Did you take your shot at yesterday’s “Winnie Trivia”? How well do you know Winnie the Pooh?
If not, here’s your chance to jump back and tackle our three-question “quiz”! After the photos, we’re going to spill Pooh’s pot of honey!
OK. Question #1 … leaning heavily on Wikipedia for help, we learn that “Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional … bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926).”
However, Milne also penned a poem about the bear and published it in a children’s verse book called When We Were Very Young. That book appeared in 1924. So, 1924 is the true right answer, but 1926 is almost as good!
In what year did Disney purchase the rights to produce articles of merchandise based on the Pooh characters?
Well, on January 6, 1930, Stephen Slesinger – an American radio, television and film producer, creator of comic strip characters, and the father of the licensing industry – purchased the U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording, and other trade rights to Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” works.
Fun facts? He “paid” an $1000 advance and 66% of his income. Less than a year later, by November of 1931, Pooh was already a $50 million-a-year business! Yikes! But, back to Disney. In 1961, Disney acquired rights from Slesinger to produce articles of merchandise.
Disney’s first full-length feature film was released in 1977. That movie – The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – was actually a trilogy made up of three short featurettes named Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore was a short film released in 1983. It was not a part of Pooh’s 1977 adventures!
Thanks for participating, folks! Tomorrow, we’ll be back with more! Oh, and, once again, thanks for the facts, Wikipedia!
