POOH CORNER

Walt Disney Co. has changed its mind and decided to allow a giant statue of Winnie the Pooh to be built in the Canadian town near where the famous little bear was born. Disney--which holds copyright to all reproductions of Winnie the Pooh--turned down a request made earlier this year by the town of White River, Ontario, saying it had other “contractual commitments” for Pooh. Tom Bagdon, president of the White River Chamber of Commerce, thinks adverse publicity may have caused the Disney Co. to relent. “When we were refused and that went public they were swamped with calls,” Bagdon said. “Once they verified the claim that Winnie the Pooh was a real bear and our story was accurate, their lawyers said we could go ahead and put up our statue.” According to Bagdon, Pooh, the bear on whom British writer A.A. Milne based his children’s stories, was born near White River in 1914. The cub was later taken to Europe and left at the London Zoo where Milne and his son, Christopher Robin, spotted the gentle American black bear.