The Life and Times of the Real Winnie-the-Pooh

by Shirley Harrison

  Elliott Macrae asked, with some uncertainty, if he could borrow the animals and return with them to America so that they could help promote the books on a publicity tour. To his astonishment, the couple said ‘yes’ – on condition that they were not cleaned and returned to England in their present condition. A.A. Milne even prepared a birth certificate to act as a passport. He hoped that America would give them a warm welcome and apologised that the rather world-weary condition of Pooh and Eeyore was because ‘time’s hand has been hard upon them since 1921 – and that was a long time ago!’

  Many people have wondered, over the years, what Christopher had felt about his father packing his beloved toys off to the united States. He has explained that he didn’t mind at all. As an adult, he said that he preferred to have things around him that he liked in the present, not those things which he had once liked many years before. In some ways the decision was opportune, for in his own book The Enchanted Places Christopher Milne explains that 1947 was the year in which the tide of his emotions became confused. They turned first to bitterness, and even hostility, towards his father but even more towards the beloved companion of his childhood, Winnie-the-Pooh.

  Pooh’s emigration to New York was symbolic. The cement which had bound them all in the past was gone. It was time to make a break and for Christopher to stand on his own feet.

  Chapter Fourteen

  America and the Elliott Graham Years

  The Immigrants

  POOH AND THE ANIMALS escaped from England in April 1947, aboard the magnificent 92,000 ton Queen Elizabeth, the world's largest liner. It had returned from active war service as a troopship only six months before during the worst winter and heaviest snow for 150 years, followed in the spring by the worst floods for 250 years.

  Clement Attlee was Prime Minister and the Royal family – King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret – were touring South Africa to boost morale after the exhaustion and devastation of the War. Princess Elizabeth celebrated her 21st birthday that month and made the famous speech dedicating her life to the people of the Commonwealth. On their return to England in June notice of her engagement to Prince Philip was posted without ceremony on the gates of Buckingham Palace.

  In America on 4 April – the day of Pooh’s arrival in New York – he was greeted by weather which recalled those now long ago days on Ashdown Forest when it ‘rained and it rained and it rained’. Pooh had bravely rescued Piglet from his tree home, which was ‘entirely surrounded by water’ in an upturned umbrella named ‘The Brain of Pooh’. On 4 April too, the American newspapers headlined terrible flooding and gales and on 9 April a hurricane and tornadoes were reported.

  The country was then at the start of an economic boom but there were also alarming warnings in the press from President Truman of a possible third World War, this time between the Allies and Russia.

  However, for the staff of the Dutton publishing company the big news was the arrival of Christopher Robin’s teddy bear and his friends.

  Dutton is one of the oldest continually-operating book publishers in the united States. According to the company advertising in 1852 they initially specialised in ‘fresh and entertaining’ books for children. Their motto then, ‘Every Book a Promise’, still reflects the imprint’s mission to transport readers.

  Edward Payson Dutton founded the firm in Boston but it wasn’t until 1864 when a branch office was set up in New York, that the company began expanding. The original focus was on religious titles and the first bestseller was the two-volume, Life of Christ by Frederic Farrar, which appeared in 1874.

  In 1885 John Macrae began working at Dutton as an office boy. He spent fifty-two years with the company, finally becoming President in 1923. Then in 1928, with his two sons, he bought the publishing house.

  It is every publisher’s dream to acquire properties that will last forever and by 1947 the four A.A. Milne books of stories and verse had made that dream come true.

  The arrival of Winnie-the-Pooh himself and his friends from the Forest was an event of huge significance in the publishing world.

  They were to be cared for by the larger–than-life Elliott Graham, who was later to be described by his colleagues as the ‘Dean’ of PR men in America. In 1947 when Pooh arrived in New York, he was already a force to be reckoned with.

  Elliott was an outspoken, explosive, but greatly-admired character. He had a great understanding of children and was loved by them; they thought he was funny. Just the kind of grown-up little boy that Pooh could have understood. A boisterous Tigger of a man.

  He loved England, too, and throughout his life spent time every year in London, staying at the Great Western Royal Hotel in Paddington, where he always booked Room 143. During the War he had been on duty clearing rubble from bomb sites, making many famous friends in the world of books and theatre. He has been described by Mimi Kayden, who became Children’s Book Marketing Director at Dutton, as ‘wonderful – a legend who took a great interest in young people and always had a smile for everyone who worked with him. He was a real people person.’ No wonder he felt a bond with Winnie-the-Pooh.

  Elliott Graham loved the stories of Pooh and as an adult was an admirer of Dutton’s client A.A. Milne, and it was he who was, for the next 40 years, to take on the role of Pooh’s guardian. It was Elliott who cared for the teddy bear and his friends, accompanying them on tour, appearing with them on television and radio, introducing them to devotees young and old, from all over the world.

  This was to be Pooh’s very grown-up new life, amid the tower blocks of New York so far from the trees and the open skies of Ashdown Forest and with the maverick Elliott Graham as his closest companion. Elliott kept an outspoken, page-a-day diary from before World War II until he died in 1988.

  He made detailed notes wherever he went and then transcribed them on his return – as he admits, not always accurately.

  What gets into me, reporting on a Friday something I should have written down yesterday? Well, I’m sure it’s something historians will never have to worry their pretty heads about!

  These neatly-bound leather books are today cared for by Elliott’s niece, Judy Henry, who lives in Hastings on Hudson, New York. His microscopically small writing is very hard to read and from 1947 records events in his life with the celebrated Winnie-the-Pooh, the animals and also includes succinct daily descriptions of the weather.

  The adjectives he used to describe his colleagues and clients and even friends were often colourful and many were unprintable. ‘Stupid half-wit’, ‘nutty’ or ‘could have been a witch’, he wrote.

  His words have to be read not as a precise record of historic events but rather as an insight into the individual relationship with a very famous small British teddy bear. It was a relationship which came to be shared by so many people who had never met Winnie-the-Pooh.

  The year 1947 did not, at first, bode well. Elliott wrote:

  Wednesday January 1st

  Snow

  Have just been reading last year’s diary and it was the most discouraging thing I could do on the occasion of my beginning a new one. It was so dull! Not an intriguing page in it……

  All that was about to change.

  Friday April 4th 1947

  Fair

  We all had to troop downstairs after the meeting to see the Milne toys in Elliott’s office, the originals that he brought with him from London. I kept my awful secret to myself – the secret that he had never read Winnie-the-Pooh and the House at Pooh Corner – only I think everyone must have guessed it when he asked what kind of an animal Eeyore is supposed to represent. ‘A donkey!’ everyone screamed. Elliott asked me if I had worked on my presentations and, thinking fast I said I wouldn’t dream of starting it until I had seen the animals. I fell in love with Piglet, the cutest little thing in the world.

  The headline on a press release announced that the ‘world-famous delegation’ had arrived from England, hiding from fellow passengers in a large trunk.r />
  In charge, it said, was Edward T. Bear, known affectionately as Winnie-the-Pooh. They were insured for $50,000. The visit had, said the release, been organised by Elliott Macrae, President of Dutton’s, when he saw the animals during his recent visit to their home in England.

  Pooh, it claimed, was the natural leader. Tigger with his bright green eyes was the most alert and handsome. Kanga, bereaved of Roo after he had been lost in the garden in Sussex, had a hopeful expression, while Piglet, with all of his three-and a half inches, had an expression of excited anticipation.

  For much of their long life in America the animals were to live in Elliott Graham’s office, although their official residence was a large case, rather like an aquarium, situated in the magnificent reception hall of E.P. Dutton. It was a very grand, old-fashioned setting, carpeted with oriental rugs, the walls hung with old masters and furnished with comfortable sofas for waiting visitors. Among Dutton’s clients who visited Pooh, were James Mason, Betty Grable, Gore Vidal, Laurence Durrell and Francoise Sagan. School children, too, arrived by the bus load to press their noses, in awe, against the glass, vigilantly supervised by receptionist, Bridie Murphy.

  Judy Henry’s sister-in-law Carol Scheele made the special tote bag in which Elliott used to transport Pooh and friends on tour. She remembers it well.

  ‘The bag was made of 100% heavy woven cotton with cotton webbing for handles. The fabric was not printed but made with yarns that varied in thickness and shades of light beige. From a distance, the fabric appeared to be a uniform color.

  The size of the bag was probably 16 or 18 inches wide, 12 or 14 inches high and 5 or 6 inches deep. The handles were probably 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide and 8 to 10 inches long. They were sewn to the bottom and sides of the bag like many totes today. There was no closure so that Pooh’s head peered over the top. The fabric was sturdy and washable – very easy to clean with no ironing required. I recall that on airplane flights the animals had their own seat next to Elliott. I assume that the seat-belt may have gone around the tote bag.’

  In June 1947, Elliott Macrae wrote to J.L.Hudson and Co in Detroit, offering them one of the first viewings of the animals, for one week only. This was an excellent start, as the store was one in which Pooh would have been most at home. Founded in 1881, with thirty-two floors, it was America’s second largest department store after Macy’s and with the suitably dignified atmosphere reminiscent of Harrods in London.

  The Macy’s staff magazine recorded his stay in their Toy Department with the kind of hyperbole to which Pooh was to become accustomed.

  Macy’s Staff Magazine of October 1947

  A world famous delegation of distinguished visitors from England slipped quietly into New York on the Queen Elizabeth a few weeks ago. Locked in a trunk, they were hidden from their fellow passengers throughout the voyage, and their arrival was unnoticed. The arrivals were Mr. Edward T. Bear, better, and more affectionately known as Winnie-the-Pooh, and his inseparable companions, Kanga, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. September 24th to September 29th these original playthings of Christopher Robin were exhibited in Macy’s Toy Department, where they lounged in their locked case along with first editions of their stories, and were ooh-ed and ahh-ed at by many of New York’s youngest.

  Winnie-the-Pooh, which E. P. Dutton & Co. published in 1926, has run through 199 printings, and there are few children in America who have not made its acquaintance. This same Christopher Robin whose toys have been so immortalized, is now finishing his studies at Cambridge, England, but his father’s (A. A. Milne) famous children’s books have been treasured in American homes since they were written and hundreds of thousands of reproductions of these original animals have gone to bed in the cribs of a whole generation of Americans. Winnie-the-Pooh is not merely a teddy bear; he is the most famous and remarkable bear in English literature. And because Kanga, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger are toys that Christopher Robin played with, and because they helped inspire two children’s classics, no other animals in the world can be quite like them.

  In honor of the arrival of these honored visitors, E. P. Dutton and Company announced the publication of four new Milne children’s books illustrated in color by E. H. Shepard.

  More appearances were planned to take place in seven of America’s major cities, aimed at the promotion of the new 50 cent edition of A.A. Milne’s four children’s books.

  Another of the animals’ early outings was to be to Boston. It was an equally suitable showcase for Pooh as Jordan Marsh, founded in 1853 and one of Boston’s oldest, most prestigious stores had recently been expanded and was now also its largest.

  Elliott Graham wrote in his diary:

  Thursday September 4th 1947

  And so to Boston. Rode to Jordan Marsh and Co where I spent 2 hours with Mr Boyd and the high official team, and we finally reached Mr Edwards, the first vice-president, a tycoon type of person who went insane with pleasure at seeing the Milne animals and gave orders for a Washington street display and for a 600 line ad – really it was the kind of reception you dream about! I ended up saying a few words with Brown in the book department. A hard day but a very pleasant one, I must say.

  Friday September 19th 1947

  Hot

  De Pamphilis sent me my Milne brochure and I must say they are wonderful. I took them up to Macy, along with 25 glossy photographs of the animals, the suitcase full of the originals and a reproduction made by Mrs Keller and got them up to Miss Wallace’s desk. She is the kind of executive who works with her hat on all day. Everyone was very pleased to see them I must say…

  Back home in England, in July 1948 Christopher Milne defiantly married his first cousin Lesley de Selincourt, daughter of his mother’s estranged brother Aubrey. Daff and he had not spoken to each other for years. Eyebrows in both families were raised in concern at the close relationship but the couple were genuinely in love and their wedding, a fashionable London society gathering, was at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton.

  It was to prove a long and very happy partnership. They decided that as there seemed to be no future for Christopher in London they would escape to Dartmouth in Devon, to open the Harbour Bookshop which was to bring them such joint pleasure for over thirty years. ‘A very odd decision’, commented his mother who thought he had escaped to the very heart of the world from which he was running away. Christopher himself explained in his autobiography The Path Through the Trees, ‘We liked doing things together. Particularly we liked doing nothing much together.’

  At this time in America the Winnie-the-Pooh show was well on the road and Elliott Graham had been promoted to Advertising and Publicity Director: ‘The best job I have ever had – and didn’t get the salary that goes with it,’ he grumbled.

  The already tired animals were suffering and in January 1952 Elliott Graham wrote to Ralph Hancock of the Prince de Leon Hotel that Kanga and Eeyore were in hospital but that he would allow the other three to travel down to Miami.

  The following month, he was apologising to the New Rochelle Library, New York, that the toys had returned from the south in a very sad condition. They might need to be restored before continuing their tour.

  They were back on duty in the autumn in District Columbia where the local paper made great news of their still sadly-battered and beaten appearance.

  In February the following year, Life magazine reported on the progress of the ‘stuffed bear’ describing him as ‘the naïve and hungry hero with the shiny nose.’ He was looking all of his thirty years they reported, with his rather moth-eaten appearance, his bearish appetite and the stomach that stoutness exercises could not reduce. Even so, it seems that so many people had asked to see him that his stay was likely to be prolonged.

  That April of 1953, the animals made their first television appearance, on the Fred Waring TV show, in Iowa.

  During the fifties it is noticeable that Elliott’s diaries are dominated by the names of two curiously different clients – the young French author, Francoise Sagan, whose contr
oversial novel Bonjour Tristesse was finally published by Dutton in 1955, and middle-aged Winnie-the-Pooh, who had not written a book but had become a literary star in his own right.

  Elliott’s relationship with Sagan, in New York and Paris, was colourful! He said she was the best dancer in the world: ‘A spoilt bitch … and nuts … Lord, what would it be like to work with a normal author for a change!’

  Sadly, far away in Hartfield all was not well. Back in October 1952 Daphne Milne had written to Ken’s widow, Maud, that her ‘darling Alan’ had suffered a stroke and was in hospital. In December he had a brain operation at the Middlesex Hospital, London, which left him wheelchair-bound, partially paralysed and with a personality change that friends and family found hard to bear. He became rude, irritable and even vulgar when he returned to Cotchford Farm.

  It was a terrible time for Daphne, who was not psychologically best equipped to deal with her husband’s condition. She banned all visitors on the grounds that ‘we are not a normal household.’

  One or two people, such as Pete Tasker, did manage to pass the barrier and found a sadly bitter man sitting in his tiny, dark study trying to write.

  The patient was attended regularly by Dr Hardy from nearby Forest Row and physiotherapist Joan Fuller, both of whom also found him extremely difficult. Many years later Dr Hardy’s renovated surgery, now known as Ashdown Forest Health Centre, used Ernest Shepard’s drawings to illustrate their connection with the author in their brochure for patients.

  A.A. Milne lingered miserably on and eventually died at Cotchford Farm on 31 January 1956.