For years, the
Chicago-based
Montgomery Ward department store chain had been giving away
coloring books as promotional gimmicks during
Christmas. Some executive decided that they could save money by generating a giveaway booklet in house, so they tapped
copywriter Robert L. May for the job.
The story of Rudolph is based on "
The Ugly Duckling" and memories of childhood bullying. He rejected the names Reginald and Rollo, finally settling on Rudolph. But the executives balked at the idea of a red nose, fearing the association with drunkeness. So May dispatched his friend Denver Gillen, who worked in Montgomery Ward's art department, to the
Lincoln Park Zoo to sketch some deer, and Gillen's drawings convinced the hesitant higher-ups.
The chain distributed 2.4 million copies of May's story in
1939 and despite wartime paper shortages managed to give away millions more. May's brother-in-law Johnny Marks turned the story into a song, but many singers were hesitant to mess with the
Santa Claus legend. Finally,
Gene Autry recorded it in
1949, and it became second only to "
White Christmas" as the best selling song of all time. Most people know the Marks/Autry version and don't realize that Marks made some significant alterations to the story.
Another part to the story that many people don't know is that May was deeply in dept due to medical bills from his wife's illness, which she died from around the time of Rudolph's first appearance. However, Montgomery Ward owned the
copyright to the story as he created it
work for hire as an employee of the chain, so May didn't see a penny of the flood of money coming in. But a sympathetic corporate president, Sewell Avery, gave May the copyright in
1947, and May lived comfortably until he died in
1976.
A TV special narrated by
Burl Ives appeared on the
NBC show "
General Electric Fantasy Hour" in
1964 and has become an annual
holiday staple.
Sources: http://www.snopes2.com/holidays/christmas/rudolph.asp, http://www.tvparty.com/xmasrudolph.html