Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a song that we think is a cartoonish fun fluff song of Christmas. But the story behind it is actually quite sentimental…
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – Inspired During the Great Depression.
In 1938, as the Great Depression wound down and even as the prospect of better times loomed on the horizon, Bob May was looking toward another bleak Christmas. An advertising copywriter for Montgomery Wards, living on a meager salary, May was on the brink of Bankruptcy and exhaustion. After fighting cancer for two long years, his wife, Evely, was losing the battle. Staring into each other’s eyes, they both knew she wouldn’t last long. Their daughter knew something was wrong too.
On a cold December night, after visiting her bedridden, emaciated mother, their four-year-old, Barbara, climbed up into her father’s lap. “Why isn’t my mommy just like every-body else’s mommy?” she solemnly asked.
How could he explain to a small child that her critically ill mother wanted to play with Barbara, read her stories and – more than anything in the world- be with her for every important moment in life? How could he tell an innocent girl that illness and death were a part of life? That Evelyn wanted to be like other mothers, but illness had excluded her from all the activities that children and their mothers normally enjoyed? How could he give her the answers she needed without breaking little Barbara’s heart in the process?
In their drafty, two- room Chicago apartment, with the cold north wind rattling the windows, Bob May held his daughter in his arms and struggled to answer the child’s simple question. He recalled the pain he had always felt growing up because he had been considered different. May had been a small, thin child, constantly picked on by other children, called “sissy” and other names he didn’t want to remember. Even in college he was so slightly built that he was often mistaken for a girl.
May’s Wife Gets Sick…
Despite having a college degree, the country’s sorry financial state had made it almost impossible for May to find any other job than the position at Wards that was far beneath his skill level. Yet when he found Evelyn and they fell in love and married, Bob suddenly he felt like a king. For the first time he had a place in the world where it was all right to not fit the mold.
Their daughter’s birth seemed to assure the man that good times were just around the corner. But then Evelyn got sick and the cost of fighting the cancer stole not only his wife’s energy but the family’s savings as well. Bob sold everything of value and they lived in what amounted to a slum.
But on that cold, windy night, even with every reason to cry and complain, Bob wanted his daughter to somehow understand that there was hope… and that being different didn’t mean you had to be ashamed. Most of all, he wanted her to know she was loved.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – Though You are Not Accepted – You can Find Your Place in This World!
Drawing from his own life experiences, the copywriter made up a story about a reindeer with a large bright red nose. And as little Barbara listened, May described in story form not only the pain felt by those who were different b ut also the joy that can be found when someone discovers his special place in the world.
The tale was a big hit with Barbara, and thereafter she demanded that her father tell it to her each night. With every new telling the plot grew more elaborate, and the reindeer, Rudolph, became less a fictional character and more a member of the May family.
May Makes a Homemade Book
Unable to purchase a gift for Barbara that Christmas, Bob decided to carefully craft his story about Rudolph into a homemade book, drawing on his own abilities as an artist for the pictures. Many evenings after his wife and daughter had gone to sleep, Bob carefully worked to finish his unique present. But tragedy struck the May family before Christmas could arrive: Evelyn lost her battle with cancer.
Though the last few pages of his gift book were stained with tears, Bob would not give up on Rudolph. He knew that his daughter needed the uplifting story now more than ever. He prayed for the strength to finish the project. His efforts were rewarded when a thrilled Barbara found a completed copy of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer waiting for her on Christmas morning.
Though he hardly felt like celebrating, a few days later Bob was forced to attend a Montgomery Wards’ employee party. His coworkers in the ad department asked May to share his children’s story that night. Though he didn’t feel like it, he took his book and, at the appointed moment, climbed before the crowd and read the story. After the scores of holiday revelers laughed, they stood and gave May and his children’s tale a thunderous ovation. They all loved Rudolph and wanted copies of their own.
The head of the company felt that Wards could benefit from Bob’s gift to his daughter. For a modest sum, Stewell Avery, the chairman of the board of Montgomery Wards, bought all rights from the cash-strapped and debt-ridden May. Avery then had tens of thousands of copies of Rudolph printed and shipped to Wards stores across the nation in time for Christmas 1939. The response was so positive that for the next six years, each child who visited a Santa in a company store got a copy of May’s book.
By 1946 Wards had given away six million copies of Rudolph and Stewell Avery was being besieged by offers from every major publishing house wanting to print a new version of the story. In one of the most generous decisions ever made by the head of a large company, the CEO gave all rights back to Bob May. A year later the mass-market release of the book made the Wards copywriter a rich man.
With the book a best-seller numerous toy and product deals were soon cut and May’s entire life revolved around a story he had told to comfort a worried daughter. Remarried, and with a growing family, Bob couldn’t imagine anything else that could improve his wonderful life. Then his brother-in-law Johnny Marks, decided to adapt the story into a song.
Marks, who had written music for a number of major recording stars, hoped that the “Voice of Christmas,” Bing Crosby, would record the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” When Crosby passed, Marks offered the song to Dinah Shore. She wasn’t interested either. Other artists were given the demo, but none of them wanted it. Finally, cowboy star Gene Autry was approached. Marks figured that Autry might be looking for a follow-up to his earlier Christmas hit, “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Besides, Gene, unlike Bing and Dinah, often sang kids’ songs. Children were his main audience.
Like Crosby, Shore, and the other artists, Autry was unimpressed. He had already discovered a song he felt would become a seasonal children’s classic in “If it Doesn’t Snow This Christmas.” There was no doubt that the favored title was a great song and a perfect children’s ingle, but Marks begged Gene to give “Rudolph” a second listen. The writer figured that Autry might find a place for the misunderstood reindeer on the “B” side of the record.
Gene took Mark’s demo home and played it for his wife, Ina. As they listened, Autry scoffed that there were already too many songs about reindeer. Ina thought differently. When she heard the line “they wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games,” it broke her heart. She insisted that her husband cut the song.
Columbia Records wanted Autry to record four sides (songs) for a Christmas release. “Rudolph” was the last song chosen and cut. A few weeks later, when Autry sang “Rudolph” at the Madison Square Garden rodeo, the crowd went wild. As the cowboy’s fans rose to their feet, the underdog deer flew past the other three new Christmas cuts and became the singer’s holiday release for 1949. While Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore looked on, Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” streaked to number one on the charts. It would soon become the second best-selling Christmas song of all time, just behind “White Christmas.”
Through books, records, television specials, and movies, for tens of millions of children of all ages, Rudolph had become as much a symbol for the secular wonder of the Christmas season as Santa Claus. While there are many lessons to be learned from this magical story – including that while it takes courage to be different, being different can be a blessing – there is an even greater lesson from this tory and song that is now all but forgotten:
When you give a sincere gift of love from the heart, that gift will come back to you magnified beyond all expectations and measures. It is a lesson that the fictional Rudolph and the very real May family are still living more than six decades after the story was first told.
Are You a Fan of Rudolph? Check out some these Exciting Fandoms…
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical (rudolphthemusical.com)
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (the-north-pole.com)
