The 1939 Story of Rudolph

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 advantage and saved Christmas by leading Santa's sleigh through a foggy Christmas night.

Here is the Original version by Robert L. May - Enjoy!

However, it wasn't the Montgomery Wards book that made Rudolph famous. It just so happened that May's brother-in-law (Johnny Marks) was a songwriter. May talked him into writing a song about Rudolph.

That song was recorded on June 27, 1949, by the singing cowboy Gene Autry. It sold more than 25 million copies and paved the way for the classic Rankin/Bass stop-animation film.

Thanks to Rudolph, Robert May's family was taken care of financially through the end of his life and beyond.

And as for Rudolph, well, as they say, he went down in history.

I'm Patrick Ball; Merry Christmas. See you in the next episode.

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