His work includes documentary footage of the first bear contest (Pilsner Inn, February 1987). A bear contest is a feature at many bear events, a sort of masculine beauty pageant awarding titles and sashes (often made of leather) to winners. This footage is no longer for sale, as Fritscher declined to shift to DVD format and shut down the video company. One example of a bear contest was International Mr. Bear, formerly held each February at the International Bear Rendezvous in San Francisco. It attracted contestants, often with local titles, from all over the world. Bear was held in 1992, and the last was held in 2011. The contest included Bear, Daddy, Cub, and Grizzly titles with the contestant who received the highest score winning the bear title, regardless of what type he was. Gay ' leather-bears' have competed in leather contests, and 'muscle-bears' are another subculture noted by their muscular body mass. The International Bear Brotherhood Flag is the pride flag of the bear community. The Bear History Project, founded by Les L. Wright in 1995, documented the emergence and early evolution of bear identity and bear community.
It became the source material for much of The Bear Book (1999) and The Bear Book II (2001).
