According to the story, in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was visiting Mississippi to settle a border dispute. While he was there, he decided to go hunting for the day after several hours, he still had not bagged anything when one of his aides discovered a lost bear cub wandering through the woods. After catching it, he tied it to a tree, and brought the President to see what was going to be his catch of the day. To President Roosevelt's eternal credit, he could not bring himself to kill the defenceless animal and intern ordered that it should be set free.

The press that was visiting the president's visit heard about the story and it inspired a cartoonist to draw a cartoon of the incident, entitled "Drawing the line in Mississippi". This cartoon was printed in all the newspapers, and triggered a moment of inspiration for a Brooklyn Candy store owner. Using the cartoon as guide, he quickly worked out a pattern and his wife had soon put together a little jointed toy Bear cub, which the owner put into his shop window with a copy of the cartoon and a hand written notice saying "Teddy's Bear". The bears sold like wildfire, and within a year, he closed his Candy Store, and founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

While this was happening in America the same idea of a Teddy Bear as a toy was beginning to take shape in Germany. Where the completed design of the of the toy was made of mohair cloth. The toy first appeared in 1903, at the "Spring Toy Fair at Leipzig". However, to the disappointment of the designer nobody seemed interested. As the story goes it was when he was packing up his stall that an American toy buyer approached him, seized the bear, and ordered 3,000 of them on the spot. After that day the Teddy Bear was on his way to International Success.