Grizzly Bear Chair
Am I the only one who thinks this grizzly bear chair presented to Andrew Johnson in 1865 really seals his image as a villain? Who can’t see him drunkenly spewing racist epithets while sitting here? Did he click his fingers against the grizzly bear claws while undermining black rights? The possibilities are endless.
FourTen:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Count the paws.
(can’t unsee)
Lee:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Why am I getting the image of Andrew Johnson as a Bond Villain with Grant, Thaddeus Stevens, or even Thomas Nast as the hero.
Lee:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
This chair is also in very bad taste even for the standards of the time.
Ginger Yellow:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:07 pm
It certainly suggests an image of him as a supervillain breeding insect-bear hybrids.
mark f:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Way more exciting than the band.
mark f:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Presented to the president by a private citizen. I bet all Barack Obama gets is hate mail and weird photoshops.
ploeg:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Speaking of 8-legged frogs….
ploeg:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:11 pm
It suggests to me that Sagamore Hill is somehow incomplete.
Scott de B.:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
The chair used to be owned by Dr. Moreau.
ploeg:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Now picture Andrew Johnson on a chair with a bear head snarling underneath Johnson’s crotch.
Morbo:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Gives new meaning to the old fantasy standard Bugbear.
c u n d gulag:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Can you imagine what the folks from “Queer Eye For the Straight Guy” would say about that?
“OMG! What? Even the moose-head ran off when it took one look at that monstrosity?”
cpinva:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
something tells me that chair didn’t get a lot of use in the white house, if it even saw the light of day, and wasn’t stuck in a basement closet. it’s pretty disgusting, even by 1860′s standards. although, it was probably pretty warm during the winter.
NBarnes:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
It’s terrible, but how could my opinion of Andrew Jackson be any lower? Answer; there is no way that could be achieved. So this is merely an example of appalling tacky Americana.
NBarnes:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Or appealingly tacky. It’s entertaining to think that we’ve discovered something that Theodore Roosevelt would find too unsubtle for his tastes.
Hogan:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Are we not men?
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
I was gonna say…
It’s just ugly and creepy.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Aww. The band is exciting in its own subtle way.
Ubu Imperator:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Well, so much for sleeping tonight.
UberMitch:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:40 pm
It’s polymelia day at LGM!
zombie rotten mcdonald (unashamed Knack fan):
November 13th, 2012 at 1:40 pm
…although I want Sam Raimi to option it for the next Evil Dead chapter.
Ramon A. Clef:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
We are Devo.
wengler:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Andrew Johnson, not Andrew Jackson.
And it was presented to him as a gift to the President, so it’s possible he didn’t even like it.
Hogan:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
So is that sucker still in the White House somewhere, or did they move it to that giant warehouse where we keep the Ark of the Covenant?
Alex:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:56 pm
I want one. I wonder if CB2 or West Elm has them?
Alex:
November 13th, 2012 at 1:58 pm
I am going to have to ask you to step outside, sir, for pistols at 4 paces.
SatanicPanic:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Whatever you do, don’t look at the chair maker’s wikipedia page.
Warren Terra:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
It’s a Second Amendment thing, the right to Bear Arms.
rea:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
He put it on display in the Yellow Oval Room.
Buchanan, Lincoln and Hayes all got elkhorn chairs–didn’t rate bears.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
I want to be “Known for: presidential chairs”
rea:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Wikipedia reports about the chairmaker: “He died in 1888 after accidentally shooting himself in the leg.”
mark f:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
So really Grover Cleveland got the best chair?
David Mathias:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
You’re jealous that you don’t have your own.
DrDick:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Indeed.
McAllen:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
I take that after he was done with the chair he used the leftover grizzly parts to make his beard.
ploeg:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Nope, quite the opposite in fact: he put a little bit of himself into everything he made.
Substance McGravitas:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:50 pm
I am sick and tired of all the Game of Thrones coverage.
Njorl:
November 13th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
It’s all freaks today at LGM – 6-legged bears, eight-legged frogs and two-backed beasts.
Bill Murray:
November 13th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
By the standards of today, Buchanan might have rated a bear
dome doofus:
November 13th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
“the great feature of the chair was that, by touching a cord, the head of the monster grizzly bear with jaws extended, would dart out in front from under the seat, snapping and gnashing its teeth as natural as life.”
Warren Terra:
November 13th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
How the heck did this chair not make it into Wild, Wild West?
Bitter Scribe:
November 13th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
This is almost as creepy as the passage in Vidal’s “Burr” where someone tries to sell Burr “Indian shoes”–which are just that.
osceola:
November 13th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
I got that.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 13th, 2012 at 4:28 pm
LOL
Stag Party Palin:
November 13th, 2012 at 4:50 pm
OT: hilarious mistake made by TV dude stealing picture off the internet and using it without checking it out. Bet you didn’t know about “All In My Snatch” by Paula Broadwell…..
timb:
November 13th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I’m still laughing AND it’s true.
Well-played, old man.
timb:
November 13th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
He got two, but separated by four years
joe from Lowell:
November 13th, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Not for “playing for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from a mule skull?”
joe from Lowell:
November 13th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Zing!
heckblazer:
November 13th, 2012 at 7:28 pm
He’s not as bad as The Chairmaker in Use of Weapons…
Julia Grey:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:03 pm
The first thing I thought of was 2 people spooned, kneeling on the seat of that chair, facing backward, leaning forward onto the fur of the….uh…
Okay, never mind. I apologize. Utterly disgusting.
But…
…No. Excuse me. Unforgivable.
.
.
Fur-cushioned knees, though…
GFW:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Just because you brought it up
http://i34.tinypic.com/vfjslk.jpg
Woodrowfan:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:19 pm
Oh dear God, i thought you were kidding until I read the link.
Woodrowfan:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:20 pm
Now we know why Newt tried to see if the Smithsonian had this chair in its collection…
Erik Loomis:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Not to mention the troll on the Detroit thread.
Aaron B.:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:29 pm
Eh, it’s not like there’s been a non-awful President named Andrew.
STH:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:33 pm
Yeah, what do they do with all the weird gifts the President gets? I totally want in on that yard sale.
Brien Jackson:
November 13th, 2012 at 8:42 pm
$10 says Jeffrey Loria has one of these in his office.
Julia Grey:
November 13th, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Omigaud.
And we go around bemoaning Andrew Johnson’s lack of decency?
scott g:
November 13th, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Thanks for not pointing out the Humboldt County origins of that excrescence. Those bears were some of the last of the Lost Coast.
Barry Freed:
November 13th, 2012 at 10:51 pm
That would make a fine crapper.
Erik Loomis:
November 13th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
I didn’t realize it was Humboldt County until commenters above pointed us to the Wikipedia page. Which was plenty disturbing.
Name withheld:
November 14th, 2012 at 2:13 am
Wait, you mean they’re not the same person? I am 100% serious… I only just now realized that.
rea:
November 14th, 2012 at 6:56 am
Loria’s chair is made of Miami and Montreal fans
Brien Jackson:
November 14th, 2012 at 7:37 am
Loria would have to go using endangered species for his extravagant symbol of cartoon villainy, wouldn’t he?
Western Dave:
November 14th, 2012 at 8:47 am
I had the exact same thought.
rea:
November 14th, 2012 at 9:00 am
You actually have to give Loria some kind of credit. Remorse over his role in moving the Expos out of Canada seems to have motivated him to buy up an expensive team and then ship it to Toronto.
IM:
November 14th, 2012 at 10:16 am
The throne of Bear Island?
muddy:
November 14th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
This would be great as a Santa chair.
JustRuss:
November 14th, 2012 at 1:28 pm
Now that you mention it, I’ve never seen a picture of Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson together. Hmmmmmm…..
JustRuss:
November 14th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
The Internets, you win them.