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by Dan Sweigert from our December 2007 Newsletter |
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| Did you know that "the most famous reindeer of all" was not one of the original eight cited in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas? So, where did the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer come from? |
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| You know Dancer. . . |
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| Rudolph didn't start lighting up the world with the glow of his famous nose until Robert May created him in 1939. |
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| Retail giant Montgomery Ward had been buying & giving away free coloring books to their customers - then decided to save money by creating their own book for Christmas. So they enlisted May, one of their employees, to create a character & story for their new book. |
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| In May's story, Rudolph was ostracized by his peers because of his glowing red nose. May drew inspiration from Hans Christian Anderson's The Ugly Duckling, and his own experiences as an awkward child being bullied & picked on by his schoolmates. |
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| Jingle Bell Rock. . . |
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| Montgomery Ward gave away 2.4 million copies of the coloring book. Ten years later May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, put the original poem & May's story to music, adding a new twist when Santa enlisted Rudolph to guide his sleigh with his glowing red nose. |
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| In 1949, the song was a major hit for singer Gene Autry, who recorded many other yuletide hits such as Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Frosty, the Snowman. Marks also authored the Christmas classic A Holly Jolly Christmas. |
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| Read on... |
