The Story Of Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer

The True Story of Rudolph……

There are several versions of how Robert L. May created the story of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer  It tells the story how a father overcame adversity and grief for the love of his child, he created an uplifting story of how being different isn’t all bad, Good things do happen and all bosses aren’t scrooge.BE ##

 Robert Lewis May (27 July 1905 – 10 August 1976) was the creator of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Life and career
May graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1926. He then went on to join Montgomery Ward where he created Rudolph in 1939 as an assignment for the company. The retailer had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money. 2.4 million copies of Rudolph’s story were distributed by Montgomery Ward in its first year. Because May had created Rudolph as an employee, he did not own the license. However, in 1947, he was able to convince the company’s corporate president, Sewell Avery to turn over the copyright to him.[1] He is a great-uncle of economist Steven Levitt[2].

Robert L. May, the man who created Rudolph:

The man who created Rudolph lived a similar life. The original story was first told by him to his four year old daughter Barbara when she asked why her mother was different from others. Evelyn, his wife was racked with cancer. He told the story to make his child understand the true essence of Christmas, but May then didn’t know that his story would bring him such fame and money.
Thus the story was made. Barbara loved the story dearly. She would ask her father to repeat it every night. She was the cause for the most loved Christmas creation ‘Rudolph.’
Robert L. May worked as a copywriter for Montgomery Ward in Chicago in 1939. The store was making good revenue during Christmas with its well-known toys of Santa Claus and colouring books that were specially printed each year. This year the Montgomery ward executives wanted something new and different with less cost. So, they asked their staff to come with some new item, instead of asking help from the outside firm.
May made use of the opportunity. He started developing a Christmas story for children. He put forth the idea of Rudolf the red nose reindeer. It was accepted.
After the creation he would always come back and test it on his daughter, to check whether his story fantasized his little one. Of course it did. During these days the father and the daughter came close to each other and forgot all their worldly problems and created a strong bond. Barbara is also credited with the naming of Rudolph as May chose the name that Barbara most enjoyed.
It is also said that the reason for such a story dates back to his childhood. As a child Robert L. May was taunted and ridiculed by other children for his short structure. He was noted as different and an outcast by his playmates.
More than two and a half million copies of the poem was sold that Christmas. May republished the poem in the form of children’s book in 1946. Millions more became familiar with the story of the foible and misfit reindeer.
Though the story may not have any biblical references, but the story does play an important role in the theme of Christmas. Yes, it’s Love. So, all the Rudolph’s and Jacob’s in the world, run to your window and peep, for Santa is here to pick you up from those dark closets. He is all set to take you for a ride on those foggy streets in his chariot. Wipe your tears and shout Yippee! For your not worthless, and someone wants you and loves you because you are YOU. ##

The Rudolph phenomenon really took off, however, when May’s brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, developed the lyrics and melody for a Rudolph song. Marks’ musical version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (turned down by many who didn’t want to meddle with the established Santa legend) was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949, sold two million copies that year, and went on to become one of the best-selling songs of all time (second only to “White Christmas”). A TV special about Rudolph narrated by Burl Ives was produced in 1964 and remains a popular perennial holiday favorite in the USA. May quit his copywriting job in 1951 and spent seven years managing his creation before returning to Montgomery Ward, where he worked until his retirement in 1971. May died in 1976, comfortable in the life his reindeer creation had provided for him. It might be fitting to close this page by pointing out that, although the story of Rudolph is primarily known to us through the lyrics of Johnny Marks’ song, the story May wrote is substantially different in a number of ways. Rudolph was not one of Santa’s reindeer (or the offspring of one of Santa’s reindeer), and he did not live at the North Pole. Rudolph dwelled in an “ordinary” reindeer village elsewhere, and although he was taunted and laughedat for having a shiny red nose, he was not regarded by his parents as a shameful embarrassment. Rudolph was brought up in a loving household and was a responsible reindeer with a good self-image and sense of worth. Moreover, Rudolph did not rise to fame when Santa picked him out from the reindeer herd because of his shiny nose. Santa discovered the red-nosed reindeer quite by accident, when he noticed the glow emanating from Rudolph’s room while delivering presents to Rudolph’s house. Worried that the thickening fog — already the cause of several accidents and delays — would keep him from completing his Christmas Eve rounds, Santa tapped Rudolph to lead his team, observing upon their return: “By YOU last night’s journey was actually bossed. Without you, I’m certain we’d all have been lost!” ###

 Internet Story
A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night.
His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bob’s wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer Little Barbara couldn’t understand why her mommy could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dad’s eyes and asked, “Why isn’t Mommy just like everybody else’s Mommy?” Bob’s jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears. Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob’s life. Life always had to be different for Bob.
Small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was often called names he’d rather not remember. From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn’s bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums. Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.
Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn’t even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn’t buy a gift, he was determined to make one – a storybook! Bob had created an animal character in his own mind and told the animal’s story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope. Again and again Bob told the story, embellishing it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose. Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day. But the story doesn’t end there.
The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book. Wards went on to print,_ Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer_ and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph. That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book.
In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May. The book became a best seller. Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter. But the story doesn’t end there either.
Bob’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore , it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of “White Christmas.”
The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning back to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned the lesson, just like his dear friend Rudolph, that being different isn’t so bad. In fact, being different can be a blessing. ##
Origins: Thus the story was made. Barbara loved the story dearly. She would ask her father to repeat it every night. She was the cause for the most loved Christmas creation ‘Rudolph.’
Robert L. May worked as a copywriter for Montgomery Ward in Chicago in 1939. The store was making good revenue during Christmas with its well-known toys of Santa Claus and colouring books that were specially printed each year. This year the Montgomery ward executives wanted something new and different with less cost. So, they asked their staff to come with some new item, instead of asking help from the outside firm.
May made use of the opportunity. He started developing a Christmas story for children. He put forth the idea of Rudolf the red nose reindeer. It was accepted.
After the creation he would always come back and test it on his daughter, to check whether his story fantasized his little one. Of course it did. During these days the father and the daughter came close to each other and forgot all their worldly problems and created a strong bond. Barbara is also credited with the naming of Rudolph as May chose the name that Barbara most enjoyed.
It is also said that the reason for such a story dates back to his childhood. As a child Robert L. May was taunted and ridiculed by other children for his short structure. He was noted as different and an outcast by his playmates.
More than two and a half million copies of the poem was sold that Christmas. May republished the poem in the form of children’s book in 1946. Millions more became familiar with the story of the foible and misfit reindeer.
Though the story may not have any biblical references, but the story does play an important role in the theme of Christmas. Yes, it’s Love. So, all the Rudolph’s and Jacob’s in the world, run to your window and peep, for Santa is here to pick you up from those dark closets. He is all set to take you for a ride on those foggy streets in his chariot. Wipe your tears and shout Yippee! For your not worthless, and someone wants you and loves you because you are YOU.To most of us, the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer — immortalized in song and a popular TV special — has always been an essential part of our Christmas folklore. But Rudolph is a decidedly twentieth-century invention whose creation can be traced to a specific time and person. Rudolph came to life in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company (operators of a chain of department stores) asked one of their copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to come up with a Christmas story they could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. (The Montgomery Ward stores had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year, and May’s department head saw creating a giveaway booklet of their own as a way to save money.) May, who had a penchant for writing children’s stories and limericks, was tapped to create the booklet. May, drawing in part on the tale of The Ugly Duckling and his own background (he was a often taunted as a child for being shy, small, and slight), settled on the idea of an underdog ostracized by the reindeer community because of his physical abnormality: a glowing red nose. Looking for an alliterative name, May considered and rejected Rollo (too cheerful and carefree a name for the story of a misfit) and Reginald (too British) before deciding on Rudolph. He then proceeded to write Rudolph’s story in verse, as a series of rhyming couplets, testing it out on his 4-year-old daughter Barbara as he went along. Although Barbara was thrilled with Rudolph’s story, May’s boss was worried that a story featuring a red nose — an image associated with drinking and drunkards — was unsuitable for a Christmas tale. May responded by taking Denver Gillen, a friend from Montgomery Ward’s art department, to the Lincoln Park Zoo to sketch some deer. Gillen’s illustrations of a red-nosed reindeer overcame the hesitancy of May’s bosses, and the Rudolph story was approved. Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph booket in 1939, and although wartime paper shortages curtailed printing for the next several years, a total of 6 million copies had been given by the end of 1946. The post-war demand for licensing the Rudolph character was tremendous, but since May had created the story as an employee of Montgomery Ward, they held the copyright and he received no royalties. Deeply in debt from the medical bills resulting from his wife’s terminal illness (she died about the time May created Rudolph), May persuaded Montgomery Ward’s corporate president, Sewell Avery, to turn the copyright over to him in January 1947. With the rights to his creation in hand, May’s financial security was assured. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was printed commercially in 1947 and shown in theaters as a nine-minute cartoon the following year.

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