For today’s Vintage Brand History series, we’re discussing the origins of a childhood favorite, The Berenstain Bears! (That's BerenstAIN, not stein, lol). I remember owning and reading several of the thin, square, paperback books when I was little (Messy Room & The New Baby were my favorites) over and over and have fond memories of the characters. In my research for this post, I learned quite a few interesting things about the Berenstains and the family of bears that they created!
Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant were both born in 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and met while attending the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts in 1941. Stan was drafted into the army during World War II and served from 1943-1946. He was blind in one eye and therefore had limited service and spent most of his time in the army as a medical illustrator at an army hospital. In 1943 Jan worked as an aircraft riveter at Brill’s trolley car factory, which had a Navy contract to assemble center wing sections for PBY flying boats. When she and Stan married in 1946, they wore wedding rings she herself had fashioned out of airplane aluminum. (How cool is that?)
After they were married they worked together as cartoonists, and their cartoons were published in The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers Magazine, McCall’s and Good Housekeeping, among others. Their son Leo was born in 1948 and their son Michael in 1951.
The entire family in the studio in 1952.
Stan and Jan’s agent Sterling Lord sold the very first BB book, The Big Honey Hunt to Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss!) at Random House in 1961, and Ted served as both editor and publisher.
Ted Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss.
The Big Honey Hunt was about a family of bears known as Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Small Bear (who would later become Brother Bear).
The first drawing of a Berenstain bear.
After the success of the Big Honey Hunt, the Berenstains went on to publish 17 more books with Dr. Seuss as their editor, and the series about the Bear Family became known as the “Berenstain Bears”.
The second book, published under the "Beginner Books" line and with abbreviated names of the creators from Stanley and Janice to Stan & Jan.
Mama Bear
Papa Bear
Small Bear/Brother Bear
In the years since the Big Honey Hunt, over 200 books have been written about the Berenstain Bear family, translated into 20 languages, and with over 350 million books sold to date. Sister Bear came along in 1974, and the youngest girl, Honey Bear, was born in 2000.
Sister Bear
Honey Bear
All 3 Bear kids.
A few of my favorite books and the ones that I remember owning or reading the most were (The Berenstain Bears and) Too Much TV, Get in a Fight, Forget Their Manners, Messy Room, In the Dark, Go to the Doctor, New Baby, Week at Grandma’s, Trouble with Friends, and Go to Camp.
And a book I definitely didn’t have in my childhood in the 80’s, haha:
I love that this one features internet safety rules too!
In my reading I found an interesting Q&A with the Berenstains where they were asked why Brother and Sister Bear don’t have names (like Cousin Freddy) – if you’d like to know the answer, click here!
Brother and Sister Bear
Cousin Freddy
Stan & Jan continued working as magazine cartoonists until the late 80s, and were eventually joined by their son Mike, who started illustrating and co-writing the Berenstain Bear books in 1992. The books and characters grew in popularity over the years and several television specials aired every year from 1979-1983. CBS aired two seasons of a Saturday morning cartoon from 1985-1986, and in 2002 PBS created a season of daily Berenstain Bear cartoons. The first CBS cartoon episode was ‘Messy Room’, which aired on September 14, 1985:
Full episodes of the cartoons can be found on the Berenstain Bears official YouTube channel here!
Over the years, the Bear family has also been turned into figurines, plush toys, puzzles, games, clothes, cookbooks, and more.
Plush toys are available on Amazon, and the Berenstain Bear wooden peg dolls are from HoneybunHandmade on Etsy.
McDonald’s collaborated with the Berenstains in 1986 and released figurines with flocked plastic (or "furry") faces and plastic bodies and accessories for their Happy Meals of all four family members. When I was little I had a dollhouse and then later created a dollhouse inside the built-in shelving in my bedroom (it should come as no surprise that I love dollhouses and all things miniature, right?!). I used to be very creeped out by the realistic little human dolls that customarily would go in a dollhouse, so instead of using those I used the McDonald's Berenstain Bear figurines as my dollhouse family.
From 1985-1998 the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio had a 5 acre Berenstain Bear Country attraction, featuring a fully immersive experience for children with workers dressed up as the characters who would walk around the area and pose for photos with the guests. Bear Country had 2 trees - one was the family house where you could walk inside into the different rooms, and the other one was a spooky old tree that eventually had a slide installed inside.
And the 1980's commercial for the attraction:
Speaking of the Bear family treehouse, I found several images that shows how it has changed over the years:
I love the fact that it has a basement and an attic!
The Berenstain’s autobiography, Down a Sunny Dirt Road, was released in 2002.
A quote from Down a Sunny Dirt Road about the Berenstain Bears story origins:
“We knew from our first noodlings that our book would be about bears – a family of bears. We knew that they would live in a tree. We don’t know how we knew, but we knew. We knew we’d have three characters: a bluff, overenthusiastic Papa Bear who wore bib overalls and a plaid shirt and was a little like Stan, a wise Mama Bear who wore a blue dress with white polka dots and a similar polka-dotted dust-cap who was very like Jan, and a bright, lively little cub who was a lot like Leo. Michael, not yet one, didn’t make the cut.”
After moving publishers in 2004, the Berenstains decided to create a sub-line of books in 2008 that had spiritual themes called the Living Lights series.
Stan passed away in November of 2005 at the age of 82, and Jan died in February of 2012 at the age of 88. Their son Mike continues his and his parents’ legacy, still writing and illustrating Berenstain Bear books. 2022 marked the 60th anniversary of The Berenstain Bears, and you can read additional info about that here.
Stan & Jan Berenstain as Papa & Mama Bear in People Magazine in 1979.
Most of the information for this post was taken directly from the official BB blog, and if you want to learn more, definitely check it out – it goes into more detail about the history and features a Q&A with the creators, recipes, crafts, and themed reading lists!
Thank you so much for joining me in my nostalgic trip and for reading along about the history of this beloved bear family. Be sure to visit the shop here for the 80s Happy Meal figurines that are currently for sale!
A few pics from the Berenstain family album:
Until next time, take care!
Love,
Haley
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