
Originally Posted by
jack ass writer
Smokey Bear - Smokey Bear (never Smokey "the" Bear) first appeared in August 1944 in a poster drawn for the US Forest Service campaign by Albert Staehle. The original Smokey had large claws and a pointy snout. Later in 1946 Rudy Wendelin, a Kansas born illustrator made Smokey's image a bit friendlier by removing his claws, and rounding out his nose. The illustrated Smokey Bear became flesh and fur when the public fell in love with a fire-burned bear cub discovered in the aftermath of forest fire in Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico in 1950...