kodiak bear as two trophy hunters pursue them through the wild.
Richard Steiff was a German designer, known for creating one of the first teddy bears. In 1897, he joined Steiff, a stuffed toy company founded in his hometown Giengen by his aunt Margarete Steiff, and became integral to its growth as a global toy company.
"Man Gave Names to All the Animals" is a song written by Bob Dylan that appeared on his 1979 album Slow Train Coming and was also released as a single in some European countries, becoming a chart hit in France and Belgium. It was also released as a promo single in the US. However, some have labelled it the worst song Dylan ever wrote. A 2013 reader's poll conducted by Rolling Stone magazine, ranked "Man Gave Names to All the Animals" as being the fourth worst Bob Dylan song, behind "Gotta Serve Somebody" in second place.
Knut was an orphaned polar bear born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was raised by zookeepers. He was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in more than 30 years. At one time the subject of international controversy, he became a tourist attraction and commercial success. After the German tabloid newspaper Bild ran a quote from an animal rights activist that decried keeping the cub in captivity, fans worldwide rallied in support of his being hand-raised by humans. Children protested outside the zoo, and e-mails and letters expressing sympathy for the cub's life were sent from around the world.
Larry Carney is a US children’s book author and song lyricist. Most frequently writing in verse, he has created several book series which have been published by PC Treasures, Inc. Among these are the Night Before Christmas… books, which feature the Christmas Eve adventures of traditional fairy tale characters, The Silly Series, the Look! Book series, which focuses on imaginative play, and several bible story adaptations and Christian-themed children's books such as the Tiny Angels and My Own Prayers titles. As an audio book producer/director, Carney has worked with such performers as UK actor Nigel Lambert and US theater veteran David DuChene.
Caprice Italian Style is a 1968 Italian comedy film directed by six different directors, including Mario Monicelli and Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film starred both Totò and the comic duo Franco and Ciccio.
Polar Bear Café is a Japanese manga series by Aloha Higa. It revolves around the everyday lives of a group of animals mingling with humans at a café run by a polar bear. An anime adaptation by Studio Pierrot aired in Japan between April 2012 and March 2013, and was simulcast globally on Crunchyroll.
"Blowing the Whistle" is the fifteenth episode of the eighth season of House and the 170th overall. It aired on April 2, 2012, on FOX.
"Employment" is a science fiction story by American writer L. Sprague de Camp, pioneering the concept of de-extinction. It was first published in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction for May, 1939. The story appeared under the pseudonym Lyman R. Lyon as the magazine's policy did not allow the name of any author to be repeated on the same contents page, and de Camp had another piece in the same issue under his actual name. It first appeared in book form in the anthology Imagination Unlimited. It later appeared in the anthologies Men of Space and Time, and Science Fiction Inventions, as well as the de Camp collection The Best of L. Sprague de Camp. It was credited to de Camp's real name in all publications subsequent to its first appearance. The story has been translated into German.
The Good Humor Man is a 1950 American slapstick noir action comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Frank Tashlin. The film revolves around a Good Humor ice cream salesman who becomes involved in a murder. The film stars Jack Carson, Lola Albright, Jean Wallace, George Reeves, Peter Miles and Frank Ferguson. The film was released on June 1, 1950, by Columbia Pictures.
The Bear That Wasn't is a 1967 American animated short film directed by Chuck Jones and based on the children's book The Bear That Wasn't by Frank Tashlin. It is the final cartoon produced and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer via its MGM Animation/Visual Arts division.