Rudolph (deer)

Rudolph is a young reindeer , which is distinguished from its relatives by a red glowing nose. This causes ridicule from other deer who do not allow Rudolph to join their games. However, according to the first work with this character, it is Rudolph’s luminous nose that turns out to be priceless for Santa Claus on a foggy Christmas evening when his sleigh goes astray. Rudolph lights the way for Santa's sleigh, he successfully completes his Christmas tour and promises Rudolph to call him next time under the same circumstances. After that, Rudolph becomes a celebrity among other deer. In later versions and continuation of the original story, Rudolph can initially enter the herd of Santa Claus deer and perform other good deeds, for example, helping a stray circus or saving defective toys ^[1] .

Robert Lewis May worked in Chicago on the Montgomery Wards distribution network as a copywriter , although he dreamed of a full-fledged writing career. In preparation for the Christmas party of the network's staff in 1937, May volunteered to write a series of comic song lyrics. Both in this and in the next year, his songs made a good impression on his colleagues and superiors, and in early 1939 he was asked to compose a text for a children's book that would be presented to the children of buyers for free as part of the Christmas sales campaign. The sales manager expected to receive from May a text similar to the Ferdinand 's History published the year before, telling about a bull who did not want to participate in bullfighting ^[2] .

The character’s choice quickly fell on the deer - by this time Santa Claus deer were already regular characters in Christmas tales, and in addition, May’s daughter Barbara loved to watch deer in the zoo. Andersen 's fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling ” served as an inspiration for the author. He decided to write a story about a hero who is teased that he is not like everyone else, but this feature turns out to be his dignity ^[3] . The name of the main character changed during the process of writing the tale several times - at the beginning he was called Rollo, then Reginald, and only after that May stopped at the name of Rudolph. Initially, his difference should have been glowing, like in cats, eyes with which the deer would illuminate the path of the Santa Claus team ^[4] . However, such a quality was too obvious a virtue and would initially turn the character from an outcast into a superhero. Therefore, in the final version, Rudolph’s nose became brightly glowing ^[3] .

As the book was written, May read it to his children, making corrections depending on their reaction ^[4] . According to his estimates, the work on the text took about 50 hours. After finishing work, however, it turned out to be more difficult to convince superiors of its merits: the sales manager was afraid that the red nose would cause associations with drunks. Then May asked a friend, Denver Dillen, who worked in the art supplies department, to make several drawings of the main character, in which the red nose would look attractive. This allowed the authorities to agree to the release of the book, although certain concerns persisted further ^[5] . However, the fears did not materialize: during Christmas 1939, 2.4 million copies of the book were distributed (with illustrations by Dillen ^[6] ), and after the end of World War II , in 1946, another 3.6 million ^[7] . These circulations far exceeded the circulations of any children's books of that time ^[8] .

In 1948, a different version of the story of Rudolph's creation was published in Coronet magazine. According to her, May originally wrote a fairy tale for four-year-old Barbara to console her, as her mother Evelyn was dying of cancer . The story, according to which the management of the department store learned about the tale and became interested in it only by chance, was reprinted in other magazines and books and became more famous than the real course of events ^[3] .

At the end of 1946, Montgomery Wards CEO Sewell Avery transferred the copyright to Rudolph, which had previously been owned by the distribution network, to the author, Robert May. He, in turn, used the character who became popular in several continuation books (of which the fairy tale “The Red-Nosed Deer Rudolph Shines Again” ^[9] published in 1954 became the most famous) and founded a product line with Rudolph ^[7] (back in 1940 The Mongomery Wards planned to release a red-nosed deer in the form of a toy, but these plans were not implemented ^[10] ). In 1958, May donated the original 32 page manuscript to the library of Dartmouth College , of which he was a graduate ^[6] .

In 1947, the RCA Records label released a double record with the text of May’s tale ^[11] . In the same year, a free interpretation of the plot of the original fairy tale was put to music by Mayor's brother-in-law John D. (Johnny) Marx. After the music publishers, one after another, refused to buy Marx’s song , fearing that the audience wouldn’t like it, he founded his own publishing house St. Nicholas Music, Inc. to release it as notes. Attempts to offer her for the performance of Bing Crosby , Dinah Shore or Perry Como failed, but in the end, her first performer was Gene Autry , already known for the Christmas hit “ Here Comes Santa Claus ”. The first performance took place in the fall of 1949, after which the song was released by Columbia Records and for three consecutive years topped the Christmas charts. Only for the remainder of 1949, 9 million copies were sold, and later on the song became one of the five most frequently performed Christmas hits of the 20th century ^[12] . Later, in 1958, Marx wrote another song in which the main character is Rudolph - “ Run Rudolph Run ”, which became famous in the performance of Chuck Berry ^[13] .

Already in 1947, commissioned by Montgomery Wards, work began on an animated film based on May's tale ^[14] ). The film was created by Max Fleisher and was released in 1948. In 1951, after gaining popularity by Johnny Marx’s song “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, the film was partially re-shot to include this song ^[15] . Marx’s song, in turn, formed the basis of a puppet animated film released by Christmas 1964 under the same name. Filmed for the NBC network, the audience introduced seven new songs, also written by Marx ^[16] , and many new characters, some of which later became popular on their own, and the studio that created it, Rankin / Bass Productions, gained a reputation as a Christmas cinema specialist, later on, he shot the animated films “Little Drummer” (1968), “ The Adventures of Snowman Frosty ” (1969), and “Santa Claus Goes to the City” (1970) on other Christmas hits. ^[17]

A puppet animated film- sequel “Rudolph’s Brilliant New Year” was broadcast on television in 1976 ^[18] , and in 1979 the film “Rudolph and Frosty July July” was released, shot using the same technology and combining two popular characters - Rudolph and the snowman Frosty. This tape was the last puppet animation Rankin / Bass Productions ^[19] . In 1998, a full-length hand-drawn animated film was released, quite close in plot to the 1964 television movie ^[16] . The sequel to this film - “Rudolph 2: Island of Lost Toys” - was released on video in 2001; the film features characters from the 1964 film, and with the help of computer graphics it is given the appearance of puppet animation ^[20] .

• William D. Crump. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Character) // The Christmas Encyclopedia. - 3rd ed. - McFarland & Company, 2013 .-- S. 349-350. - ISBN 978-0-7864-6827-0 .
• Ronald D. Lankford, Jr. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: An American Hero . - ForeEdge, 2017 .-- ISBN 978-1-61168-975-4 .
• Robert P. Ledermann. The Fair and Montgomery Wards // Christmas on State Street: 1940S and Beyond. - Chicago, IL: Arcadia, 2002 .-- pp. 33–42. - ISBN 0-7385-1972-3 .