To most of us, the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer -- immortalized
in song and a popular TV special -- has always been an essential part of our
Christmas folklore. But Rudolph is a decidedly twentieth-century invention
whose creation can be traced to a specific time and person.
Rudolph came to life in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company
(operators of a chain of department stores) asked one of their copywriters,
34-year-old Robert L. May, to come up with a Christmas story they could give
away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. (The Montgomery Ward stores had been
been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year, and May's
department head saw creating a giveaway booklet of their own as a way to save
money.) May, who had a penchant for writing children's stories and limericks,
was tapped to create the booklet.
May, drawing in part on the tale of The Ugly Duckling and his own background
(he was a often taunted as a child for being shy, small, and slight), settled
on the idea of an underdog ostracized by the reindeer community because of his
physical abnormality: a glowing red nose. Looking for an alliterative name, May
considered and rejected Rollo (too cheerful and carefree a name for the story
of a misfit) and Reginald (too British) before deciding on Rudolph. He then
proceeded to write Rudolph's story in verse, as a series of rhyming couplets,
testing it out on his 4-year-old daughter Barbara as he went along. Although
Barbara was thrilled with Rudolph's story, May's boss was worried that a story
featuring a red nose -- an image associated with drinking and drunkards -- was
unsuitable for a Christmas tale. May responded by taking Denver Gillen, a
friend from Montgomery Ward's art department, to the Lincoln Park Zoo to sketch
some deer. Gillen's illustrations of a red-nosed reindeer overcame the
hesitancy of May's bosses, and the Rudolph story was approved. Montgomery Ward
distributed 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph booket in 1939, and although
wartime paper shortages curtailed printing for the next several years, a total
of 6 million copies had been given by the end of 1946.
The post-war demand for licensing the Rudolph character was tremendous, but
since May had created the story as an employee of Montgomery Ward, they held
the copyright and he received no royalties. Deeply in debt from the medical
bills resulting from his wife's terminal illness (she died about the time May
created Rudolph), May persuaded Montgomery Ward's corporate president, Sewell
Avery, to turn the copyright over to him in January 1947. With the rights to
his creation in hand, May's financial security was assured. "Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer" was printed commercially in 1947 and shown in theaters as a
nine-minute cartoon the following year. The Rudolph phenomenon really took off,
however, when May's brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, developed the
lyrics and melody for a Rudolph song. Marks' musical version of "Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer" (turned down by many who didn't want to meddle with the
established Santa legend) was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949, sold two million
copies that year, and went on to become one of the best-selling songs of all
time (second only to "White Christmas"). A TV special about Rudolph narrated by
Burl Ives was produced in 1964 and remains a popular perennial holiday favorite
in the USA.
May quit his copywriting job in 1951 and spent seven years managing his
creation before returning to Montgomery Ward, where he worked until his
retirement in 1971. May died in 1976, comfortable in the life his reindeer
creation had provided for him.
It might be fitting to close this page by pointing out that, although the story
of Rudolph is primarily known to us through the lyrics of Johnny Marks' song,
the story May wrote is substantially different in a number of ways. Rudolph was
not one of Santa's reindeer (or the offspring of one of Santa's reindeer), and
he did not live at the North Pole. Rudolph dwelled in an "ordinary" reindeer
village elsewhere, and although he was taunted and laughed at for having a
shiny red nose, he was not regarded by his parents as a shameful embarrassment.
Rudolph was brought up in a loving household and was a responsible reindeer
with a good self-image and sense of worth. Moreover, Rudolph did not rise to
fame when Santa picked him out from the reindeer herd because of his shiny
nose. Santa discovered the red-nosed reindeer quite by accident, when he
noticed the glow emanating from Rudolph's room while delivering presents to
Rudolph's house. Worried that the thickening fog -- already the cause of
several accidents and delays -- would keep him from completing his Christmas
Eve rounds, Santa tapped Rudolph to lead his team, observing upon their return:
"By YOU last night's journey was actually bossed. Without you, I'm certain we'd
all have been lost!"
Click here to read A Reindeer Named Rudolph.
