“Smokey Says-Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires”...thus the advertising campaign created in 1944 for the United States Forest Service to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires.  Smokey Bear was the mascot that they chose.  Although many of us tend to call him “Smokey the Bear”, that would be incorrect.  In 1952, two songwriters had the successful hit, Smokey the Bear, and admitted that “the” was added to Smokey’s name to keep the song’s rhythm.  During the 1950s, that variant of the name became widespread both in print and speech.  Remember the Little Golden Books series?...they had a Smokey the Bear story as well.  The fictional character Smokey Bear was created by the art critic Harold Rosenberg for the United States Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters, and the Ad Council.  But it was a Forest Service worker named Rudy Wendelin who became the full-time campaign artist; he was considered Smokey Bear’s “caretaker” until his retirement in 1973...

Read the complete aritcle in the Bevil Newsletter!