Published in the early to mid-80’s, perhaps. It was my absolute favorite somewhere between 1986 and 1988; I remember this because I have fond memories of reading it while in the refrigerator box fort in the backyard of the house we rented during that time. It was a paperback, thirty pages or so, stylish and clever (to my young senses). I recall only a single illustration: an expressionless polar bear on the second floor of a house or at the top of the landing of stairs; I could have sworn his name was “Victor” but I’ve found nothing similar about a polar bear with that name, other than the Victor Vito books, which this is not. It is also definitely a white bear (so is not Lebraun’s Little Brown Bear series or something by Frank Asch, despite similarly sparse illustrations). He was wearing (polka dotted? striped?) boxers or trousers. I’m nearly certain Alborough’s Bare Bear can’t be it because the plot (despite the reference to underwear) didn’t ring a bell at all, but one never knows. The only other thought I have is that it may be Le-Tan’s Voyage/Visit to the North Pole because his illustrations look familiar, and there’s a dog in the story named Victor, but I can’t find copies of either book at any of our local libraries or a cheap enough edition to risk being incorrect.
One thing to add: Based on the illustrations I’ve seen it also doesn’t appear to be from the Victor and Maria book series. I was so sure I’d found it at last!
Possibly the Daniel Pinkwater series: Larry the Polar Bear?
Albert the Bear by nick Butterworth & Mick Inkpen
Or Albert le Blanc same authors
I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!
If only I could apply this single-minded determination to everything else in life!
The book is “Bear Goes to Town”, by Anthony Browne. I remembered-or, rather, misremembered-most of it: the the red-and-white polka-dot pants don’t exist, but our protagonist is wearing a similarly patterned bow-tie. There is no staircase, but he does find himself on a ladder at some point. I’d also though that a barbershop pole may have been involved; on one of the first pages there’s a striped tree. No clue where the names “Victor” or “Vincent” came from, though, and although I identified him as a polar bear there’s no mention of that fact: he’s simply a white bear.
It’s interesting that I didn’t remember anything else from the book-and, still, poring over it now there is very little that jogs my memory other than a vague familiarity. I am also surprised that I took no notice of the darkness of the story but looking back I almost remember a certain maturity to it, and wonder if the scary bits-the wide open mouth, the eyes shadowed by the black hat, the notion of kidnapping and the implied animal slaughter-are exactly why I only remembered the more innocuous parts.
Thank you all for your help, and for participating in these stumpers!