Polar Bears

[ZuZu]

Strange stuff...

 

[ZuZu]

The East Germans kept the tradition alive:

And the Americans:

 

[ZuZu]

Sorta sad in real life though...

 

[Flightengineer]

Somewhere I once read the reason for this fashion for taking photos with a costumed polar bear in Germany, something with the Berlin Zoo or with advertising soft drinks. People are generally so arranged that they like to repeat after others.

 

[Micawber]

Not as strange as cheese rolling.

 

[Blackboxr1200S]

Somewhere I once read the reason for this fashion for taking photos with a costumed polar bear in Germany, something with the Berlin Zoo or with advertising soft drinks. People are generally so arranged that they like to repeat after others.

Had no idea...

As it turns out, taking pictures with a grown man dressed as a polar bear was, in fact, a genuine craze beginning in the 1920s after the Berlin Zoo acquired two actual polar bears.

“Many families went to the zoo to see the bears — they were in fashion — and all of the children wanted photographs in front of the zoo with these guys in bear suits. It was a huge success in Berlin,” said Donat.

The polar bear costume itself, which remained largely unchanged throughout its questionable period of employment, remained present amid Germany’s sinister advance towards the Second World War.


And while this peculiar trend somehow lasted until the 1970s, photographic evidence of the bizarre fascination thankfully remains to this day.

source --> https://www.militarytimes.com/off-d...bsession-with-posing-with-polar-bear-mascots/

 

[jack31916]

Something for Five Star to replicate...

 

[Silver Surfer]

just can't bear it

 

[John Lever]

More about Polar Bears (and then some) in 'The Terror ', where an Arctic exploration vessel is trapped in sea ice in the 1800's.
Great film

 

[Silver Surfer]

good film, yes, but misses the whole point of the book, and screws around with actual events.