Career
They founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which after Michtom"s death became the largest doll-making company in the United States. Michtom, was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in New York in 1887. The Teddy Bear was inspired by a cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman depicting Teddy Roosevelt having compassion for a bear at the end of an unsuccessful hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902.
Michtom saw the drawing and created a tiny plush bear cub which he sent to Roosevelt.
After receiving permission to use Roosevelt"s name, Michtom put a plush bear in the shop window with a sign "Teddy"s bear." After the creation of the bear in 1902, the sale of the bears was so brisk that in 1907 Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.