RUDOLPH

A bit of Christmas Trivia for today:

Have you ever wondered where Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer got his start? Believe it or not, this holiday hero owes his existence to Chicago-based department store Montgomery Ward.

For years the store purchased and gave away coloring books to their customers at Christmas. In an effort to save money, copywriter Robert L. May was asked to come up with a Christmas story to use in a booklet that would replace the coloring books.

Montgomery Ward gave out 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph booklet in 1939 alone, and by the end of 1946, 6 million copies had been distributed. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was printed commercially in 1947 and debuted in theaters as a nine-minute cartoon the next year.

The Rudolph phenomenon really took off when songwriter Johnny Marks developed the lyrics and melody for a Rudolph song, which was recorded by Gene Autry and went on to become one of the best-selling Christmas songs of all time, second only to “White Christmas.”

I didn't know that!