Jacquita Lewter/Special to the Jimplecute
Editor’s note: This story was first published in 2011. The writer passed away in 2015.
Over the years certain commercial images have become symbols linked to the Christmas season and are easily identified with this time of year. One of the most popular and well known is Rudolph, the fictional flying reindeer cursed~~ and later blessed~~with a shiny, glowing “like a light bulb” red nose.
Rudolph’s resume identifies him as “Santa’s ninth reindeer,” and includes the job description of “lead reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve.” The luminosity of his nose is so great that it lights the way like a beacon for the rest of the reindeer team’s path through inclement winter weather on one of the most important nights of the year in the life of a child.
How Rudolph came to life is almost as magical as the story itself. Robert L. May penned one of America’s most famous contributions to Christmas folklore while working as a copywriter for Montgomery Ward & Company in Chicago. May came to work for the giant catalog company in 1936, ten years after he graduated from Dartmouth and then held various advertising jobs in several department stores across the country.
The origin of Rudolph began one January day in 1939. May was given the assignment to come up with a special book for children which Montgomery Ward & Company could give away during the 1939 Christmas season. The large retail company at the time had been buying and giving away coloring books to children each year as a Christmas promotion. The corporate heads decided that by creating their own book the company could save money.
May began working on a story idea about a reindeer who was not like all the others of his kind. At first his boss rejected this idea completely, but May was persistent and finally won the ear and cautious approval of his boss to proceed. He worked on the story line for several months and finally finished it in late August.
The tale was written as a poem in the meter of “ ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Montgomery Ward printed the story. Almost 2.5 million copies were distributed that Christmas season in 1939, and children everywhere, as well as their parents, were immediately enchanted by Rudolph.
The country became caught up in the grip of World War II, and Rudolph went into hibernation. In 1946, Montgomery Ward again published the book, this time distributing over 3.5 million copies and a Christmas legend was re-ignited.
Rudolph’s popularity soared. May was approached by publishers and songwriters, all wanting to be a part of this Christmas phenomenon. But the copyright was owned by Montgomery Ward, and May was unable to sell what he did not own. Then in an act of great generosity, Sewell Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward, gave the copyright to Robert May sometime in 1946. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The story is owned by The Rudolph Company, L. P. and has been adapted in numerous forms including a popular song, television specials and a feature film. Character Arts, LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph company, L. P. Although the story and song are not public domain, Rudolph has become a traditional figure of Christmas folklore.
In 1947, a small children’s book publisher brought out a Rudolph edition that sold 100,000 copies in two years.
Johnny Marks, the author’s brother-in-law, who was a radio producer and had written several popular Christmas songs, decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into a song. The result was a 113-word song first sung commercially by crooner Harry Brannon on New York City radio in the latter part of 1948. This was prior to Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, formally recording the song a year later in 1949.
Documented sources state that Autry was less than impressed with this children’s Christmas tale set to music, and felt that the content was far beneath his lyrical range of expertise. He finally agreed to record the song on side B of a vintage 78 record, only if he could record one of his own songs on side A. The recording company agreed, and the deal was struck.
Autry’s version of the song quickly hit number one on the music charts, and sold 2,000,000 copies during its first Christmas season. It eventually sold a total of 25 million, and remained the second best-selling Christmas record of all time until the 1980s.
As for Autry the reluctant crooner, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” notably boosted his singing career, and he is still readily remembered today by the older among us as the recording artist of this children’s Christmas song. Others who have recorded the song include Billy May in 1953, The Supremes in 1965 and The Jackson Five in 1970.
Rudolph’s first screen appearance came in 1947 in the form of a cartoon short. It was reissued in 1948, with the song added.
Robert May left Montgomery Ward in 1951, to manage Rudolph’s burgeoning career. Over 500 licensed Rudolph products have been marketed~~everything from stuffed toys to charm bracelets, cuckoo clocks and cookie cutters.
May returned to the company in 1958, retiring in 1970. He frequently referred to Rudolph as “my generous son,” claiming that the noble reindeer enabled him to send his six children to college. May died in 1976.
In 1958, Golden Books published an illustrated storybook, entitled RUDOLPH the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The book was adapted by Barbara Shook Hazen written in prose form taken from the original story by Robert L. May, and was illustrated by Richard Scarry. The cost of the 12 page book was 29 cents. Although it is one of the more memorable versions of the story in book form, it is apparently no longer in print. However, a revised Golden Books version of the storybook has since been issued.
National Periodical Publications, also known as DC Comics, published a series of 13 annuals titled “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” from 1950 to 1962. In 1972, DC published a 14th edition in an extra-large format. Subsequently, they published six more Limited Collectors’ Edition in that format.
In 1989, an authentic reproduction of the original edition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was published as the Christmas Classic Golden Anniversary Edition from Montgomery Ward. Sociologist James Barnett has named Rudolph “the only original addition to the folklore of Santa Claus in [this] century.”
The reindeer made his television debut on NBC in 1964, when Rankin/Bass produced a stop-motion animated TV special. In 1975, a sequel to the Rankin/Bass original was produced, entitled “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year,” and a third in 1979, called “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July.” A 2001 film was titled, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys.” These various versions each added new characters and expanded story lines.
An animated feature film of the story was produced in 1998, titled “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie.” It received only a limited theatrical release before debuting on home video.
GoodTimes Entertainment, the producers of this film, brought back most of the same production team for a CGI-animated sequel, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys” in 2001.
Michael Fry and T. Lewis gave Rudolph another brother (in the 2006 American special “Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn’t Happen,” Rudolph has a brother named Rusty) in a series of “Over the Hedge” comic strips.
An overweight, emotionally-damaged reindeer named “Ralph, the Infra-Red Nosed Reindeer,” who has a red nose just like Rudolph’s, but his is put to use defrosting Santa’s sleigh and warming up his toast and waffles. He appears enviously complaining about his brother’s publicity, and his own anonymity.
Thus 72 years later following Montgomery Ward’s business decision to save money on coloring books given as free gifts to children at Christmas by publishing their own, the legend of Rudolph lives on in the minds and hearts of children. The story and song have been translated into over 25 different languages, proving that Rudolph continues to appeal to people all around the world.