Words and Music

I've been working on pulling together the story behind the writing of "Bear Down Chicago Bears"--a mystery of perhaps less significance than, "What happened to the WMDs?" Still, you work with what you got.

Along the way, I called the song's current publisher, Mark Spier, of Larry Spier Music, in New York City. He says he's getting lots of requests for the sheet music. Alas, there is no currently published sheet music. So his firm has made a PDF copy of the 1941 sheet music and is selling it online. In the 10 days since the Bears beat the Saints to get into the Super Bowl, Spier has sold 200 to 300 copies (including one copy to me; Dad, it'll be in the mail soon). The first thing I learned from the sheet music, beside the Bears' 1941 address (37 S. Wabash), is that the song is to be played at a "bright march tempo."

You can buy the song from Spier here (it's three bucks; the company is selling several other Bears-related musical items, too). If you're not satisfied with a virtual copy, I found at least one copy of the 1941 original for sale on eBay (the seller has timed it so that the auction will end near game time on Sunday.

One last thing: The graphic on the "Bear Down" cover page: It looks familiar; it's looks similar, in some way, to Chicago Cubs scorecards, which always seemed to have an abstract quality to the cover art (that's the 1941 scorecard here, part of a great online collection assembled by a "die-hard Cubs fan" (poor soul). I wonder if the same illustrator worked for both teams?

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Comments

[jb]

The Bears mascot has rodent teeth(!) and the Cubs mascot is sporting some very formidable looking fangs. I guess this is from when the Cubs were serious contenders and didn't care who knew it. Today they might as well be wearing wooden dentures. As for the Rickey Rat teeth on the Bears mascot, that looks a bit odd. This image is probably from the Poppa Bear/George Halas era when the Bears were a force to be reckoned with...on a regular basis. I reckon the mouse /rat motif is indicative of the popularity of Disney's mouse and others from around the same time. Also, look carefully at the rat. He has only one eye! A cyclops if you will, perhaps reinforcing the Bears unofficial moniker...Monsters of the Midway. Makes you glad they didn't choose a lizard as their mascot. The Cub art is better with its actiony look, shading and cool, late art deco style. That is a good picture for a program.

And as to the material for above post. You go to press with the material you have, not the material you wish you had.

[Dan]

Hey, John: I was really wondering what you'd make of
those pieces--thanks for the quick deconstruction
(which, I must admit, made me laugh out loud).

Historical context: In 1941, the Bears were coming off
perhaps the most famous (or infamous) thrashing one
team ever administered to another: the 73-0 victory
over the Redskins in the NFL championship game. The
team was also precisely at the point (the 1940 season)
during which it appropriated the University of
Chicago's "Monsters of the Midway" moniker as well as
the Maroons' stylized letter "C" that the Bears still
use today. Halas was self-consciously trying to
upgrade the team's image.

I've got more on the origin of the song, but suffice
it for now to say that its appearance in 1941 was a
coincidence; the indications I get from people who
have some knowledge of the events is that the song
came over the transom and was not produced on commission.

[Tom O'Grady]

Otis Shepard was PK Wrigley's personal art director as well as a staff designer and illustrator for the Wrigley Chewing Gum Co. He studied under the great poster artists from the '30's (as his work so clearly depicts). I personally think he should have a day a Wrigley Field. He for instance designed the uniforms of the Ladies Professional Baseball League (A League of Their Own)...

http://heckadude.blogspot.com/2009/01/otis-shepard-chicago-cubs.html

[Dan]

Tom: Thanks for that information. Those scorecards and their stylized cover art were a staple of my early Cubs experience. Do you happen to know if anyone's ever put on a show of his work? That'd seem like a natural for the Chicago Historical Society or the Chicago Public Library (or a Wrigley Field museum -- I haven't been inside the park for years. Do they have one now?)