Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Original 1939 Hardcover Book by Robert L. May

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1939 hard version of the Book. The story of the creation and history of the book is extremely fascinating; indeed … Read more 1939 hard version of the Book. The story of the creation and history of the book is extremely fascinating; indeed it's place in Americana is permeant.

We learned that as the holiday season of 1938 came to Chicago, Robert L May (Bob) wasn’t feeling much comfort or joy. A 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward, Bob was exhausted and nearly broke. His wife, Evelyn, was bedridden, on the losing end of a two-year battle with cancer. This left Bob to look after their four-year old daughter, Barbara.

One night, Barbara asked her father, "Why isn’t my mommy like everybody else's mommy?" As he struggled to answer his daughter's question, Bob remembered the pain of his own childhood. A small, sickly boy, he was constantly picked on and called names.

He began to spin a tale about a reindeer with a bright red nose (Chicago’s fog played a part in the red nose) who found a special place on Santa’s team. Barbara loved the story so much that she made her father tell it every night before bedtime. As he did, it grew more elaborate. Because he couldn’t t afford to buy his daughter a gift for Christmas, Bob decided to turn the story into a homemade picture book.

In early December 1938 Bob s wife died. Though he was heartbroken, he kept working on the book for his daughter. A few days before Christmas, he reluctantly attended a company party at Montgomery Ward. His co-workers encouraged him to share the story he had written. After he read it, there was a standing ovation. Everyone wanted copies of their own. Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book from their debt-ridden employee. Over the next six years, at Christmas, they gave away six million soft copy version to shoppers. Every major publishing house in the country made offers to obtain the book.
In an incredible display of goodwill, the head of the department store returned all rights to Bob. In 1939 a hard copy version of the book was printed.
Note that the story continues: four years later, Rudolph had made Bob into a millionaire. Now remarried with a growing family, he felt blessed by his good fortune. But there was more to come. His brother-in-law, a successful songwriter named Johnny Marks, set the uplifting story to music. The song was pitched to artists from Bing Crosby on down. They all passed. Finally, Marks approached Gene Autry. The cowboy star had scored a holiday hit with "Here Comes Santa Claus" a few years before. Like the others, Autry wasn’t impressed with the song about the misfit reindeer. Marks begged him to give it a second listen. Autry played it for his wife, Ina.
She was so touched by the line "They wouldn’t t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games" that she insisted her husband record the tune.

Within a few years, it had become the second best-selling Christmas song ever, right behind "White Christmas."

Since then, Rudolph has come to life in TV specials, cartoons, movies, toys, games, coloring books, greeting cards and even a Ringling Bros. circus act. The little, red-nosed reindeer dreamed up by Bob May and immortalized in song by Johnny Marks has come to symbolize Christmas as much as Santa Claus, evergreen trees and presents. As the last line of the song says, "He’ll go down in history." See less