Where Did Rudolph Come From?

With Christmas only a couple days away, I thought it would be helpful to answer a question you've probably asked before: "Where did Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer come from?" I'm sure you don't know the answer, but you are about to find out-consider it my Christmas gift to you.

We can thank Montgomery Ward for giving birth sort of to this legendary animal.  The original Montgomery Ward was a mail-order business and later a store that existed between 1872-2001. Aaron Montgomery Ward started the business in Chicago. A few years after the original store and mail-order business closed, it re-started as a website and mail order and is just called Wards.

Rudolph was created as an ad campaign to get more people into the store and it was successful doing that in the 1930's.  Montgomery Ward asked copywriter Robert L. May to create a story for their holiday coloring books.  The new story was inspired by "The Ugly Duckling" story and the book sold millions of copies between 1939-1949.

May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote the song, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" in 1949 and it became a number one song in the 1950's.  It was recorded by Gene Autry and in it's first year it sold 1.75 million copies.

In 1998, the movie came out and it was a big disappointment at the box office, though it seems to have done pretty well since then.  Some of the voices in the movie are from some famous people like: Whoopi Goldberg, John Goodman, Eric Idle, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Simmons, and Bob Newhart.

And you thought Rudolph only helped Santa out! It's a pretty amazing story that has existed for over eighty years.  Merry Christmas to all!