This song was created by a major retail store named Montgomery Ward for the purpose of enticing shoppers to their store. The story of the origins of Rudolph is as heartwarming as the song itself. The story of Rudolph began in 1939. America was still in the midst of the Great Depression but it didn't prevent people from celebrating and enjoying the good times of life. In the Chicago headquarters of the Montgomery Ward retail store that summer, executives were making plans for the Christmas season that year. Cities were more compact and commerce was centered downtown during those days. Christmas shoppers would flock downtown and these stores competed fiercely for these shoppers' dollars. The stores hung up lavish decorations and in their toy departments. They would create Christmas kingdom displays with Santa Claus enthroned in the middle. The highlight of the Christmas shopping season was for children to go downtown shopping with their parents to see Santa. Children would wait in line to see Santa. Once they sat on his lap, they gave their Christmas wish requests to Santa. After assuring Santa they had been good boys and girls, Santa would assure them he would do his best to grant their requests. Before they would leave Santa would reach into the large sack next to his chair and reminding them to be good, he would give them a little parting gift. For a number of years Montgomery Ward had filled their Santa's sack with a Christmas coloring book they had specially printed each year. In 1939, Montgomery Ward had decided to try to do something new and different. They happened to use their advertising department to create the new giveaway instead of hiring someone from the outside.
Robert L. May, a 34 year-old employee for Montgomery Ward was asked to come up with a new gift for Santa to give to the little children. May was small for his age and had experienced taunt and ridicule from other children when he was young. He decided to create a character that had similar problems, who, in the end, rose above his problems and was transformed. It was a very difficult task for him because his wife lay dying of cancer. They both had a four year-old daughter named Barbara who was also having to deal with the grief of losing her mother. Barbara helped her dad in the creation of Rudolph. Robert worked on the project in his home and in his office. He would test out the themes and story lines on Barbara. They both would converge together on the project. It's been stated that Barbara was the one that came up with the name "Rudolph". May's creation was not the "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" song that everyone knows today nor was it the popular cartoon now shown on television each Christmas. May's creation was a short story written in rhyming verse. It was the story of a little reindeer who was different due to a physical deformity, which was his bright red nose. He lived an ordinary life with his parents in the woods. He didn't live at the North Pole and his parents weren't part of Santa's reindeer team. He had to deal with the taunts of the other little reindeer because he was different. He had a positive outlook on life and he didn't allow his deformity to hold him back. Santa had asked him to guide his sleigh with his bright red nose because there was a dense fog out there and Santa couldn't see. He said all the children in the world would be disappointed unless Rudolph helped guide the way. The ending of the song was a little different when it was first created. At the end of the song, Santa said to Rudolph, "By you last night's journey was actually bossed. Without you, I'm certain we'd all have been lost." It's different from the current ending which says, "He'll go down in history."
The book given out by the Montgomery Ward Santas was an immediate hit with the children and their parents. Montgomery Ward distributed 24 million copies the first year. The popularity of the story continued immediately following 1939, but because of World War II, there was a paper shortage. Montgomery Ward was only able to produce and distribute 6 million copies between 1939 and 1946. Very few of the original six million booklets survive to this day. There was also tragedy that took place in May's life. His wife died of cancer. The medical expenses of her illness placed him deeply in debt. May didn't profit from the publishing of the story because Montgomery Ward owned the story. The story actually was a giveaway to children from Santa. Montgomery Ward profited form Rudolph indirectly by enticing more shoppers to the retail store.
In 1946, a financially strapped Robert May approached Sewell Avery, President of Montgomery War and asked for the rights to publish the story commercially. Avery granted May's request in January 1947 and the copyright to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was given to May by his employer. May then published the story commercially as a book in 1947 and also authorized the production and release of a nine minute cartoon version of the story for viewing in the theaters. May then teamed up with his brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks to turn May's story-poem into a song. In writing the lyrics, Marks changed the story slightly from May's original from the story we know today in the song. They had a difficult time finding a singer for that song. There weren't many singers willing to sing a song which would change the image of Santa's Reindeer from Clement Moore's poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" a century earlier. Gene Autry, a singer and actor best known for his role in Westerns, agreed to sing the song and it became a smash hit and had its place assured in the cannon of Christmas music. Year's later there would be a prime-time TV special in which Burl Ives would narrate the show and sing the song. Here's some of the lyrics to RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows
All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say
Rudolph with your nose so bright won't you guide my sleight tonight
Then how the reindeer loved him as they shouted out with glee
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
He'll go down in history
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