Rudolph turns 80
Red-nosed reindeer DOES go down in hist-or-ee
EIGHTY years ago this month Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made his first appearance. He featured in a colouring book written by Robert L May to be given away to children for Christmas at Montgomery Ward, a well-established Chicago department store.
It had given away books for a number of winters before deciding to economise by publishing its own book, which went on to sell an incredible 2.5million copies.
May was scratching his head for how best to write a Christmas story about a reindeer.
He was in his study and looking out of his window but a thick fog had descended from nearby Lake Michigan and it impaired his view.
Eureka! A flash of inspiration came to him. “Suddenly, I had it!” he said. “A nose! A bright red nose that would shine through fog like a spotlight.”
And he was sensitive enough to ensure his illustrations of the red nose wouldn’t be confused with the city’s alcoholics by depicting a particularly cute version of the reindeer. As the story goes, it was Rudolph’s glowing red nose that caused him to be mocked and banished by the other reindeer.
Santa Claus was on his annual flight around the world and was hindered by thick fog.
As he visited Rudolph’s house to distribute his presents, he spotted the reindeer’s nose shining in the dark bedroom and realised it could come in useful as a makeshift light to help him lead his sleigh on Christmas Eve.
Rudolph agreed to Santa’s request and then spent the remainder of the evening leading the sleigh – literally turning him into an overnight hero.
Rudolph is usually depicted as the leading reindeer, though he is only a young buck with adolescent antlers to go with his distinctive nose.
Robert considered calling him Rollo or Reginald before settling on the famous name.
The traditional festive legend has Santa with eight reindeer leading his sleigh before the addition of Rudolph. The others are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet and Cupid. The final two, Dunder (aka Donder and Donner) and Blixem (aka Blixen and Blitzen), derive from Dutch words for thunder and lightning. And then there’s the 1964 Christmas staple Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, written by Johnny Marks. Its enduring popularity has led to Rudolph being immortalised and five years ago, America even issued a series of postage stamps featuring him. He made his first screen appearance in 1948 while, in a 1964 version, the story is retold with typical Hollywood imagination. Here, he’s born to Donner and his wife and grows up to be normal – gathering food and hiding from a snow monster. To disguise Rudolph’s nose, Donner covers it with a black coating of dirt. Rudolph then joins the others at the Reindeer Games but in his excitement, he knocks the dirt off, revealing a red glow that causes them to turn on him. Meanwhile, Santa breaks the bad news that the weather is too bad to take the sleigh out and that Christmas will have to be cancelled but changes his mind when he notices Rudolph’s nose... It all means Rudolph and his companions are now as much a part of Christmas as carols, decorated trees and cooked turkey. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, you’ll go down in hist-or-ee...” He certainly has!