Winnie-the-Pooh

Exploring a Classic

Download the transcript (PDF)

Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic
Descriptive Audio Tour
Stop 01: Where It All Begins – The Real Bear named Winnie, from Canada
(691 words; approx 5 1/2 minutes)
NARRATOR: Thank you for visiting Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic, an
exhibition organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition is about a
children’s book, so let’s tour it as a story, shall we? A story of a bear and a boy.
We will begin in Canada where -
A.A. MILNE: (Breathing hard) Hallo, sorry we’re late!
NARRATOR: Why it’s Mr. A. A. Milne, author of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
And, is this?
ROBIN: Christopher Robin. Call me Christopher!
NARRATOR: Delightful! You can both join our tour. For our first stop, let’s go
back in time to meet a real bear in Canada named Winnie who became the
inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh. She travelled all the way to the London Zoo in
1914.
ROBIN: That’s before I was born!
MILNE: Six full years in fact. You weren’t born until 1920.
NARRATOR: Our story begins in a forest. It’s a beautiful summer day for an
adventure in the woods. Our train chugs along.
SOUND EFFECT: Train chugging.
NARRATOR: Full of young men, all signed up to fight in the First World War. In
the forest, we see beavers, a moose… all sorts of animals! The train stops in White
River, Ontario, and the men explore the town. One of these men - Harry
Colebourn, a veterinarian…
ROBIN: What’s a vet… vete… ‘vetananan’?
NARRATOR: A veterinarian? Why, it’s a doctor who takes care of animals. Mr.
Colebourn was from Winnipeg.
1
MILNE: Winnipeg … isn’t that a city in the middle of Canada?
NARRATOR: Yes , in the province of Manitoba, just west of Ontario. In White
River, people were selling all sorts of things to the men. Snacks, drinks, clothes, a
bear –
ROBIN: A bear?!
NARRATOR: Indeed! Colebourn bought an orphaned bear for twenty dollars –
that’ll be worth almost $450 today - and took her with him on the train. He
named her “Winnie” after his hometown, Winnipeg.
MILNE: Wait, the bear in these photos is black. But Winnie-the-Pooh is yellow!
ROBIN: And a boy bear!
NARRATOR: Hold on…I… You both know Winnie from the London Zoo.
[A pause…then laughter from Milne and Robin]
NARRATOR: [Sighing] Just get on the train.
SOUND EFFECT: Train whistle
NARRATOR: Winnie the black bear cub became a regimental mascot for Canadian
soldiers – a big thing in World War I. She was good for troop morale, though it all
got rather competitive as they adopted more and more exotic animals. There
were also birds, monkeys, donkeys –
MILNE: Even a lion cub.
NARRATOR: Really?
MILNE: I do read the papers, you know.
NARRATOR: She spent a few months with Harry. First in Valcartier, Quebec -- see
her in that group photo?
ROBIN: I do. Sitting in the soldier’s lap! She was so little.
MILNE: They all look quite serious.
ROBIN: The man holding Winnie seems to be smiling.
2
MILNE: It’s hard not to smile when you’re with such an adorable little bear. But
you know that, Christopher.
NARRATOR: Winnie went with Harry on a convoy of ships across the Atlantic as
the soldiers travelled for more training in England. She lived in a sea of white
tents. The soldiers loved Winnie, and she loved them.
MILNE: How can you know a bear’s feelings?
NARRATOR: You’re asking that question?
MILNE: Pooh is fiction, madame, but carry on.
NARRATOR: Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo at the end of 1914 before
going to the trenches in France. He donated her to the zoo at War’s end.
MILNE: Say, wasn’t there another black bear given to the zoo?
NARRATOR: Five in 1914 alone.
MILNE: My, you’ve done your homework.
NARRATOR: Winnie was a crowd favourite, delighting a generation of children.
Back then, you could go into the cage to feed her, if you knew the right people.
Why in those days, a quid could get you ---
MILNE: No need for details.
ROBIN: Hey, there’s me in that photograph giving condensed milk to Winnie.
Hallo, Winnie! Do you like your treat? That’s it then. The story of Winnie-the-
Pooh.
MILNE: Hardly, Christopher. That’s just the story of Winnie, the Canadian black
bear who inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh books.
NARRATOR: Now that we know about the real Winnie, the story of Winnie-the-
Pooh can begin. Next stop: our imagination!
3
Stop 02: Hallo! It’s Winnie-the-Pooh and Friends!
(339 words; approx 2 1/2 minutes)
NARRATOR: Why, Mr. Milne, I can just picture you sitting next to a roaring fire in
your country home at Cotchford Farm, 90 kilometres south of London. It’s
winter… you’re smoking your favourite pipe and wearing that bow tie you so
often wear in photographs.
MILNE: Ah yes… a cozy evening. Perhaps I’m drinking a spot of tea, reading The
Times. My head would be swimming in stocks, bonds and other grown-up things
when -
SOUND EFFECT: Bump, Bump, Bump
NARRATOR: Christopher Robin appears, just like he’s drawn on the wall over
there. A helmet of blond hair, sheepish smile, walking down the staircase.
ROBIN: I’m carrying my bear stuffie with me! Should I go to Daddy, ask him to tell
me a story?
NARRATOR: Sure, go ahead. Then he’ll put you on his lap, start a story and – all
your friends will appear. You can see them too, dear guest – by the word “Hallo!”
in letters almost as big as we are! There’s Winnie-the-Pooh himself, that bear
clutching the blue balloon as it floats to the ceiling!
ROBIN: Hallo, Winnie, hallo!
NARRATOR: Behind the “H” is Winnie’s friend Eeyore – the grey donkey with big
ears, drooping head. There is Kanga beside him, too, the dark brown kangaroo in
a white apron feeding her son Roo in that red high chair.
Then by the first ‘L’, there’s Tigger, the bouncy tiger standing on his hind legs.
MILNE: Don’t forget Owl perched atop the second “L”. The old bird about the size
of Pooh.
NARRATOR: And finally, inside the ‘O’, Piglet, that tiny pig in a striped onesie who
is dancing.
4
Milne and Robin: Go Piglet, Go! Go! Go Piglet, Go…Go…(fading in
embarrassment).
NARRATOR: Let’s move on to the next stop, shall we? Turn to the right and enter
Christopher Robin’s bedroom.
ROBIN: It’s a wee bit messy.
NARRATOR: Don’t worry, the museum folks cleaned it up for us…. go on then
kind guest, in you go. And look for the stuffies on top of the dresser!
Stop 03: Christopher Robin’s Bedroom and Toys
(389 words, approx 3 minutes)
NARRATOR: Christopher Robin had a collection of stuffed animals at Cotchford
Farm. There’s Winnie-the-Pooh in the case there, with Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, and
Tigger. The boy –
ROBIN: You put my friends behind glass?
NARRATOR: Well, these are actually reproductions from the movie, “Goodbye
Christopher Robin” –
ROBIN: Goodbye? Where did I go?
NARRATOR: Why, I guess you’ll find out when you’re older. The boy took his
stuffies everywhere! Look at the photo to the left – there you are, Christopher
Robin, with your Winnie-the-Pooh stuffie outside in the old walnut tree…Say,
where did the “Pooh” part of the name come from?
MILNE: That’s what Christopher called the swan he fed in the mornings.
ROBIN: Then I liked the way it sounded when I got the bear - Winnie-the-Pooh.
NARRATOR: It does sound nice. Christopher’s mother purchased the bear stuffie
in 1921 at Harrod’s -
MILNE: A wonderful department store. The best in London, and therefore
anywhere!
5
NARRATOR: And they played together until the bear--and the other stuffies that
came into his nursery soon after—began to take on a life of its own.
MILNE: Why, that’s a fine collection of family photographs to the right of your
bed, Christopher. There’s you and me at the top… Oh dear, is my forehead really
that large? And then there’s you and mum.
ROBIN: And there’s me playing with Winnie-the-Pooh!
NARRATOR: The animal stuffies went into the woods with Christopher for many
adventures. Milne drew inspiration from his son’s stories and playful adventures
–
MILNE: And from my own childhood adventures in the countryside with my
brothers.
NARRATOR: And then….cue the sound effects. Winnie-the-Pooh was born!
SOUND EFFECT: applause and shouting
[Pause]
ROBIN: That’s just a toy bear.
MILNE: Not much life in it, really.
NARRATOR: But your stories brought Winnie-the-Pooh to life, Mr Milne! Why,
you took the animals and the adventures from a boy’s imagination, and you made
them real with your words!
MILNE: (Embarrassed) Crikey. It’s hardly just me. It’s E.H. Shepard’s pictures that
made Winnie-the-Pooh pop. He and I worked so well together! Ernest! Ernest?
Where are you? Get out here. Say hi!
[Pause]
NARRATOR: I’m afraid the museum only has money to put the two of you on this
tour – tough times, you know. Haha.
MILNE: But it’s quite impossible to tell Winnie-the-Pooh’s story without Shepard.
NARRATOR: I’ll see what can be done. For now, on to the next room for Stop 4.
We’ll meet at Shepard’s drafting table.
6
Stop 04: Illustrating Pooh
(404 words; approx 3 minutes)
NARRATOR: A well-established artist, E. H. Shepard was a staff cartoonist at
“Punch” magazine in London in 1921. A satirical magazine that was a bit like a
highbrow version of Mad magazine in North America –
MILNE: Everyone knows “Punch”. It’s in all the parlours.
NARRATOR: Milne had been an associate editor at “Punch” and was still writing
for the magazine in 1923. Then, Shepard was asked to illustrate some children’s
poems by Milne to be published in installments in the magazine before appearing
in a book entitled “When We Were Very Young.”
MILNE: Say, my first teddy bear piece was among those poems!
NARRATOR: A best seller, right?
MILNE: How could it not be with gems like this: “A bear, however hard he
tries/Grows tubby without exercise.”
[Christopher Robin giggles]
NARRATOR: Milne then asked Shepard to illustrate the book he was writing on
Winnie-the-Pooh. Ah… here he comes … there’s Mr. Shepard now.
ROBIN: Where?
NARRATOR: [in a hokey, over-the-top voice] Good day, Alan! Wonderful to see
you, Christopher!
ROBIN: [whispering] What’s our Narrator doing, Daddy?
MILNE: [whispering] I think she’s trying to imitate Ernest’s voice.
ROBIN: [whispering] Please make her stop.
NARRATOR: [clears throat; then in her normal voice] Perhaps we’ll just talk about
Mr. Shepard then. Milne invited the illustrator to his London and country home
to sketch Christopher Robin, his stuffies, and scenes from Ashdown Forest. That’s
the patch of land near Milne’s country home that inspired the Hundred Acre
Wood.
7
ROBIN: Is that Poohsticks Bridge in that photo?
NARRATOR: The photo on the left is actually of Posingford Bridge in Ashdown
Forest just after it was built in 1907 – I wonder if all of those men on the wooden
walking bridge had a hand in making it? And to the right is Shepard’s illustration
of the bridge. It was where Pooh and his friends raced sticks down the river.
ROBIN: I was right!
NARRATOR: Now in that case there, it’s –
MILNE: Shepard’s son Graham had a teddy bear just like that! Is that Growler?
NARRATOR: No, but it’s the same kind of teddy bear.
ROBIN: There’s Graham in the photograph with his mum – hello Graham!
NARRATOR: Shepard used the tubby, short-limbed Growler as his model for teddy
bears in previous “Punch” illustrations. His Winnie-the-Pooh drawings look much
more like his own son’s bear Growler. Let’s all turn the corner to exit this section…
SOUND EFFECT: Door creaking
NARRATOR: …And enter the forest.
Stop 05: Into the Forest
(420 words; approx 3 minutes)
NARRATOR: I do love this quote on the wall, Mr Milne!
MILNE: It’s from the book Winnie-the-Pooh: “The Sun was still in bed, but there
was a lightness in the sky over the Hundred Acre Wood which seemed to show
that it was waking up and would soon be kicking off its clothes.”
NARRATOR: And just before us is the endpaper sketch map that E.H. Shepard
drew of the Hundred Acre Wood. We’ve reached the Mona Lisa moment of our
exhibition.
MILNE: Right-O! Here, beside the map, it’s my letter to Shepard explaining the
features that he should illustrate. Such a masterstroke of collaboration!
8
NARRATOR: That -- and the sketch map that Shepard drew after reading your
wonderful letter. He put Piglet there in front of his house, that tree in the bottom
left corner. Just above him is Pooh, sitting on a log and gazing at that stand of
pine trees where he laid a trap for the heffalumps. Eeyore, in his gloomy bog on
the bottom right corner. And there’s you, Christopher Robin! You have your own
house in the Hundred Acre Wood, just inside that tree with birds sitting on a
branch. It’s all there – the entire Pooh universe.
MILNE: It is a lot of trees for a map, no?
NARRATOR: Shepard loved drawing trees. Look at the sketches to the right. He
used different kinds of trees to set the tone for different places in the books.
There are the pine trees; there’s Owl’s house with the large branch that touched
the ground…
ROBIN: Look! Just behind us, there’s Owl’s house. See that, Daddy? The doorway
with a footstool and a big black boot.
MILNE: Why yes, there’s an illustration of you and Pooh above the boot, and right
beside it, a black and white sketch of Pooh visiting Owl in his tree.
ROBIN: I’m going to go visit Owl!
MILNE: But Christopher, I’m afraid we can’t all fit through that little door.
ROBIN: I can!
SOUND EFFECT: Child’s footsteps running away.
ROBIN: (Delighted gasp from afar) Look, Daddy! On the other side of this door,
the entrance to Pooh’s house!
NARRATOR: Perhaps we grown-ups should walk around and see for ourselves.
MILNE: Ah yes, there’s the doorbell, and the sign that says ‘Mr Sanders’.
ROBIN: I’m coming, Pooh!
SOUND EFFECT: Bell ringing. Child’s footsteps running away.
MILNE: [laughs] Well! I suppose he’ll visit with Pooh for a while.
9
NARRATOR: We’d best move along. Follow the sound of the bees to our next
stop.
Stop 06: The Stories
(494 words; approx 4 minutes)
NARRATOR: The Winnie-the-Pooh books are composed of short stories. Mini-
adventures that often solve a problem. The illustrations on this wall tell a story
with humming bees, a bee hive high in a tree, and Pooh fancying a little snack.
See the illustration there of Pooh climbing the tree, then –
MILNE: My dear lady, is that a slide over there to our right?
ROBIN: Weeeeeeeeee!
MILNE: A museum in my day would never –
NARRATOR: It does look like fun though.
MILNE: (disappointed) Only for children?
ROBIN: Woohoo!
NARRATOR: I’m afraid so. Back to the illustrations of Pooh and the bees. These
show when Pooh hears the bees buzzing and tries using a balloon to get their
honey. First we see Pooh climbing the tree, this next picture is of Pooh falling,
crashing from branch to branch. Then he decides to take a blue balloon from
Christopher Robin – you remember at the beginning of the exhibition, Pooh
holding a balloon, flying towards the ceiling? That was Pooh trying to get the
honey.
MILNE: But he doesn’t get the honey after all.
NARRATOR: Shh, don’t spoil the ending. That story was meant to emphasize
creativity. This next set of drawings is on teamwork. Here are Piglet and Pooh on a
blustery day. They visit Owl in his house and –
ROBIN: Daddy, look behind us. It’s Poohsticks Bridge. There’s a river, on the floor.
MILNE: How is that possible?
10
NARRATOR: Something new-fangled called a digital projector. You see, a beam
of high-intensity light travels through thousands of shifting pixels in a liquid
crystal display…
[A Pause]
MILNE: Science fiction. I guess I’ll just have to go see for myself.
NARRATOR: Before you go, Mr. Milne, do tell us -- what happens when Piglet and
Pooh visit Owl on that blustery day?
MILNE: Ah, one of my favourite tales! Owl’s house falls over in the wind. Owl and
Pooh hoist Piglet up. He climbs through the letter box and saves the day. Now
that’s a story about teamwork!
SOUND EFFECT: Footsteps receding.
NARRATOR: Now, we better catch up with Mr Milne and Christopher. Have you
played Poohsticks before? Each person tosses two sticks into the river on one side
of the bridge. They float under the bridge to the other side and…. and… you hope
your stick comes out first.
ROBIN: You won, Daddy!
MILNE: I do love this game.
NARRATOR: We use Poohsticks in this display to emphasize community. You can
see a few other similar themes in this section. The idea is that there are life
lessons behind each of the stories. Next comes the section “The Art of the
Narrative”. For this we need to leave the Hundred Acre Wood –
MILNE: Must we?
NARRATOR: People want to know the nuts and bolts of how the books came
together.
ROBIN: Just one more time on the slide?
NARRATOR: Quickly then. The rest of us will turn the corner, but stay close to the
outside wall this time.
11
Stop 07: The Art of the Narrative
(545 words; approx 4 minutes)
NARRATOR: The Winnie-the-Pooh books demonstrate a wonderful interplay
between image and text. Milne and Shepard worked closely together, sending
drafts back and forth – and forth and back! The final result? Milne’s words and
Shepard’s drawings made the stories jump from the page.
MILNE: Oh I so wish that Ernest was with us.
NARRATOR: Should I do my Shepard voice again?
ROBIN: Please don’t.
NARRATOR: In this drawing, Shepard shows Pooh sitting on a stone in the middle
of a stream. Mr. Milne, indulge us with your related text.
MILNE: “The sun was so delightfully warm, and the stone, which had been sitting
in it for a long time, was so warm, too that Pooh had almost decided to go on
being Pooh in the middle of the stream for the rest of the morning, when he
remembered Rabbit.”
NARRATOR: Now, look at Shepard’s drawing – a happy Pooh, basking in the sun,
content to do nothing. Image and word work together to conjure a scene…you
know, this is turning into a proper tour.
MILNE: Jolly good work.
ROBIN: Can I go back to Poohsticks bridge?
NARRATOR: Maybe later. Now in the next set of illustrations, we see Pooh
walking through the woods to Rabbit’s house –
MILNE: Just before he gets stuck in the door after eating too much honey and
condensed milk.
NARRATOR: As he walked, he was humming a tune. Just as it says in the picture:
Tra-la-la… Do either of you remember how the rest of the song goes?
ROBIN: Tra–la-la, tra-la-la, Tra–la-la, tra-la-la,
MILNE: [louder] Rum–tum-tiddle-um-tum.
12
ROBIN AND MILNE: [louder] Tiddle–iddle, tiddle-iddle, Tiddle– iddle, tiddle-iddle
ROBIN, MILNE, AND NARRATOR: [louder] Rum– tum-tum-tiddle-um
[PAUSE AS THEY CATCH THEIR BREATH]
NARRATOR: Sorry – but it ’s quite a catchy tune. Shepard sets the scene for a
humming Pooh by sketching in the landscape first. Then he adds the bear. In this
image, you see the pencil marks of the underbush behind Pooh.
MILNE: Like the backdrop for a play.
NARRATOR: Precisely. Now how about one last example? Over on that small wall
in the corner that says “Character”.
ROBIN: Can I go colour at the kid’s table?
MILNE: Only if you don’t want to learn more about your father’s work.
SOUND EFFECT: Child’s footsteps receding.
NARRATOR: Here we have two versions of the same scene. Mr. Milne, I do so love
when you read to us! How did you write this scene?
MILNE: “Christopher Robin came down from the Forest to the bridge, feeling all
sunny and careless, and just as if twice nineteen didn't matter a bit, as it didn't on
such a happy afternoon”.
NARRATOR: What’s “twice nineteen”?
MILNE: Oh, that would be 38.
NARRATOR: But what does that have to do with walking through the forest?
MILNE: Nothing. That’s the point.
NARRATOR: The first of Shepard’s drawings shows Christopher standing with his
face to the sun. The second has him walking as he eats an apple, kicking the
leaves as he goes by. They went with the second version.
MILNE: You can just sense carefree motion in that drawing.
NARRATOR: [In her Shepard voice] Why thank you, old chum!
MILNE: Don’t.
13
NARRATOR: Well, on we go to our next stop. Head to the wall that says “Page
Design.”
Stop 08: Page Design
(179 words; approx 1 1/2 minutes)
NARRATOR: The drawing on the right is one of the most famous from Winnie-the-
Pooh.
MILNE: Why, that’s when Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit’s doorway! See here, how his
head and arms are sticking out from the base of a tree?
NARRATOR: (laughs) Yes, and here, Christopher Robin, Rabbit, and all of Rabbit’s
friends form a chain and pull and pull on Pooh, like in a tug-of-war. You see how
Shepard drew Christopher Robin and the rabbits into the sketch -- but then added
an arrow suggesting where more friends could be added. A black and white
sketch, but there’s so much life in it!
MILNE: In the book, this became a two-page spread that also featured mice, a
butterfly, a dragonfly, and a hedgehog that no other animal wanted to touch.
Christopher, you liked that story very much. Right, Christopher? Christopher? Oh
dear. Wherever did he go?
SOUND EFFECT: Adult footsteps running away.
NARRATOR: Mr Milne? Oh, well. I see Christopher Robin’s still colouring away at
that activity table. Let’s keep on moving to the “Presenting Pooh” section – see
the open book just ahead? Let’s head over there.
14
Stop 09: Presenting Pooh
(444 words; approx 3 1/2 minutes)
NARRATOR: This is a page from a first edition of the House at Pooh Corner. The
text is printed from blocks of individual letters set into a frame. The images were
made using the…um….oh, fiddlesticks! I am going to have to read this –
SOUND EFFECT: Rustling papers
NARRATOR: Shepard used the line block technique. It’s complicated. One first
inks the drawing, takes a photograph of the drawing, exposes the negative on a
gelatin-coated zinc plate, uses light, water, and acid to eat away at the exposed
areas, and then – voila – a plate that leaves the illustrator’s original lines intact.
MILNE: In a word: magic.
NARRATOR: Not magic, it’s science. Line blocks like this one were then added to
the frame with the text – so that image and text could be printed at the same
time.
ROBIN: Is that the Winnie-the-Pooh book, daddy?
MILNE: I dare say so. Why, I remember how we first introduced Pooh to the
public on Christmas Eve, 1925, a story in the London Evening News called “The
Wrong Sort of Bees”. That built quite a bit of “buzz” (laughing at own joke) before
the Winnie-the-Pooh book’s, 1926 publication. It must have been (ahem)
modestly successful.
NARRATOR: Well, history shows that you sold something like 48… 50…
MILNE: (horrified) Surely more!
NARRATOR: … 50 million copies! (laughs)
MILNE: (relieved) Whew!
ROBIN: Look, Daddy, more of your books!
MILNE: Just a minute, please.
NARRATOR: When you’re ready, Mr. Milne. The books are in the glass cases to
our right.
15
ROBIN: There are so many different kinds. Here’s one with a sketch by Mr.
Shepard!
MILNE: Anyone for a cup of tea?
ROBIN: Wow, they even made Pooh paperbacks.
MILNE: (embarrassed) Oh bother.
NARRATOR: Almost forty years after publication, the stories went into paperback
editions. Before that – please turn back to the House at Pooh Corner, Mr. Milne.
See the big group of colour prints to the right of the case? – that’s when they
added colour to the images. Those are from 1957. It’s from the World of Pooh
that combined both Pooh books. Shepard himself did the colouring.
MILNE: Did I really approve that yellow for the bear?
NARRATOR: Well, you must have. Those are the second editions of the books
with colour title pages.
MILNE: Is it not a touch too orange? Oh dear…
NARRATOR: We have the final section coming up. Is everyone ready?
MILNE: My, there’s more? What else can you do with books?
NARRATOR: Let’s find out, shall we? Right this way, into the area beneath those
umbrellas. There are two cases, but they’re big ones.
Stop 10: A Very Popular Bear
(567 words; approx 4 1/2 minutes)
NARRATOR: The Winnie-the-Pooh books made the bear and his friends world-
famous celebrities. Milne and Shepard’s creation…
ROBIN: And mine, Christopher Robin’s!
NARRATOR: …inspired a wide range of advertisements.
MILNE: That ad in the top right corner – showing Pooh as a yellow bear climbing a
black-and-white tree for honey…
16
NARRATOR: Yes?
MILNE: At the bottom, it says “Follow me to the best jobs…” Why would you
follow Pooh to find a job?
NARRATOR: It’s ironic, I guess.
MILNE: Well, that might explain Pooh’s workout book, as well. They put the
fellow in grey jogging pants and running shoes. “Tone up your muscles and stride
through the Forest like a Bear of Great Strength”?! Winnie-the-Pooh does not
stride. He meanders, lingers….
NARRATOR: Look, the books were especially embraced in Russia where Pooh
became Vinni-Pukh. He even had his own radio show and cartoon –
MILNE: What’s that stuffed animal?
NARRATOR: That’s Vinni-Pukh, the Russian version of Pooh.
[A pause]
ROBIN: Are you OK, daddy?
MILNE: It looks like a platypus with a toupee. Harrumph!
NARRATOR: [aside] Wait until you see how they did the other animals. [normal
voice] The books have been translated into more than 50 languages, most using
Shepard’s illustrations. We’ll just skip to the next case. Right across from the
Pooh-inspired music and the sequels by other writers –
MILNE: Pardon me, did you say other writers? But –
NARRATOR: Here we are – Mr. Walt Disney’s work.
MILNE: Who?
NARRATOR: An American. You met in 1937.
MILNE: Oh yes, charming chap. In moving pictures, I believe.
NARRATOR: Yes! He owned a studio near Los Angeles.
ROBIN: Say, is that picture of Pooh in Rabbit’s house from a movie?
17
NARRATOR: Yes, it’s art for the 1968 film – “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery
Day.” Mr Milne, your family sold their rights to the Disney Corporation who made
the film and….other stuff. That’s their stuffie of Winnie-the-Pooh over there, and
they licensed that Lego Duplo set of Pooh’s house.
ROBIN: That’s not Pooh’s house!
NARRATOR: But, look, the Lego Duplo set has the same parts. There’s the yellow
door with the ‘Mr Sanders’ sign on top. The bell painted on the brown tree trunk.
It even has Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and a pair of purple hunny jars.
ROBIN: (giggles) The hunny jars are almost as tall as Eeyore!
MILNE: That blue slide is new, though …Oh, what fun Pooh and his friends could
have with a slide! I’m so glad they added it in, aren’t you, Christopher?
ROBIN: Daddy, these things on the left look more familiar.
NARRATOR: In 1930, the American businessman Stephen Slesinger pioneered
commercial licensing by getting the rights to make Pooh products in the USA and
Canada. These paper dolls of the characters from the books were a hit. Look up at
the top left corner – Parker Brothers came out with a board game.
ROBIN: Can we play, daddy?
MILNE: Why not? There’s four tokens on that ledge and I think we race down
those paths. One token for me, then you take one, Christopher.
NARRATOR: I’m in, too. What about you, museum visitor? There’s just one token
left… The tour is over -- but don’t leave quite yet. Relax, stay with us awhile in the
world of Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood. The sun is shining, and
the bees are busy making their hunny. I daresay Pooh will join us soon enough.
I’m sure he’d love to meet you.