The Fire Prevention Message---

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

[K9luvr]

Smokey Bear is his "real name" but when the song was written, the author changed it to "Smokey the Bear" to get the song to flow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3PhVQmRdKk&feature=related

The only civilians killed on U.S. soil in WWII were picnickers in Oregon that came across an unexploded bomb sent over by Japan.  When I worked on the Fremont NF in eastern oregon, they warned us if we ever came upon any old unexploded bombs from this era to stay away and report them. 

[RobertW]

On August 9, 1944 a bear was chosen to be the spokesman for forest fire prevention. The bear was named "Smokey" after a well-known New York City Assistant Fire Chief named Smokey Joe Martin. The first slogan, "Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires"... the second Smokey message was "Remember only you can prevent forest fires", was coined in 1947.

Just on the trivia side: The first animal used to deliver the fire prevention message was a deer! Yup, a simple little fawn. it was Walt Disney's "Bambi".