Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was conceived for a purely Scrooge-like reason — to make money.
Its creator, however, saw the Montgomery Ward marketing campaign as an opportunity to be as bold in his writing as the fantastical flying stag with a blindingly bright beak he invented was when called upon to pull Santa Claus’ sleigh through fog.
Robert Lewis May wrote the original story — about 100 rhyming phrases spread over 32 pages — in 1939. It predated his fellow Dartmouth College grad Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” book by almost two decades.
More than 80 years after its inception, here’s how Rudolph — a completely Chicago concoction — became a Christmas icon.
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Ward’s and Sears were the nation’s largest mail-order and department stores in 1939. With each company dueling for supremacy, Ward’s came up with an idea to attract families to its toy department — “a Christmas give-away story” May called it in a 1976 letter. Parents would receive copies of the free Rudolph story in a pamphlet at any of Ward’s more than 600 locations throughout the country during the pre-World War II Christmas season. (Surprisingly, Ward’s didn’t sell any items bearing Rudolph’s likeness to accompany the soft-covered booklet.)
May took on this extra assignment and worked nights and weekends on it from his family’s apartment at 2734 N. Mildred Ave. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. He essentially crafted an original poem infused with his own relatable, underdog experiences from childhood. The story also took inspiration from “The Ugly Duckling” fairy tale and coupled it with a heroic addition to the “eight, tiny rein-deer” pulling Santa’s sleigh in Clement Clarke Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas.”
May considered a laundry list of “R” names for his character before settling on Rudolph. One wonders if it would still be the most famous reindeer of all — had its name been Reginald, instead?
The original manuscript and illustrations have been housed at Dartmouth’s Rauner Special Collections Library — yep, named after former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner — since 1958, a gift from May.
The copyright: ‘Let Bob May have it’
May knew his story about the reindeer with a red nose had the potential to become a brand of its own.
Ward’s issued another 3.6 million copies of its “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for its stores in 1946. Though Rudolph’s story was popular, it wasn’t lucrative for its creator — yet.
But when RCA-Victor contacted Ward’s about creating a recording of the Rudolph story set to music — also in 1946 — May saw an opportunity to finally gain his own royalties from the reindeer.
May pleaded his case with several managers at Ward’s, but it was Ward’s president Wilbur H. Norton, May said, who made the difference. Norton convinced Ward’s Chairman Sewell Avery — whom May described as “a one-man Supreme Court, from whose decision there was no appeal” — to transfer the Rudolph copyright to May. Norton argued the department store was “not in the business to try to make a couple of thousand in royalties from RCA-Victor,” May recalled.
Avery reportedly told a meeting of Ward’s officers, “Let Bob May have it.”
“Five words that changed my life,” May said.
The copyright was officially transferred to May on Jan. 1, 1947 — so Ward’s could complete the 1946 Rudolph Christmas promotion without infringing on May’s new ownership of Rudolph. (This copyright was renewed in 1967, and the original 1939 version of the story is set to enter the public domain in 2034.)
“Born as a copyright, Rudolph has remained one ever since,” author Ronald D. Lankford, Jr. wrote in his 2017 book, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: An American Hero.”
For the first time on Oct. 4, 1947, the Rudolph story was sold in book form — for 50 cents a copy — and no longer given away. Over the years the story and illustrations would change, but the rights stayed with May. He appeared at local bookstores and children’s Christmas events — including one with a skydiving Santa — to sign copies of his book. The original was reissued in 1993 and found a new generation of Rudolph fans.
With the copyright, May was then free to create a variety of items featuring the red-nosed reindeer, but he also realized Rudolph’s popularity would fluctuate with each year’s new Christmas fads.
“I quickly realized that my flow of royalties would soon dry up unless I could make Rudolph known and popular and successful outside Montgomery-Ward-land,” May wrote in a 1976 letter. “Along with newspaper and magazine articles, radio and TV interviews, I thought of trying to accomplish my purpose with a Rudolph song.”
He contacted Johnny Marks, a songwriter who also happened to be married to May’s sister, Margaret. Marks adapted May’s story into lyrics and set it to music.
That song was first recorded in 1949 by cowboy star Gene Autry, whose wife, Ina, apparently persuaded him to do it. It became one of the biggest hits of the season, selling 1.75 million copies. It also became the first No. 1 song of the 1950s, according to ASCAP.
Though Marks died in 1985, his St. Nicholas Music publishing company still owns the song’s copyright. In 2020, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Marks was the 20th-most-popular holiday song — played almost 30,000 times on radio stations throughout the United States and more than 75 million times on-demand through streaming platforms, according to MRC Data/BDS.
Burl Ives — disguised as Sam the Snowman — made the tune memorable for a new generation of Rudolph fans.
Though the first animated feature about the character came out in 1948, Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is considered the quintessential show about May’s creation.
Released in 1964 — the 25th anniversary’s of the original story — the stop-motion animation special is the longest continuously running Christmas TV special in history. It predates “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” by a year and two years, respectively.
Marks composed for it seven original songs, which the Tribune called “sprightly, catchy and singable.”
The special brought the Rudolph story to yet another generation of children — including May’s daughter, Martha.
“The first year, we watched it on a big box Montgomery Ward TV in the rec room, you know, the wood-paneled rec room in the basement and it was like magic. As soon as the show ended, I tell you, the phone did not stop ringing. Daddy felt like such a celebrity,” she told the Tribune in 2021. “At the beginning of the show, my father’s name and my uncle Johnny Marks, who did the music, their names are on little gift boxes during the opening credits. I’ve always loved to see that.”
For the program, Rudolph gained a love interest named Clarice. He also found friendship with another outcast, Hermey the Elf, who would rather become a dentist than make toys, as well as Yukon Cornelius, a dog-sled musher looking for silver and gold. The Island of Misfit Toys storyline mirrors a section from May’s “Rudolph’s Second Christmas” book.
They remain ingrained in modern culture. Three characters appeared on U.S. Postal Service stamps in 2014 — Santa, Hermey and Bumble the abominable snowman. Two puppets from the production were sold at auction in 2020 for $368,000. These items are part of an exhibit at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.
May died at the age of 71 on Aug. 10, 1976, and is buried in River Grove’s St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.
“It’s the only reindeer I know that ever put six kids in college,” May told the Tribune in 1972. If he were alive today, he’d say it put his grandchildren through college, too.
His family still retains the copyright to May’s work through the Robert L. May Co. Character Arts licenses the Rudolph image for everything from T-shirts to toys.
And, as the Tribune noted in 1972, Rudolph never ages and there is no generation gap in his story.
Why does Rudolph endure?
“Americans,” he said, “are always for the underdog who, thru goodness and perseverance, gains the respect of everyone.”
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