The True Winnie-the-Pooh
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2021
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
August 24, 1914. A train pulls up to the lumber town of White River, Ontario, carrying a regiment of Canadian troops on board. On the tracks where they disembark is a small black bear cub. An army veterinarian decides to buy the bear and name her Winnipeg—Winnie for short—after the town where he's been living. When the soldiers are deployed to the European front, Winnie is left at the London Zoo, where a child named Christopher Robin Milne will meet her. He'll later rename his own teddy bear after her: Winnie-the-Pooh. How did a real-life boy and a real-life bear inspire some of the world's most famous literary characters? And what impact did these stories ultimately have on the people who helped bring them to life?
Special thanks to Ann Thwaite, whose most recent book about Milne and Winnie-the-Pooh is titled Goodbye Christopher Robin: A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The History Channel, original podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | Hey there, Sally here. |
| 0:06.0 | Before we get started, we have a little something special for you. |
| 0:09.0 | August is going to be Arts and Culture Month here at History this week. |
| 0:13.0 | That means every week in August we are exploring important moments in literature, poetry, painting, and Winnie the Pooh. |
| 0:22.0 | We'll talk about the joke at the center of Robert Frost's Legacy, |
| 0:26.0 | a band of pop music pirates, the Mona Lisa's Heist, and yes, the birth of Winnie the Pooh. |
| 0:33.0 | So check out Arts and Culture Month on History this week every Monday and August. |
| 0:37.0 | Now, onto the show. |
| 0:41.0 | History this week. |
| 0:43.0 | August 24, 1914. |
| 0:47.0 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 0:49.0 | Last night, a train left the prairie town of Winnipeg and traveled all the way to the shores of Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada. |
| 1:02.0 | The soldiers had to sleep on board. |
| 1:05.0 | Some of them were probably nervous, maybe already missing home. |
| 1:09.0 | They're on their way to a military training camp half a continent away in Quebec. |
| 1:14.0 | From there, many of them will deploy to Europe to fight in World War I. |
| 1:19.0 | So, when the train stops today in the lumber town of White River, many of the soldiers take the chance to get outside for a moment. |
| 1:27.0 | Stretch their legs, breathe the Ontario air. |
| 1:31.0 | And when they disembark, they see something strange. |
| 1:35.0 | A small, black, bear cub. |
| 1:39.0 | A lot of the soldiers probably took notice. |
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