FIRE PREVENTION POSTER
At one time the then MNR had a Smokey the Bear costume that some poor sole had to wear on occasion during public appearances aimed at educating the public about forest fire prevention. I can identify and commiserate because at one time I had to wear a walrus costume at a springtime outside event and I almost expired from the heat. Even though the outfit had a built in battery run fan. Many Smokey the Bear performances took place indoors. I also have a lot of respect for the poor professional sport team mascots.
Pre-dating the MNR Smokey outfit, the Lands and Forests had their own unique ‘Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires’ program which included what has become an extremely rare and apparently sought after vintage Forest Fire Prevention poster. Apparently there were some sport cards of the same image in circulation as well. These large posters were placed throughout the province as part of the fire prevention campaign.
Originally the bottom of the posters mentioned the Department of Lands & Forests and so in 1972 when the name changed to MNR staff cut off the bottom as a cost saving measure so the posters could still be used.
I first saw some of these posters when interviewing the Butterfly Man who apparently was a friend of artist Edwin McCormick whose painting THE FIRE FIGHTER appears, to at least one source, to have been modeled after a L&F picture of a Fire Ranger holding a fawn.
Kelso Roberts was the Lands & Forests minister and Frank McDougall was Deputy Minister. McDougall was known as the Flying Superintendent of Algonquin Provincial Park and is credited with the development of Ontario’s park system as well as the use of planes in forestry. In his own right a fascinating study. Of course the 255.8 km King’s Highway 60, the main highway corridor that passes through the park, is also known as the Frank McDougall Parkway.
THE BACKSTORY
THE FIREFIGHTER by BARNEY MOORHOUSE
For Reproduction Rights Call Access 1.800.893.5777.
Recently I wrote about fire towers and firefighting. The article seems to have rekindled some memories, not the least being mine for it reminded me of a colleague, Bob Reguly, who worked his way through post secondary education as a fire jumper in Saskatchewan. Walt Disney made a movie about these adventurous, dare I say courageous characters who parachuted into fires as first responders. Bob went on to become the European correspondent for the Globe & Mail, once stationed in Italy. Last I knew his son Eric held that same posting.
I have written that Edwin McCormick painted “The Firefighter” which became part of the then Lands & Forests campaign against forest fires. The posters were at one time widely distributed. Now they are a collector’s item.
Further research informs me that THE FIREFIGHTER painting was based upon a photograph taken in 1949 of Placide (Sid) Marcotte, a firefighter who re-enacted a fawn rescue from fire that took place in 1948 north of Blind River in the Mississagi region during which he in fact actually rescued two fawns.
Another MNR source told me that Sid Marcotte posed for the photo near Wahnipitae in 1948, “re-enacting the carrying out of a deer from the Blind River fire of 1947.” The source continued that “Sid actually did the deed, but there were no photographers to record the event. Apparently if you see the 5 different poses in the photo collection you can see it’s clearly staged. The photo series was used for the painting THE FIREFIGHTER by Edwin McCormick. There are 500 numbered prints and one is here in Peterborough and one is in the office in Sault Ste. Marie. Apparently the negatives were put in ‘a safe place’ in CSB and that place is unknown.”
The Bancroft District office of the MNRF also has a framed copy of this poster apparently obtained from the Tweed Fire office when it closed down.
My records also note from another source that the then MNR had two framed black and white photos of the image. “The painting itself had been purchased by an art shop in Winchester, Ontario. They did the limited edition prints. The original painting now hangs in the theatre of the Canadian Bushplane Heritage and Forest Fire Educational Centre here in Sault Ste. Marie.”
What’s In a Name?
I first heard of “The Firefighter” from the Butterfly Man, John Powers, while visiting his Butterfly conservatory, the Wings of Paradise, in Waterloo, Ontario. To confuse matters my MNR source at that time believed that John Power, who used to pen an outdoor column for the Toronto Star every Wednesday and Saturday of each week, had purchased the last of the limited edition prints which he gave away as special gifts. I eventually realized that was not correct for John Power, the writer, lived near Beaverton and my MNR source said John Power lived in the Cambridge/Waterloo area. In addition John Powers had shown me the posters at his conservatory. Confused yet?
SMOKEY
In 1942, at the peak of World War 2, U.S. officials realized that forest fires could jeopardize national security and so they began a campaign about fire prevention. In 1944 their posters featured Walt Disney’s Bambi but in 1945 the Forest Service introduced its own character – Smokey the Bear – named after “Smokey Joe Martin”, assistant fire chief in New York city from 1919-1930. The campaign proved to be successful and took off in 1950 when an orphaned bear cub was rescued from a fire near New Mexico. The cub was nursed back to good health by a forest ranger’s family. They named him ‘Smokey’ and sent him to the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. where he became a popular tourist attraction as a living icon. He received so much mail that the postal service gave him his own zip code. Makes one think of Winnie the Pooh somewhat.
Of course eventually Smokey the Bear replaced Ontario’s Firefighter poster campaign. I thought that was the end of the story and then Dan Freymond of Freymond Lumber called to say he had the poster that I had been researching. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Dan’s print was of Smokey the Bear and not THE FIREFIGHTER. The U.S. Government Printing Office published the posters, seen in the accompanying photo, in 1962 in co-operation with the Ontario Forestry Association. The U.S. Department of Agriculture got aboard with the same copy in 1963.
So, there you have it. For Now.
To share your thoughts goto: barney@thetimetraveller.ca.
Photos – THE FIREFIGHTER and SMOKEY the BEAR – by B.M. and The Firefighter (Lands& Forest).
