As an elementary school teacher, one of my main responsibilities was helping my students to understand the world in which they found themselves. For nine of the ten months that we spent together, those lessons would concern subjects such as why the weather was the way it was on a particular day, why some foods are considered to be healthy foods and why some are not, as well as how it only takes three primary colours to make all of the colours of the rainbow. But for that one month of the year known as December, understanding the world around us meant talking about the many holiday traditions that we all engage in with our families in our homes. For instance, why do we suddenly stick a big tree in our living room once the calendar page flips to December? Why are candy canes hook-shaped when no other candy seems to be? Who decided that it was a good idea to hang socks by a fireplace and fill those socks with gifts? On and on it goes. There are a great many Christmas traditions that we all follow without giving much thought to their origins and true meaning. I find it instructive to do so because, if we are being honest, a lot of the things that we do at Christmas time seem pretty weird. Knowing the stories behind our traditions during the holidays helps it all to make sense to me in my mind. So, with that in mind, today we are going to be taking a look at the origin story of one of the most popular and recognizable characters ever created in these more modern times….Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!!!!
While Christmas is most certainly a holiday with religious origins, most children today view it through the lens of marketing by the retail industry. I am not here to say that this is a good or a bad thing. It truly is what it is. We live in a consumerist society, with much of our behaviour shaped by ad executives sitting in boardrooms across the land. There is no greater example of this than how successfully the retail world has been able to transform this formally religious holiday into the modern, commercially-oriented version of Christmas that we have today. As proof, we are going to take a look at how the character known as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer came to be such a beloved and familiar character at Christmas time and why our love of him says more about us than it does about our children.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was brought into being in 1931. Ironically enough, so was my mother, who was also born in 1931. That makes Rudy and my mother both 93 years old as you read these words. I wonder if Rudy knows that it is Christmas time? Anyway, I digress.
The character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in the boardrooms of department store giant Montgomery Ward in the United States. For those unaware, Montgomery Ward was a department store chain that also offered its shoppers the option of ordering by catalogue. Prior to 1931, Montgomery Ward would put together a children’s activity-style book that was available for purchase. This book would feature stories, poems, colouring pages and much more. Many of the images they used were free to publish because they existed in what is known as the public domain. When something falls into the legal category of being in the public domain, it means that the image or name or phrase is so well known and has been in public view/use for such a long time that copyright laws no longer apply and anyone can use the image, phrase, tune, etc., for free. Unfortunately for Montgomery Ward, not all of the images that they sought to use were in the public domain so they were required to pay licensing fees in order to publish their children’s holiday activity book. That was deemed to be an acceptable expenditure until the 1920s drew to its conclusion. As you may know, the onset of the 1930s brought with it the start of the Great Depression in the United States and around the world. A corporation such as Montgomery Ward would certainly have been aware of the financial doom and gloom prognostications being made. Being prudent financial planners, an memo was sent out through all departments of the company that warned that hard times were coming and cost savings were required in order to offset predicted losses in revenue due to the downturn in the economy. One of the many company activities that came under scrutiny was the children’s holiday activity book. Discussions were held as to whether or not this activity book should be discontinued or was it valuable enough as a revenue generator and goodwill ambassador for the Montgomery Ward brand that it should be kept in existence.
In the end, the executives cloistered in the boardroom opted to maintain the activity book but only if savings could be achieved that would reduce publishing costs. Someone then came up with the brilliant idea that if the company created their own Christmas characters, it would eliminate the need to pay licensing fees. One of the reasons for this line of thinking was because of Walt Disney. Just a year or so prior, Disney had shocked the world with the release of his first animated short film called Steamboat Willie. This film featured a mouse that, in time, would go on to become known as Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse, in turn, would soon become the very face of the Walt Disney empire. The executives at Montgomery Ward viewed Walt Disney’s success at developing his brand as a model for their own way forward. After the hand clapping and back slapping died down in their boardroom, a man named Robert L. May was tasked with the job of creating in-house characters for the Montgomery Ward activity book.
Robert L. May loved to write. He entered adulthood with dreams of writing the great American novel. But instead, he became a copywriter for Montgomery Ward in order to pay his bills and keep a roof over his head. The story of how the character of Rudolph came to be a reindeer that could fly and had a red, glowing nose was twofold. First of all, May took his daughter with him on a scouting trip to the zoo to see which animals were the most popular in the eyes of children. May’s daughter was drawn to the reindeer that she saw. If she had been attracted to polar bears, Rudolph could have turned out to be completely different. Sometimes the genius of an idea lay in simply understanding what is being placed directly before your eyes. Because May’s daughter liked the reindeer she saw at the zoo, Rudolph came to life in May’s mind as a reindeer.
The next phase of the plan was to give this reindeer an origin story. For that, May drew upon his own childhood. As a young boy, May had been bullied because of his love of quieter activities such as reading and writing and his interest in the Arts. As an adult, it was these very qualities that had earned him favour with those at Montgomery Ward. Thus, May wanted his reindeer character to be one that had a special gift that was not initially appreciated by those around him. May wanted his reindeer to overcome the derision it faced and end up using that gift to impress Santa in some way. As we all know, May gave his reindeer the gift of a nose that glowed bright red. When May first presented his idea of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to the board of directors at Montgomery Ward, the reaction was negative, mainly due to the emphasis on Rudy’s nose being red. At that time, a red nose was often associated with alcoholism. The last thing Montgomery Ward wanted was to create an alcoholic children’s character as their brand representative. Executives feared they would become the laughing stock of the retail industry and demanded that May, quite literally, go back to the drawing board and try again. In response, Robert L. May stood by his character and asked for time to actually write a story out that placed the red nose in its proper context. May was granted the time to do so. What happened next was actually the foundation upon which all future phases of Rudolph’s marketing campaign was built.
At this moment in time, May’s wife was diagnosed with cancer and quickly became very ill. As she lay dying in their family home, May was filled with melancholy. He understood that his own family dynamic was about to change. The warmth of their shared family holiday traditions resonated more than ever. It was from this place of love that Robert L. May wrote a poem that told the now familiar story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He wrote this poem using the same rhyming pattern as was used a century earlier by Clement Moore when he wrote “Twas the Night Before Christmas” which, obviously, inspired May’s work. For those who are interested, just like Shakespeare had his own writing scheme known as iambic pentameter, Moore and May wrote using a rhyming scheme known as anapestic tetrameter . Ironically enough, rapper Eminem often uses anapestic tetrameter rhyming schemes to give his songs the distinctive cadence they all seem to employ. In any case, Robert L. May was a widower by the time his poem was completed. It was not the great American novel that he had dreamed of writing but, it was a piece of writing that would become one of the most famous works in modern history.
As you know, Rudolph did not remain mere character in a children’s book. The evolution of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from a singular storybook character into a character almost completely synonymous with Christmas happened in three distinct phases. The initial phase was the transformation of May’s poem into the new Montgomery Ward children’s holiday book offering. The story of a bullied reindeer who ends up saving Christmas struck a chord with families. The original Montgomery Ward version of the story was eventually sold to the publishers of the Little Golden Book franchise. It was in this format, as a little golden book, that I first read the story of Rudolph for myself as a child. This was also the book format that I had in my classroom all those years as a teacher. *(You can order your own Little Golden Book version in the link at the end of this post).
The second phase of the launch of Rudolph was just as personal as the first. In 1947, Robert L. May’s sister, Margaret, married a songwriter named Johnny Marks. Needless to say, Johnny Marks was aware of who his brother-in-law was and what he had managed to accomplish with his story about Rudolph. Johnny Marks had a knack for creating Christmas-themed songs. He is the writer of many familiar tunes such as “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas”, “It’s the Most Wonderful Night of the Year”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, “Silver and Gold” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. He offered to come up with some music and lyrics based on May’s story. May agreed to let him try. The result was the Christmas song that, I swear, every child in every school I have ever taught at knows, called “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”. In 1949, Country star Gene Autry recorded and released the musical version of the old familiar story. Autry’s song went to the top of the charts. In the time since then, it has gone on to become the second biggest selling Christmas song of all time, only behind Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”. *(You can listen to his version here).
The third and final phase of the seamless integration of Rudolph into Christmas consciousness was the release in 1964 of the stop-motion animated classic movie simply called, you guessed it, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. Stop motion animation was a revolutionary advancement in the world of animation. It allowed for the use of three-dimensional characters in place of the two-dimensional cartoon figures that had existed up until then. The movie featured an almost all-Canadian cast of voice actors (because it was cheaper to film in Canada at the time) with one exception, American singing star Burl Ives was hired to give voice to the main character of Sam the Snowman. As Sam, Burl Ives got to sing the Johnny Marks songs “Silver and Gold”, “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas”, as well as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. The movie was well received by the public and has been shown every year since on TV, up to and including 2024. Burl Ives re-recorded his three Johnny Marks songs the very next year thus turning them into his own signature songs. It is these versions from the 1960s that remain as popular today as they were when they were first released sixty years ago.
The marketing strategy used to integrate the character of Rudolph into the fabric of Christmas is the same one used by Walt Disney to instinctively associate Mickey Mouse with theme parks, ocean cruises and vacations in the sun. If the mere uttering of a name or the appearance of a visual image can connect a person/consumer with emotional feelings that touch their heart then you know that a brand has been successfully launched. Next to the jolly fat man, himself, is there any character more closely associated with today’s modern version of Christmas than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? I think not. Credit is given where credit is deserved. The intertwining of the story of a tiny reindeer that can fly through fog with the need within us as consumers to associate Christmas with the buying and giving of presents is a masterful example of retail marketing in action. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing, as I said off of the top of this post. It is just the way things are in our society.
The one final aspect of this story that I want to share concerns the puppets used to make the film. In the same way that the ruby red slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz have become a collectors item worth tens of thousands of dollars, one would think that the puppets used to play Santa and Rudolph and the Abominable Snowman would be equally highly sought after. However, apparently no one involved in the production of that landmark 1964 stop-motion film thought to procure the puppets as memorabilia. Some of the puppets were left in storage but most were given away to the children of the cast and crew. They were played with and loved and then forgotten by a generation of small children. When someone finally got around to wondering about these puppets and whether they could be sold at auction for large sums of money, it was discovered that most of them had been lost, except for Santa and Rudolph. Those two puppets were worn to a threadbare state. Despite their tremendous symbolic importance, the puppets were valued at far less than the expected market rate. *(The person who eventually bought the puppets had them restored and later resold them for a much higher price). Generally speaking, the remaining puppets used in the movie were deemed to hold little or no value of any kind. I guess I have a differing set of values. While these puppets were created to perpetuate ideals surrounding profit and consumerism, the children who received them didn’t care a whit about that at all. These puppets were so loved by the children who played with them as to completely wear them out. That says to me that they had the highest value of all. They were loved by children. It doesn’t get much more Christmasy for me than that.
The link to the video for the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Burl Ives can be found here.
The link to the video for the movie trailer for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer can be found here.
The link to the official website for Burl Ives can be found here. Gene Autry’s website is here. Johnny Marks and Robert L. May can be found here and here. The Montgomery Ward store can be reached at the link here.
The link to the website where you can purchase your own copy of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in book form is the one hosted by the local independent bookstore nearest to you. For me, the link can be found here and here.
***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
I enjoy reading your posts and reading these things. My grandfather worked for Montgomery Ward’s, referred to by friends and family as Monkey Wards. But I never knew they were behind “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”. Nor was I aware that Johnny Marks composed all those songs, or that the holiday special we watched so many times was a Canadian product. So much learned in one day, in one post. Happy holidays. Thanks, and cheers. M
Happy Holidays to you as well, Michael. Thanks for your kind words.👍🎄🇨🇦🎁