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The Most Famous Reindeer Of All
Would it be rude to suggest that Rudolph was just a marketing gimmick?
I suppose if that’s all you said about him that it would be rude to say that.
There’s considerably more to be said about dear Rudolph.
Marketing Genius
Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation. ~Milan Kundera
As ideas go, Rudolph meets both of those benchmarks.
The story was innovative enough to still be popular today and the marketing angle was to delight children so their parents would come to shop at the Montgomery Ward department store where Robert Lewis May was employed as a copywriter.
Robert May’s assignment in 1939 was to create a story to be published as a Christmas gift to their customers’ children. They had been giving away coloring books in previous years and thought it would be more cost effective to make their own storybook. They gave away almost two and a half MILLION copies of the story the very first year.
Here’s a link to a feature by NPR regarding the story of Robert L May’s classic creation. You can see images of the original book that was distributed by Montgomery Ward and listen to the radio spot from NPR.
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A Long And Winding Road
What started off as a seasonal marketing gimmick for a department chain grew quickly in popularity.
Songwriter Johnny Marks was Robert L. May’s brother-in-law. He adapted the Montgomery Ward storybook to music. The song was released by Gene Autry at September 1st, 1949 but didn’t hit number one on the charts until Christmastime.
Listen to the Gene Autry version of Johnny Marks’ musical adaptation of the Rudolph story.
The song has been a magnet for popular performers ever since. Bing Crosby, Spike Jones, Jimmy Durante, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Burl Ives, The Temptations and even Raffi have released their own version of this simple song in their own times and style.
Getting Animated
Before the song was recorded, Max Fleischer was hired by Montgomery Ward to create an 8½ minute cartoon based on May’s storybook. The original release of the film did not include the Johnny Marks song and included Montgomery Ward in the opening credits. The cartoon was re-released in 1951 with the song added into the intro and mention of the department store was removed.
In 1964, Rudolph came to the small screen as a stop-motion animation produced by Rankin/Bass. As it turns out, Arthur Rankin Jr. was Johnny Marks’ neighbor. He asked permission to make use of the song as the basis for a Christmas special. Once it was all worked out, Rudolph became an enduring holiday tradition. The special has been aired on CBS annually for over 50 years now!
The song “Holly Jolly Christmas” is another of Johnny Marks’ holiday hits.
The TV special is so enduringly popular that it has inspired a variety of offshoots. There was a sound track album of the songs from the show, a videogame for Wii and for DS featuring the characters and even a traveling musical.
A full-length animated feature movie with a star-studded cast was released in 1998 by Goodtimes Entertainment. They added a lot of new characters and plot angles, but the film hasn’t been well received critically or by the viewing audience.
Modern Controversy
What was originally conceived as a plot device to drive the story of an oddball who finds his worth has been causing a lot of stir these days.
It goes without saying that Santa’s initial reaction to Rudolph’s glowing nose in the 1964 TV special is absolutely horrifying. He’s actually kind of a jerk throughout the show. Grumping around, ignoring the elf choir practice, talking smack to the grumpy elf boss and just about cancelling Christmas due to inclement weather. That’s hardly a Santa at all!
Since bullying is a big issue these days, a story that depends so much on bullies and their enablers in the personae of Coach Comet and grumpy Santa has led to some grousing in various corners.
To that I say, Bah Humbug!
It’s a period piece. It’s been an enduring classic for over 50 years. Clearly, the characters have some distasteful flaws but if they didn’t there’d be no dramatic tension or room for Rudolph to grow into the single most important reindeer in Santa’s herd.
However you choose to view it, this simple tale from a department store copywriter has remained both marketable and innovative for almost a century so far. As long as the snowflake brigade doesn’t squelch the joy of Christmas for the rest of us, there’s no reason to think that the story of Rudolph won’t continue to delight and inspire generations of children to come.