Putting smiles on kids’ faces with teddy bear magic

Editor’s note: Englishman Alan Alexander Milne was born on January 18, 1882. Better known by his initials “A.A.”, Milne gained fame for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for several volumes of children’s poetry. Here, Cuenca expat and New Jersey native Richard Westcott describes the shows he put on for children featuring Winnie and friends. For more about Rich, read his bio at the bottom of the column.

By Richard Westcott

Without a doubt, my most popular show was the Teddy Bear’s Picnic Magic Show. In fact, somewhere between a quarter and a third of all of my shows were the Teddy Bear show. That put the Teddy Bear Picnic right up there with the Christmas program as far as being my most popular show. The difference was that the Christmas season only lasted for a little over three weeks and the Teddy Bear Show was booked year-round for an average of four times a week.

Over time I used several different methods of dressing my set. I settled on three large wicker hampers that conveniently held the entire show for me.

Rich Westcott presenting his Teddy Bear’s Picnic Magic Show.

At the end of each show I would select five children and dress them in ponchos we had made to portray them as Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Tigger, and Eeyore (sadly lacking his tail) .

I would display two metal tubes that I had decorated with some wallpaper depicting teddy bears. Lifting them one after the other, the first tube lifted would reveal a honey jar, the second jar to be lifted would reveal a can of evaporated milk. They would then change places with each other repeatedly. In desperation, I would then remove the honey jar I had just shown only to have another appear under the tube in its place. I then proceed to remove a series of honey jars; four from each tube. The final bottle on one side had some liquid in it that I would pour out. Eeyore’s tail was discovered in the bottle on the other side. Somehow Pooh is declared the hero of the day and all the children involved would take a bow. Afterwards we would join hands dancing and singing “Boy That Bear Makes Me Crazy”

A note about the above song. The show was popular and I was using someone’s song. I went to see a lawyer about this and he arranged for me to pay a royalty to the author. He also charged me somewhere around six hundred dollars for the service. For several years thereafter, I continued to send $250 each year to the author of the song. The author was stunned; but nowhere near as stunned as I was later on. It seems that I did not meet the criteria that I needed to in order to have to pay to use the song. When the lawyer’s secretary called to let me know it was time to renew the agreement, I let her know what I thought of her boss’s expertise.

During the Christmas season, Rich assumed the role of Santa.

One Saturday I was performing this show at the local Community College theater. The stage itself was barely raised off of the floor — only a single step above it.

At the end of the program, I needed five children to help out. For the first show I tried to pick a child in the second row but, when he stood up, his path was blocked by other children standing in front of their seats. I went on to pick the other four children needed. Turning around, I discovered that the child had found his way up and was giving his Mom his best Jimmy Cagney impression from White Heat”, “Thumbs up Mom, I made it.  Top of the world Mom”!

In the second show there was a little girl, eighteen months old, in Dr. Dentons (footed one-piece pajamas with a flap over the bottom permitting use of the toilet). She kept coming up to examine the props and the bears. I would just move to another part of the stage while mom came up and retrieved her. Mom liked that I was treating her as the toddler she was and not taking Mom to task for not controlling her child.

After picking volunteers I called the curious child up with my other four helpers. After the music started, I realized she wasn’t dancing so I picked her up and got the surprise of my life; SHE WAS NOT WEARING A DIAPER!  Afterwards Mom told me that she was already completely toilet trained.

That summer I performed at both of their birthday parties.
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On his 20th wedding anniversary, during an economic downturn, Rich Westcott found himself unemployed. After early experiences entertaining the very young, he began prospecting preschools and daycare centers in his area. Finding that most of what he did was new to the children resulted in the abundant examples of humour found there.

Starting with the telephone Yellow Pages, he began to call daycare centers and preschools and send his few existing pieces of publicity The reaction from his prospects was that he would frighten the children he wanted to be performing for. There was some income coming in due to his wife Pat’s job. His previous employer brought him back on, as an employee of the corporation he had formed, when they were closing down their firm. All funds received were paid to the corporation and used to get the company on its feet.

By making over 100 phone calls a day, and mailing kits out to them, he began to get opportunities to perform. Using a short format of only 30 minutes per show he impressed the director of one school to promote him among a director’s group she was a part of. When Rich retired in 2010, he was appearing over 700 times a year.