Claim: The character 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' was created by a father to bring comfort to his daughter as her mother was dying of cancer. Read The Original Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. The Story Behind Rudolph ... "Once upon a time there was a reindeer named Rudolph, the only reindeer in the world that had a big red nose. Gillen’s illustrations of a red-nosed reindeer overcame the hesitancy of May’s superiors, and the Rudolph story was approved. May wrote two sequels to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 1 on the U.S. charts the week of Christmas 1949. "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a song by songwriter Johnny Marks based on the 1939 story Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer published by the Montgomery Ward Company. 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. Montgomery Ward thought his story was fine, Among Marks' many works is "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer", which was based on a poem of the same name, written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May, Rudolph's creator. Gene Autry's recording hit No. A first edition of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer", bottom, and an original layout, top, on Dec. 20, 2011, at Dartmouth College in the Rauner Special Collections Library in Hanover, N.H. The first, entitled Rudolph's Second Christmas, was a 1951 RCA Victor phonograph album narrated by Paul Wing; it did not appear in book form until 1992, long after May had died. A television film based on the story and song first aired in 1964, with Marks composing the score. https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer Below, the original sketches and layout for Robert May's Christmas story featuring the now-iconic red-nosed reindeer… He wrote of a misfit, who lived at the Pole, a story he felt, deep down in his soul. Marks sent the song to Gene Autry, America’s singing cowboy, but Autry wasn’t inclined to put his neck on the chopping block for “one of the worst [songs] ever written” and said no thanks. 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. So he wrote his own story with a wonderful end, And created the legend of Rudolph and friends. It wasn’t just that Marks thought “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was a bad song, everyone he brought it to thought it was hot garbage. For May was an outcast, a small one at that As a child he was picked on, for being just that. The story is mostly in prose (except that Rudolph speaks in anapestic tetrameter).