My four year old has discovered Rudolph. When he was two years old, his father and I bought him the pack of DVDs from Wal-Mart that included Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. His first year, he didn’t seem to care much about it. When he didn’t care about the classic shows last year, we began to worry. Maybe the invention of cable television and channels such as Noggin had made these classics obsolete in younger minds. But, this year, it finally kicked in and now he is obsessed with Rudolph and Frosty both!
Although eight other reindeers came first – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen – Rudolph seems to be the most famous of all, just like the song goes. Rudolph was the creation of copywriter Robert L. May. He wrote for the Montgomery Ward department store and in 1939, he was given the task to come up with a Christmas themed poem to bring in holiday traffic. Yes, Rudolph was originally a money making idea.
May came up with the now famous story. It tells of young Rudolph, who was teased by the other reindeer for having a glowing red nose. But, like most children’s stories, there is a happy ending. One Christmas Eve, Rudolph saved the holiday by leading Santa’s sled through the fog then all the other reindeers loved and accepted him, even though he was different.
People loved the story – Montgomery Ward sold about 2,500,000 copies of the poem in 1939 alone. Johnny Marks, May’s brother-in-law, created the song from the poem in 1949. It was recorded by cowboy actor/war hero Gene Autry that same year. That year, the song sold over two million copies.
The story grew even more in popularity when it was made into a television movie by NBC in 1964. A whole generation (mine) grew up hearing Burl Ives tell the story of poor little Rudolph, the island of misfit toys, Hermey, the elf that wanted to be a dentist, Yukon Cornelius, and of course, the Abominable Snow Monster of the North.
Having been translated into 25 different languages, Rudolph and his story has become a staple of the Christmas season.