The "Who Doesn't Love A Red-Nosed Reindeer?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Checking the TV offerings to see what I may care to watch.  Ever notice that with over a few hundred channels available on cable TV, at times there aren't any that really interest you.  Well, tonight's children's Christmas offering of the evening is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Remember it?  It was back in 1964 that the animated television production first aired.  The production was based on the Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which in turn was based on the poem of the same name written in 1939 by Mr. Marks' brother-in-law Robert L. May.  

The cover of the Robert L. May book.

Robert created Rudolph as an assignment for Chicago-based Montgomery Ward.  The retailer had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it decided to create their own book and save money.  Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million Rudolph coloring books that year.  The song was first played in Chicago's Drake Hotel by a refugee from Nazi Germany, Joe Gunther.  The song was broadcast for the first time in 1949 on NY City radio and was sung by crooner Harry Brannon.  The song was later sung by another crooner, Gene Autry whose rendition of the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart the week of Christmas in 1949.  Today there is a high-definition, digitally remastered version of the program.  You knew there just had to be, right.  And, as I was leafing through the TV listings for the week, the same reindeer show is on a few more times.  

Introduction on TV of the show.

Guess it's needed to pay for the new version of the program.  But, the new version is quite a bit different than the original film in 1964.  The original version included puppet figures including one known as Rudolph.  There were a total of ten puppets in the original presentation which included Santa and young Rudolph.  Many of these original puppets have somehow been discarded.  The script writer for the original cast of puppets, Athur Rankin, Jr., kept the original Rudolph figure while the others were given to a secretary of the company.  She gave them to family members with seven being eventually discarded.  The remaining two puppets were later appraised for close to $10,000 each.  

Remember these two characters?

In the original version of the show in 1964, Rudolph, Hermey the elf and Yukon Cornelius visit the island of Misfit Toys and promised to help them, but the Misfits are never mentioned again.  Seems the producers had so many letters from children complaining that nothing had been done to help the Misfit Toys that a new, shorter version with a scene at the end in which Santa and his reindeer, led naturally by Rudoph, land on the island and pick up all the toys to find homes for them.  Ever since, the show now ends the same way.  The show has been telecast 53 years now making it the longest continuously running Christmas TV special in history.  A few fun facts are:

• The song "A Holly Jolly Christmas" was written specifically for the special and has since become a holiday standard.
• When the film was first released in 1964 the technology of using an articulated metal armature inside figures was considered so amazing that TV Guide devoted four pages to the story.  It wasn't mentioned in the story that this new technology actually was used 31 years before when King Kong was driven by the same technology.
• Hermey is the only elf without pointed ears.  He's also the only male elf with hair on top of his head.
• Yukon Cornelius' collection of sled dogs included a cocker spaniel, a poodle, a Saint Bernard, a collie and a dachshund.
• In 1964 when the credits appeared at the end of the production, the Roman Numeral copyright year was listed as MCLXIV which is 1164.  Should have been MCMLXIV which is 1964.

  

  Notice the Roman Numeral date on the bottom line of this photograph.

The sequel to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Rudolph's Shiny New Year", which aired on December 10, 1976 continued Rudolph's journeys and the series became a trilogy in 1979 with the release of "Christmas in July" which integrated Rudolph's adventures with Frosty the Snowman.  You just have to remember seeing at least one of these productions on TV.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.