Carmichael's Page

Carmichael, Jack Benny's Polar Bear

The Great White North

Born to an ordinary family of polar bears in 1929, Carmichael was different, from almost his first months. No sitting by ice holes and waiting for poor leopard seals for him. Instead it was swiping worn out copies of the entertainment section of the local newspaper out of the frozen trash cans of nearbye Fairbanks, Alaska. Nonetheless, life is harsh in the great white north and Carmichael spent most of his time fitting in with the rest of the crowd, but always in his heart was a longing for the glittering photos of far off Hollywood.

Fame or Bust!

In 1933, after years of trying to fit in to his clan, Carmichael, or Klutzmichael as some unkind bears called him, finally had enough. Scrabbling together a few bits and pieces of gear from newspaper advertisements, he set off for Los Angeles across the vast wilderness of Canada. Much of his journey is unknown and the next we heard of Carmichael was from a series of sketchy Wildlife and Game reports of an albino bear in the woods of Oregon, and legends of the Ghost Bear of the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and finally his arrest and impoundment in the Los Angelos Zoo in the fall of 1937.

Jack Benny's Polar Bear

After two years languashing in the zoo, Carmichael finally got his break. Ed Beloin, a writer for the Jack Benny Show, was taking his niece to the zoo one Sunday afternoon. Recognizing his picture from the years of scouting the trade rags, Carmichael put on a series of tricks so desparately cute, that as they were leaving, little Anna said to her uncle, "You know someone should give dat bear to Mr. Benny for his birthday. He's way funnier than Rochester is...and would work for less too!" 2 weeks later on February 12, 1939, Carmichael was whisked away from the zoo in a truck bound for the NBC studio in Hollywood, California.

Written into the script as a birthday present to Jack Benny, the episode, "Carmichael the Polar Bear" was a hit. It took a little bit of adjustment for Carmichael and we was struck down with an occasional flu from all the strange humans he was now working with on a daily basis, but in the way all great radio shows did, that was merely written into the scripts in an episode entitled "Carmichael has a cold". Legend has it that the famous Mel Blanc voiced Carmichael, but Carmichael swears to this day that it was all his own work.

For the next several years, Carmichael appeared in recurring episodes. He had a small role in the 1940 movie "Buck Benny Rides Again".

The War Years

With the advent of World War II, Carmichael's abilities came to the attenton of the defense department. A Polar bear weighing close to 800 pounds, tame enough to understand and work with humans, was just the sort of thing the Navy had been looking for. Without consulting the bear, he was written out of the show and replaced by Trudy, a pet Ostrich. Bitter, but determined to do his duty, Carmichael was posted to the Lands End Watch, A group of Inuit Indians who served among the ice floes of the Berring Sea much as the Coastwatchers did in the South Pacific. While not seeing a large amount of action during the war years, Carmichael was decorated with a Bronze Star when he rescued a group of Inuit who were under fire by a Nazi U-boat by swimming over and plastering his white furred body across the searching periscope of the submarine.

Fame is fleeting

After the war, Carmichael tried to return to the world of entertainment he had longed for all along. The Benny Crew were supportive and he made a few more appearances on the radio show and even appeared in one of Jack Benny's last movies in late 1949 but the magic was gone and the world had moved on to things far more unusual than a pet polar bear.

Swingbear and the Cubs

With the advent of television, Carmichael knew that his career was in deep jeopardy. Polar bear fur on black and white TV just looks sorta dirty grey. That problem spelled the end of his career in television except for an occasional cameo role in films. Determined not to leave the world of entertainment, Carmichael used his innate sense of rhythm to start landing a few gigs here and there as a guest drummer in various Swing Bands. After a time, he started his own Band, Swingbear and the Cubs. He met with moderate success and the work kept him on stage and fed, a not undaunting task for a polar bear.

Home again

Finally in 1963, Carmichael went home to Fairbanks. Parlaying some of his saved money from residuals over the years, and using his contacts in Hollywood, he became the spokesbear and mascot for the Alaska Frontier Foundation. His slogan of "Keep it off da Ice!" was a rallying cry in an Anti-Litter Campaign. He continues that work to this day, as well as keeping up with Variety and other Trade News.