Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

This article is about the fictional character. For the song, see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (song). For other uses, see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (disambiguation).
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Cover of one of the books of the Robert L. May story by Maxton Publishers, Inc.
First appearance 1939
Created by Robert L. May
Voiced by Billie Mae Richards (TV series, 1964-2010)
Kathleen Barr (movie)
Information
Nickname(s) Rudolph in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie: Red, Rudy, Rudy the Red nosed Reject.
Species Reindeer
Gender Male
Title The Red Nosed Reindeer
Family Donner (father in 1964 film)
Mrs. Donner (mother in 1964 film)
Blitzen (father in 1998 film)
Mitzi (mother in 1998 film)
Rusty (brother in Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen)
Arrow (cousin in 1998 film)
Comet, Cupid and Dasher (uncles in 1998 film)
Leroy, the Redneck Reindeer (cousin from the Joe Diffie song of the same name, on the album, Mr. Christmas)
Spouse(s) Clarice (in 1964 film and 2001 film)/Zoey in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie
Children Robbie (son in the Robbie the Reindeer films)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional male reindeer, created by Robert Lewis May, usually depicted as a young calf who barely has antlers, with a glowing red nose, popularly known as "Santa's Ninth Reindeer." When depicted, he is the lead reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. The luminosity of his nose is so great that it illuminates the team's path through inclement winter weather.

Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by Robert L. May and published by Montgomery Ward.[1][2][3]

The story is owned by The Rudolph Company, LP and has been adapted in numerous forms including a popular song, a television special and sequels, and a feature film and sequel. Character Arts, LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph Company, LP. In many countries, Rudolph has become a figure of Christmas folklore. 2014 marked the 75th anniversary of the character[4] and the 50th anniversary of the television special.[5] A series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6, 2014.[6]

Publication history

Robert L. May created Rudolph in 1939, as an assignment for Chicago-based Montgomery Ward. The retailer had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money. Rudolph was supposed to be a moose but that was changed because a reindeer seemed friendly. May considered naming the reindeer "Rollo" or "Reginald" before deciding upon using the name "Rudolph".[7] In its first year of publication, Montgomery Ward had distributed 2.5 million copies of Rudolph's story.[8] The story is written as a poem in anapestic tetrameter, the same meter as "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"). Publication and reprint rights for the book Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are controlled by Pearson Plc.

Of note is the change in the cultural significance of a red nose. In popular culture, a bright red nose was then closely associated with chronic alcoholism and drunkards, and so the story idea was initially rejected. May asked his illustrator friend at Wards, Denver Gillen, to draw "cute reindeer", using zoo deer as models. The alert, bouncy character Gillen developed convinced management to support the idea.[9]

Maxton Books published the first mass-market edition of Rudolph and a sequel, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again, in 1954. In 1991, Applewood Books published Rudolph's Second Christmas, an unpublished sequel that Robert May wrote in 1947. In 2003, Penguin Books issued a reprint version of the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with new artwork by Lisa Papp. Penguin also reprinted May's sequels, Rudolph Shines Again and Rudolph's Second Christmas (now retitled Rudolph to the Rescue).

The story

The story chronicles the experiences of Rudolph, a youthful reindeer buck (male) who possesses an unusual luminous red nose. Mocked and excluded by his peers because of this trait, Rudolph manages to prove himself one Christmas Eve after Santa Claus catches sight of Rudolph's nose and asks Rudolph to lead his sleigh for the evening. Rudolph agrees and is finally treated better by his fellow reindeer, for his heroism.

Rudolph in the media

Theatrical cartoon short (1948)

Rudolph made his first screen appearance in 1948, in a cartoon short produced by Max Fleischer for the Jam Handy Corporation that was more faithful to May's original story than Marks' song, which had not yet been written.[10] It was reissued in 1951 with the song added.[10]

Song (1949)

May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, adapted the story of Rudolph into a song. Gene Autry's recording of the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart the week of Christmas 1949. Autry's recording sold 2.5 million copies the first year, eventually selling a total of 25 million, and it remained the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s.[11]

Comic books (beginning in 1950)

DC Comics, then known as National Periodical Publications, published a series of 13 annuals titled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1950 to 1962.[12][13] Rube Grossman drew most of the 1950s stories.[14]

In 1972, DC Comics published a 14th edition in an extra-large format. Subsequently, they published six more in that format: Limited Collectors' Edition C-24, C-33, C-42, C-50[15] and All-New Collectors' Edition C-53, C-60.[16]

Additionally, one digest format edition was published as The Best of DC #4 (March–April 1980).[17] The 1970s Rudolph stories were written and drawn by Sheldon Mayer.[18][19]

Children's book (1958)

In 1958, Little Golden Books published an illustrated storybook, adapted by Barbara Shook Hazen and illustrated by Richard Scarry. The book, similar in story to the Max Fleischer cartoon short, is no longer in print, but a revised Little Golden Books version of the storybook was reissued in 1972.

Stop-motion animation television special (1964) and sequels (1976–79)

In 1964, Rankin/Bass adapted the tale into a stop-motion Christmas special. Filmed entirely in Japan, with all sound recordings done in Toronto, Canada, the show premièred on NBC, drastically altering the original telling of the story. This re-telling chronicles Rudolph's social rejection among his peers and his decision to run away from home. Rudolph is accompanied by a similarly outcast elf named Hermey, whose dreams of becoming a dentist are shunned by the other elves, along with a loud, boisterous, eager prospector named Yukon Cornelius who was in search of wealth. Additional original characters include Rudolph's love interest, Clarice; the antagonistic "Abominable Snow Monster"; and, as narrator, the anthropomorphic Sam the Snowman, voiced by Burl Ives. The movie uses the story from the original song, but adds a more in-depth look at the story of Rudolph. In the 1964 stop-motion movie, Rudolph is born to Donner the Reindeer, and Donner's wife. He is discovered by Santa to have a shiny, glowing red nose. Donner, regardless of Rudolph's defect, trains him, to be a normal reindeer, with skills such as gathering food, and hiding from the "Abominable Snow Monster", a giant, furry white beast.

To hide Rudolph's nose, Donner puts dirt on it, to cover the nose with a black coating. Consequentially, this causes Rudolph to talk in a funny accent, as told by the Rudolph's peers. Soon, Rudolph enters the "Reindeer Games" coached by Comet, to see which reindeer are eligible to fly Santa's sleigh in the future. He meets a friend, named Fireball. Rudolph also meets a doe, named Clarice, who becomes Rudolph's love interest throughout the movie. She calls Rudolph cute, which causes Rudolph to become excited, exclaiming "she said I'm cute!" And flying, exceeding Comet's and all the other calf's and doe's expectations for a flying calf. This makes Rudolph and Fireball happy, as they play around with their antlers. The play causes Rudolph's false nose to fall off, and scares Fireball and everyone to make fun of him, except for Clarice. Clarice tells Rudolph that she doesn't care about his nose, and they walk together, until Clarice's dad says that she is not allowed anymore to talk or interact in any way with Rudolph, because of his nose. Meanwhile, Hermey, an elf with dreams of becoming a dentist, quits his job after being yelled at from his boss because he missed elf practice, which is a band practice performed in front of Santa and Mrs. Clause. He runs away, after being told he'll never fit in.

After both characters walk, depressed about being discriminated, they run into each other, saying that they're both independent, and that they should both be independent together. They then decide to run away together. Along the way, the duo meets Yukon Cornelius, a prospector whose one desire is to find silver and gold. They all soon run into the Abominable Snow Monster, who is attracted to Rudolph's nose. They go onto an iceberg, and travel, with Rudolph's nose dimming down. Soon, they land on the Island of Misfit Toys, which is home to toys that have multiple defects, for example, a polka-dot elephant, or a cowboy riding an ostrich. The trio asks to stay at the island, and is sent to King Moonracer. He accepts, only if Santa promises to deliver the misfit toys to children who will love them. But the trio leaves the island, with Rudolph knowing that if they stay, they will endanger everyone else with Rudolph's nose. Years later, Rudolph is moving from place to place, and constantly is leaving because of his nose. Soon, he finds his friends and family being held captive by the Abominable Snow Monster. Rudolph is knocked unconscious after fighting the monster. But Hermey and Yukon then lure the monster and knock him out. Hermey then extracts his teeth, but the Snow Monster knocks himself and Yukon off a cliff, apparently killing him. Later, Santa tells Rudolph he will find a home for all the misfit toys, and Hermey plans to open up a dentist shop the week after Christmas. Soon, everyone apologizes to Rudolph about making fun of his nose, and Yukon returns with a tamed Snow Monster. But suddenly, a huge blizzard comes, and Santa asks Rudolph to guide his, sleigh, to which Rudolph accepts. Santa then takes the misfit toys, and they are given homes.

After the story's initial broadcast, its closing credits were revised. Images of wrapped presents being dropped from Santa's sleigh were replaced by "Misfit" Toys being dropped to the homes of children below, where they were found by children who loved them. The changes were prompted by viewer feedback pleading for a happy ending for each toy. The special now airs annually on CBS, rather than NBC, and is hailed as a classic by many. The special's original assortment of trademarked characters have acquired iconic status, and its alterations of the true storyline are frequently parodied in other works.

The sequel Rudolph's Shiny New Year (premier air date December 10, 1976) continued the reindeer's journeys, and the series was made into a trilogy with the 1979 feature-length film Christmas in July, which integrated the Rudolph universe into that of Rankin-Bass's adaptation of Frosty the Snowman.

Animated feature-length films

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998) is an animated feature film. It received only a limited theatrical release before debuting on home video. Its inclusion of a villain, a love interest, a sidekick, and a strong protector are more derivative of the Rankin-Bass adaptation of the story than the original tale and song (the characters of Stormella, Zoey, Arrow, Slyly, and Leonard parallel the Rankin-Bass characters of the Bumble, Clarice, Fireball, Hermey, and Yukon, respectively). The movie amplifies the early backstory of Rudolph's harassment by his schoolmates (primarily his cousin Arrow) during his formative years.

GoodTimes Entertainment, the producers of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, brought back most of the same production team for a CGI animated sequel, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys (2001). Unlike the previous film, the sequel featured the original characters from the Rankin-Bass special (as GoodTimes soon learned that Rankin-Bass had made a copyright error that made the characters unique to their special free to use).

Other

A live-action version of Rudolph (complete with glowing nose) along with Donner and Blitzen appears in the Doctor Who Christmas special, Last Christmas, which was broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2014.[20] In this special, Santa is able to park him like a car and turn off his nose.

Nathaniel Dominy, an anthropology professor at Dartmouth College (Robert L. May's alma mater), published a scholarly paper on Rudolph's red nose in the open access online journal Frontiers for Young Minds in 2015. In the paper, Dominy noted that reindeer eyes can perceive shorter wavelengths of light than humans, allowing them to see ultraviolet light; ultraviolet light, however, is much more easily scattered in fog, which would blind reindeer. Thus, Rudolph's red nose, emitting longer-wavelength red light, would penetrate the fog more easily. A summary of Dominy's findings was released in an Associated Press article on December 22.[21]

Homages to Rudolph in other media

Film

Games

Music

Television and webisodes

Relatives in different adaptations

Parents

Offspring

Three BBC animations carry on the legend by introducing Rudolph's son, Robbie the Reindeer. However, Rudolph is never directly mentioned by name (references are replaced by the character Blitzen's interrupting with the phrase, "Don't say that name!", or something similar, presumably for copyright reasons.)

Siblings

Rudolph is also given a brother, Rusty Reindeer, in the American special, Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen (2006). Unlike in the "Robbie the Reindeer" cartoons, Rudolph's name is mentioned in the film.

Michael Fry and T. Lewis have given Rudolph another brother in a series of Over the Hedge comic strips: an overweight, emotionally damaged reindeer named Ralph, the Infra-Red nosed Reindeer. Ralph's red nose is good for defrosting Santa's sleigh and warming up toast and waffles; he enviously complains about his brother Rudolph's publicity and his own anonymity.

Aunts, uncles, and cousins

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mikkelson, Barbara; Mikkelson, David P. (December 19, 2010). "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Urban Legends Reference Pages. Snopes.com. Archived from the original on December 2, 2011. Retrieved December 2, 2011.
  2. ↑ Ramer, Holly; Talbot, Toby (photo) (December 23, 2011). "Scrapbook tells how Rudolph went down in history". Hanover, NH: Associated Press. Retrieved December 23, 2011.
  3. ↑ Kim, Wook (December 17, 2012). "Yule Laugh, Yule Cry: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Beloved Holiday Songs". Time. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ Parrella, Andrew (December 18, 2014). "From The Archives: Rudolph Turns 75". New Hampshire Public Radio. Archived from the original on December 24, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer celebrates 50th anniversary". CBS News. December 9, 2014. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Rudolph all red-nosed over stamp of approval". United States Postal Service. November 6, 2014. Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the nation’s longest-running and highest-rated Christmas television special 'went down in history' to receive its stamp of approval today. The set of four Limited Edition Forever stamps depicting Rudolph, Hermey, Santa and Bumble were created from still television frames from the special which premiered 50 years ago in 1964.
  7. ↑ "Old Fashioned Christmas". University Place/Wisconsin Historical Society. December 12, 2010. 0:28 minutes in. Wisconsin Public Television.
  8. ↑ Moreau, Jennifer (December 24, 2010). "Rudolph's Burnaby roots". Burnaby Now. p. A11.
  9. ↑ Chow, Wanda (December 2010). "How Rudolph the reindeer came to be". Burnaby Now: A3.
  10. 1 2 "Library of Congress Unveils Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Restoration". Animation World Network. December 18, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2015.>
  11. ↑ Jackson, Kenneth T. Jackson & Markoe, Karen & Markoe, Arnie (1998). The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Simon and Schuster. p. 28.
  12. ↑ Irvine, Alex; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1950s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. DC began an annual tradition of producing a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas special. Following the success of the famous song (released in 1949), DC licensed the character and put Rudolph at the center of a series of lighthearted adventures...The Christmas Special would continue until 1962, and then return from 1972-1977.
  13. ↑ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at the Grand Comics Database and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Annual at the Grand Comics Database
  14. ↑ Markstein, Don. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on December 4, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  15. ↑ Limited Collectors' Edition #C-20, #C-24, #C-33, #C-42, and #C-50 at the Grand Comics Database
  16. ↑ All-New Collectors' Edition #C-53 and #C-60 at the Grand Comics Database
  17. ↑ "The Best of DC #4". Grand Comics Database. 1980.
  18. ↑ Markstein, Don (2006). "Sheldon Mayer". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved December 3, 2011. [Mayer] also worked on several tabloid-formatted comic books for DC in the mid-1970s, including the company's first use of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer since the early 60s.
  19. ↑ Arnold, Mark (December 2012). "You Know Dasher and Dancer: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer". Back Issue! (TwoMorrows Publishing) (61): 7–10.
  20. ↑ "Doctor Who". BBC. December 12, 2014. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2014. In the North Pole the Doctor and Clara are joined by a familiar figure… and his reindeer!
  21. ↑ Ramer, Holly (December 22, 2015). "Rudolph's shiny red nose may be tied to eyes that glow blue". Associated Press. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  22. ↑ ""Little Saint Nick" Lyrics". Lyricsfreak.com. n.d. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Preceded by
"Mule Train" by Frankie Laine		 U.S. Billboard Best Sellers in Stores number-one single
January 7, 1950 (Gene Autry) 		Succeeded by
"I Can Dream, Can't I" by The Andrews Sisters
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