You know Dasher and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Of course you do! :) Everyone knows Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. I personally look forward to watching this Christmas special every year and would definitely say that it is one of my favorites. Earlier today I was trying to think of a Christmas idea to blog about and after a little while I thought of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and wondered where the story of this fun little reindeer who saves Christmas came from. Rudolph was created in 1939 by Robert Mays, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward in Chicago. The company wanted to come up with a Christmas pamphlet to hand out to the customers around Christmas time in order to increase the number of people coming to the store and of course to make money. The store was known to hand out coloring books around this time of year but the pamphlet idea was a way to save money. Robert Mays had experience with writing children's stories and poems, so this made him the right man for the job!
Robert Mays decided to write a story about a reindeer that was different from the others and picked on because of his red nose. Before deciding to name the reindeer Rudolph he had considered the names of Rollo and Reginald. The story was written in couplets and had a poetic feel. Mays would read the story as he was working on it to his young daughter to make sure that it would appeal to children. The story was really coming together but May's boss was a little worried about Ruldolph having a red nose due to a red nose being associated with drinking. Mays responded by having a friend draw up a picture of this thought up character. No one could resist this Christmas character and the story was approved by Mays boss. 2.4 million copies of this story were sold just by the end of 1939 alone!
The song "Rudolph-the-Red-nosed-Reindeer" was created in 1949 by Robert Mays brother in law, Johnny Marks and was recorded by Gene Autry. The song sold 2 million copies in the fist year alone.
The tv show that we all know and love first aired in 1964. Somthing that I was suprised to learn was that the characters Yukon Cornelius (silver and gold guy), Clarice (the girl reindeer with the bow who likes ruldolph), and Hermey (the elf who would like to become a dentist) were all new characters added to the special that were not in the book. The scenes about the Island of misfit toys as well as the scene where Rudolph rescues his parents and friend from the abominable were also new to this special.
Although the story may have started out just being a store way of attracting customers, Rudolph is still one of the most popular Christmas specials today that is loved and watched by both kids and adults alike.
Info from:
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/rudolph.asphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer
http://www.the-north-pole.com/carols/rudolph.html
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