This time of year we hear the song “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” a lot. The story behind the song is fascinating.
In 1938 Bob May, a 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward in Chicago was exhausted and nearly broke. His holiday season held no comfort or joy. His wife bedridden, losing her two-year battle with cancer. His four-year-old daughter Barbara feeling left out, different.
Bob understood. He’d been a small, sickly boy, constantly picked on and called names. He wanted to show Barbara that being different was nothing to be ashamed of and created a bedtime tale about a reindeer with a bright red nose who found a special place on Santa’s team.
Barbara loved the story so much that she made him tell it every night. Because he couldn’t afford to buy her a gift for Christmas, Bob turned the story into a homemade picture book.
Bob’s wife died in early December. A few days before Christmas, he attended a Montgomery Ward company party where co-workers encouraged him to share the story he’d written. There was a standing ovation when he finished. Everyone wanted copies of their own.
Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book from their debt-ridden employee. Over the next six years, at Christmas, the store gave away six million copies of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to shoppers. Every major publishing house made offers to obtain the book. In an incredible display of goodwill, the department store returned all rights to Bob.
Four years later, Bob May’s bedtime Rudolph story made him a millionaire. He remarried, had a growing family, and felt blessed by his good fortune. But there was more good fortune to come.
Songwriter Johnny Marks married Robert May’s sister. Marks set the uplifting story to music. Several popular recording artists including Bing Crosby all passed. Finally, Marks approached Gene Autry. Like the others, Autry wasn’t impressed with the song about the misfit reindeer. Johnny Marks begged him to give it a second listen.
Autry played it for his wife, Ina. The line “They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games” touched her so she insisted her husband record the tune. Within a few years, the song became the second best-selling Christmas song after “White Christmas.”
As the years passed, the story’s popularity never waned. On Dec. 6, 1964, NBC broadcast the first Rudolph TV special and it has been broadcast every year since making it the longest-running Christmas TV special in history.
Rudolph lives through TV specials, cartoons, movies, toys, games, coloring books, plush toys, greeting cards, and even a Ringling Bros. circus act. The story symbolizes Christmas as much as Santa Claus, evergreen trees, and presents.
And, the backstory is wonderful. However, …
a fact check with Snoops says the often-quoted story is only partly true. Bob May authored the story for Montgomery Ward as part of this job as a copywriter in the PR department and “tested” it on his daughter. After Montgomery Ward had given away copies for 6 years, they looked for something new for their Christmas giveaways. That’s when May asked for his rights back and they gave it to him.
The success part of “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,” on the other hand, is completely true.
Enjoy Gene Autry singing his version with a 1953 Ed Sullivan Show audience.
Once upon a time there was a girl whose last name started with a “W”. She realized soon that that “W” would get her nowhere in life. She had been at the end of every line. That was especially disturbing during fire drills at school. As a young woman in college, she was last to register for classes. This caused unnecessary delays in graduating due to classes she needed being full before she every got a chance. Eventually, she made up her mind that she would never marry for “Love”. She would not marry for prestige or money. She would only marry a man whose name started with an “A” and she would do this for her unborn children so that they would get a head start in life. One night she was at Shultz’s Beer Garden in Austin, Tx. She was talking to handsome young man whose last name was Gerardo. She made pleasant but blasé conversation until the young man excused himself. She shrugged and took a sip of beer. When she turned around, there was another sitting in the seat next to her. He introduced himself as “Tom”. In her nonchalant manner, she introduced herself and as was her usual enquiry, she asked for his last name. He replied “Autry” like the old singing cowboy. She queried, “And just how is that spelled?” A-U-T-R-Y. There was an immediate interest on both parts. She later found that he was searching for a woman named “Gene”, but he settled for a girl whose middle name was “Jean”, which he swore latter was the name of Gene Autry’s horse. They married and had two children. Neither child necessarily benefited from have a last name starting with an “A” due to efforts to make the world more just and equal. Nevertheless, She gifted her children with a rich history by doing what she was compelled to do. To this day the family stands when Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer is played. Merry warm and fuzzy Christmas.
This is my very, very favorite spinoff story for Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Thank you so much for sharing. Merry Christmas!