Tommy Tucker
The second most famous rodent in America (only behind Mickey Mouse) dressed as a woman, so as not to get in the way of his tail.
A few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a poor orphaned squirrel, found by a girl on her way to school in Washington, D.C., would become an unlikely figure in the war effort.
Fed with warm milk and placed in an improvised “bed” inside a red wool cap, the animal ended up being handed over to a neighbor, as the girl who found it had moved away.
Zaidee Bullisa middle-aged housewife whose creative and eccentric transformation of the little rodent into a authentic national celebrity.
Baptism Tommy Tuckerthe squirrel became, for a few years, a media and patriotic phenomenon. It has been described as the most famous rodent in America after Mickey Mouse. This is especially so from 1944 onwards, when LIFE magazine, cited by , dedicated a photographic essay to him, detailing the unusual daily life of an animal that, despite belonging to a common species in the capital’s parks and backyards (the eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis), led a life that was anything but wild.
Tommy Tucker in various poses
According to the report, Tommy was an opportunistic omnivore with very human preferences: he ate nuts, grains, fruit, bread, sweet biscuits and vegetables, with avocado as a “delicacy”. And I received meat samples from the neighborhood butcher.
The trait that most fueled the ‘meme’ was, of course, his wardrobe: Tommy never climbed trees or looked for food like his counterparts. Not only did his social agenda prevent him, but his clothing also conditioned him.
Over the years, the little squirrel has accumulated up to about 100 handmade factsincluding a coat and hat “for shopping”, a pleated silk dress “for receiving visitors” and a Red Cross outfit “for visiting the hospital”.
Despite being male, Tommy wore women’s clothing because… the tail made it difficult to wear pants.
His fame began locally, when Bullis took him shopping on his arm, passing by the grocery store, bakery or florist. Or in the car. The squirrel quickly became a presence in pediatric hospitals, where it cheered up sick children, and at school assemblies.
As the war progressed, eccentricity gave way to a more clearly political and mobilizing role. Tommy was included in war bond sales campaigns: someone at the Treasury Department had a custom kiosk built and, dressed in red, white and blue satin, the squirrel “speech” to encourage the public to buy bonds.
The animal, which in the mid-1940s would already have a fan club with around 30 thousand membersbegan traveling by train around the country and participating in radio broadcasts — even appearing associated with appearances with the President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
As the world conflict came to an end, the pace slowed down. Tommy began accompanying Zaidee Bullis and her husband on tourist trips, with their wardrobe and other belongings transported in a trailer pulled by the family car. It was on one of these trips that little Tommy he died, in the Grand Canyon, in 1949. But his story does not end there.
An Arizona taxidermist prepared the body, positioning it with its arms open to allow it to change its clothes even after death. After the death of the Bullis couple, Tommy’s remains, some dresses and a set of letters and press clippings passed to a family member, Elaine Le Martine, who kept the piece on top of a china cabinet. When Le Martine died in 2005, he left the collection to the Smithsonian, which ended up accepting the donation in 2012.
