Rudolph is 82
By: Nancy Whitaker
After the last cookie is eaten, the last gift opened and then it is time to take down Christmas decorations for another year. We won’t be singing those carols for another year, but the tunes and words to them will linger on just as they have for centuries.
One Christmas song that delights young as well as old is, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”For years, children have looked forward to the cartoon of Rudolph and some cry to see that Rudolph was laughed at and made fun of.
(In fact Rudolph may have been bullied)
But, did you know this song hasn’t been around for centuries? Even though the song is an American icon, it was actually written in 1939 by a department store admin who was enduring a personal tragedy of his own.
The department store, Montgomery Wards, had always purchased and distributed coloring books to children as a holiday promotion, but the advertising department thought it would be more cost saving to have their own “in house” book.
This was a time in history when the United States was trying to shake off the effects of the decade long Great Depression. Plus, there were rumblings of war again in Europe. The assignment fell to Robert May, a copywriter with a knack for turning a limerick at the company’s holiday party. The admin, however, had difficulty summoning up holiday cheer because his wife was suffering from cancer and medical bills had placed the family in debt. May,age 33, had a degree from Dartmouth College and would rather write the Great American novel instead of copy for a catalogue.
Given the assignment to develop an animal story, May thought a reindeer was a natural for the leading role (not to mention that his 4-year-old daughter, Barbara, loved the reindeers every time she visited the zoo). As he peered out at the thick fog that had drifted off Lake Michigan, May came up with the idea of a misfit reindeer ostracized because of his luminescent nose who used his physical abnormality to guide Santa’s sleigh and save Christmas. Seeking an alliterative name, May scribbled possibilities on a scrap of paper. Names he came up with were Romeo, Rollo, Raymond were some of the choices but he finally decided on his favorite name of Rudolph.
As May worked on “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” through the summer, his wife’s health worsened. She passed away in July 1939. Now a widower and a single father, May refused the offer of his boss to give the assignment to someone else. “I needed Rudolph now more than ever,” he later wrote. Burying his grief, May finished the story in August.
The 89 rhyming couplets in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” borrowed from Clement Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” right from the story’s opening line: “Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the hills; reindeer were playing…enjoying the spills.” Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” also inspired the storyline as did May’s own childhood when he endured taunts from schoolmates for being small and shy.
“Rudolph and I were something alike,” the copywriter told Guideposts magazine in January 1975. “As a child I’d always been the smallest in the class. Frail, poorly coordinated, I was never asked to join the school teams.”
Those familiar with only the 1964 animated television version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which remains the longest-running Christmas special in television history a half-century after its debut on NBC, might not recognize the original tale. There is no Hermey the elf, no Abominable Snow Monster, not even the Land of Misfit Toys. While Rudolph was taunted for his glowing red nose and disinvited from reindeer games in May’s story, he did not live at the North Pole and was asleep in his house when Santa Claus, struggling mightily with the fog, arrived with presents and realized how the reindeer’s radiant snout could help him complete his Christmas Eve rounds. Montgomery Wards had high hopes for its new 32 page illustrated booklet which would be given to children visiting any of their 620 locations.
The retailer’s holiday advertisements touted “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” as “the rollicking new Christmas verse that’s sweeping the country!” That wasn’t just hype. Children snapped up nearly 2.4 million copies of the paper-bound book in 1939. Plans to print another 1.6 million copies the following year were shelved by paper shortages due to World War II, and Rudolph remained on hiatus until the conflict’s conclusion. When the reindeer story returned in 1946, it was more popular than ever as Montgomery Ward handed out 3.6 million copies of the book.
In the interim, May married a fellow Montgomery Ward employee and became a father again, but he still struggled financially. In 1947, the retailer’s board of directors, stirred either by the holiday spirit or belief that the story lacked revenue-making potential, signed the copyright for “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” over to May. In short order, May licensed a commercial version of the book along with a full range of Rudolph-themed merchandise including puzzles, View-Master reels, snow globes, mugs and slippers with sheep wool lining and leather soles.
In 1949, songwriter Johnny Marks, who happened to be May’s brother-in-law, set Rudolph’s story to music. After Bing Crosby reportedly turned down the chance, singing cowboy Gene Autry recorded the song, which sold 2 million copies in the first year and remains one of the best-selling tunes of all time.
The song and merchandise sales made May financially comfortable, but hardly rich. After leaving Montgomery Ward in 1951 to manage the Rudolph commercial empire, May returned to his former employer seven years later. He continued to work as a copywriter until his 1971 retirement.
By the time he died five years later, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” had become a piece of modern folklore and a metaphor for overcoming obstacles, embracing differences and recognizing everyone’s unique potential. Do you recall when the story of Rudolph came out? Have you ever thought about the meaning of the song? Let me know and I’ll give you a Penny for Your Thoughts.
