In this episode - The 1939 Story of Rudolph . . . Everyone knows Rudolph was the last reindeer to join Santa's team, but few people know about the department store copywriter who brought his story to the world. The year was 1939, the Great Depression was waning, and a manager at Montgomery Wards in Chicago, Il. decided that the store should create its own children's book for the annual holiday promotion. Free to kids who came to see Santa Claus. The boss tapped Robert L. May, an ad man for the store, to take a crack at a story. May always a hit at holiday parties for his way with limericks and parodies. But May didn't see himself as a winner. He had always felt like a bit of an outcast, and, at 35, he thought he was far from reaching his potential, pounding out catalog copy instead of writing the Great American Novel as he had always dreamed he would. The now-famous story of a misfit reindeer named Rudolph turned his “nonconformity" of a large shiny red nose to advant
A smidgen of history, a dash of culture - a minute dedicated to making you smile.