In 1909, wealthy widow Susie W. Allgood marketed a plush marsupial inspired by President William Howard Taft. But children thought the toy looked "too much like a rat," and it sold poorly ...

As Kaufman explains, Billy Possum was “so out of [the company’s] purview of the aesthetic of what they were making.” That seemed to be the consensus. Allgood’s beauty may have been ...