The Story of Rudolph

It's Christmas time and one of the most famous stories told this season is that of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Most of us know the story, but what about the story behind the story? How did Rudolph become one of those things synonymous with Christmas?

It all started with Robert L. May. In the 1930s, May took a job in Chicago as a copywriter for Montgomery Ward, a chain of retail outlets. The stores had a tradition of giving out coloring books for Christmas and in 1939 decided that making their own would be a great way to save money, drive up sales, and make something original. May was given the task of putting together a story, preferably one centered around a cute animal. He decided on writing a poem about a deer after seeing his 4-year-old daughter's excitement over the ones in the Chicago zoo (and reindeer were already a part of Christmas lore since the 1823 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas"/"Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore). The poem's inspiration came from May's own childhood, when he was very shy. He read the lines of the poem as he wrote them to his daughter to make sure they would entertain children. Before he could finish the poem, however, his wife died of cancer, leading his boss to offer May a different assignment. May refused and completed the poem, which was distributed for 1939's holiday season. It was a wild success with shoppers.

In 1947, a small New York publisher agreed to publish the Rudolph poem as an updated book, while other publishers had refused out of fear that the market was ruined from earlier free distribution. Once again, however, the story proved incredibly popular and became a best-seller.

The story reached an even greater level of national attention with the musical adaptation, sung in 1949 by Gene Autry (once again turned down by others; in this case: Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore). It became one of the top tracks of all time.

In 1964, the stop-motion animation TV special was made by Rankin/Bass, becoming a holiday classic. The story continues to expand and new adaptations are being made even today, but come on, this one is the best.

Moral of the story? If you ever think advertisers are all bad, remember, one of them made Rudolph! Oh, and be nice to social misfits (like advertisers)!