100 Years of 'Winnie The Pooh': 10 Real Life Facts About This Beloved Bear
Pooh Bear turns 100.
2026 is a double anniversary for the classic character Winnie the Pooh, marking 100 years since the release of A.A Milne's first Pooh book, Winnie-the-Pooh, in 1926, and 60 years since the first appearence of Disney's Winnie the Pooh, in the 1966 featurette Winnie The Pooh and The Honey Tree.
In celebration of these anniversaries, let's look at a few fun facts about the bear with very little brain.
1. Winnie the Pooh's name was partially inspired by a real-life American Black Bear
Most people are aware that A.A Milne's tories were inspired by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, and his teddy bear. A slightly lesser known story is that of the real life Black Bear that inspired this teddy's name.
In August, 1914, at a train stop midway through his journey to Quebec to report for duty as part of the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps in WWI, Lt. Harry Colebourn purchased an orphaned American Black Bear cub from a Hunter/Furrier. He named the cub Winnipeg, Winnie for short, after his hometown. Winnie travelled with Colebourn all the way to England, ecoming a beloved pet and mascot to the CAVC. Before leaving to the battlefront in France, Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo.
Colebourn innitially intended to relocate Winnie to a Zoo in Winnipeg once the war was over, but seeing how Winnie, famously social, thrived under the attention of visiting children, allowed her to remain in London. Sometime after this, A.A Milne began regularly visiting the zoo with his son. Winnie became a favourite with Christopher Robin, who was inspired to rename his teddy bear, Edward, Winnie. 'The Pooh' came later, added in tribute to a friend's pet swan.
The real Winnie's story is told in a few children's books, and the TV film A Bear Named Winnie, starring a young Michael Fassbender as Harry Colebourn.
2. Most of the characters in 'Winnie-The-Pooh' are based on Christopher Robin Milne's real-life toys.. and these toys still exist
The characters in A.A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories are almost all inspired by the soft toy collection of his son, Christopher Robin. Quite miraculously, given the fact that they predate the book and are therefore over 100 years old, some of these toys still exist, in relatively good condition.
While Roo was lost sometime in the 1930s, as an adult, Christopher Robin donated the surviving toys -Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and Kanga- to A.A Milne's U.S publisher, who in turn donated them to the New York Public Library. They have remained on constant display in the library since their donation.
3. The books' Rabbit and Owl are portrayed as real animals
Some fans who visit the original toys are often surprised by the absence of Rabbit and Owl. The obvious initial assumption is that they, like Roo, were lost. This is not in fact the case.
Rabbit and Owl are actually the only characters in Milne's book that were not inspired by toys. Rather, they are based on real animals. This is referenced in the second book, The House at Pooh Corner, via a conversation between Rabbit and Owl:
“Owl," said Rabbit shortly, "you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forest--and when I say thinking I mean thinking--you and I must do it."
Rabbit is also not the only rabbit in the Hundred-Acre Wood, with occasional mentions and background appearances from other wild rabbits referred to as Rabbit's friends and relations.
In Disney's Pooh-verse, While Owl appears to be a real animal, Rabbit's status varies. Though the animated shorts and films are unclear, The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh series heavily implies Disney's Rabbit is a toy, particularly in the episode 'How Much is that Rabbit in the Window?', in which Rabbit is accidentally picked up by a Thrift Shop owner, and his friends must recover him before he is sold.
However, in the 2018 live-action film Christopher Robin, conceived as a sequel to the animated Disney Pooh films, Rabbit appears as a live, albeit now elderly, animal.
4. The Hundred-Acre Wood is inspired by a real forest
The majority of A.A Milne's Pooh stories, and Disney's adaptations, take place within the Hundred-Acre Wood. The fictional Wood was inspired by the real life Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, England. A.A Milne purchased Cotchford Farm, a piece of land in the area complete with holiday cottage, and would often take his son on walks through Ashdown, inspiring some of his stories.
Disney uses this piece of the real-life story in Christopher Robin, with the adult Christopher sending his wife and daughter to the cottage while he completes a work project.
5. Ashdown Forest is a popular tourist destination.. Particularly Poohsticks Bridge
Thanks to it's connection to Pooh, Ashdown Forest is now a protected area, and common tourist destination. One of the most popular areas within the forest is a bridge above a river, known as Poohsticks Bridge, for the game Pooh and Christopher Robin invented there in The House at Pooh Corner. The game involves two or more players dropping a stick into the river, and seeing which emerges on the other side of the bridge first.
Tourists visit Poohsticks Bridge to play the game. For safety reasons, the bridge is regularly closed for restoration, and on at least one occasion, was removed and rebuilt entirely.
6. Tigger is absent from the first book
Though one of the real-life surviving toys, andone of the most popular characters, Tigger did not appear in Milne's first book, Winnie-the-Pooh. He makes his debut in chapter two of the second book, The House at Pooh Corner, in which Pooh and co struggle to find something the newly arrived Tigger will eat. Tigger eventually moves in with Kanga and Roo, as he shares Roo's favourite food, Extract of Malt.
While Tigger lives alone in Disney's Pooh-verse, his status as a big brother figure to Roo remains intact.
7. A.A Milne wrote four books including Pooh
Of these four books, two, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, tell full-length stories. The other two, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, are poetry collections, each with a few pieces featuring Pooh characters.
Milne chose to stop writing Pooh after The House at Pooh Corner, as Christopher Robin had outgrown the stories.
8. Winnie-The-Pooh shared a Birth Year with Queen Elizabeth II
A.A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh was published in 1926. This happens to be the same year that the future Queen Elizabeth II was born. In fact, Milne dedicated an poem starring Pooh to the newborn Then-Princess Elizabeth.
In 2016, the book's 90th anniversary, the Milne Estate took advantage of this synchronicity by authorising a special book, Winnie-the-Pooh Meets the Queen. In a story celebrating both milestones, the book sees Pooh and his friends taking a trip to London to see the Queen on her 90th Birthday. A sequel, Winnie-The-Pooh Meets The King, has the Hundred-Acre Wood gang panicking when they lose Eeyore in London during King Charles III's Coronation.
9. Walt Disney was inspired to purchase Pooh's film rights by his daughter
As the story goes, Walt Disney heard his daughter, Diane, laughing alone in her room, and decided to investigate. He discovered her reading one of A.A Milne's books.
Disney purchased the film rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh books soon after. Encouraged by his daughter's fondness for the character, he had big plans for Pooh
10. 'Winnie The Pooh and The Honey Tree' was one of the last Disney Animation Projects released in Walt Disney's lifetime
Walt initially planned to produce a full-length Winnie The Pooh film right away, until it became clear that the characters were not nearly as well-known in the U.S as they were in A.A Milne's native England. So, he instead planned to produce featurettes to introduce American audiences to Pooh before committing to a full-length film starring the character.
The first short, Winnie The Pooh and the Honey Tree, was adapted from "In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin" and "In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets into a Tight Place" the first two chapters of Milne's first book. Released in February, 1966 as a pre-feature to Disney's live-action film The Ugly Daschund, Winnie The Pooh and the Honey Tree quickly charmed audiences, and Walt greenlit production on a second featurette, Winnie The Pooh and the Blustery Day, along with tentative plans for what would eventually become the third featurette, Winnie The Pooh and Tigger Too.
Unfortunately, Walt Disney fell ill later that year, diagnosed with Lung Cancer in November before passing away in December, 1966, never realising his wish for a a full-length Pooh feature. While the three featurettes were released as a package film, The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, in 1977, a true full length movie did not eventuate until the direct-to-video release of Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin in 1997, with no full-length theatrical release until The Tigger Movie in 2000. Thankfully for fans, The Tigger Movie's success revived Pooh as atheatrical franchise throughout the 2000s.
Happy 100th Birthday, Winnie the Pooh. Here's to 100 more!
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Kristy Anderson
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