Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, TV’s longest running Christmas special is set to return to NBC this month, where it fist premiered 60 years ago.
Rudolph is set to go live on air from 8-9:15 p.m. on Friday, December 6, the exact date the show debuted in 1964.
Listen to “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” now.
Rudolph, the world’s most famous fictional reindeer, came close to starting out life as Reginald, Rollo, Romeo, or Rodney – four of the names first considered for Santa’s red-nosed helper by Robert Lewis May, the author of the original story. May was puzzling over the right name when he was writing a storybook for Chicago-based department chain Montgomery Ward.
The shopping empire, which had 620 stores in the United States in the 1930s, asked the Illinois copywriter to create a “cheery Christmas story,” based around an animal, to boost seasonal sales.
May’s daughter Barbara loved the deer at Chicago Lincoln Park Zoo, and they became the model for Rudolph and for the original 1939 artwork, complete with luminous red nose, created by Denver Gillen. Montgomery Ward gave away 2.4 million copies of May’s Rudolph story and the tale of a misfit reindeer and his friends Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen found a permanent place in the hearts of readers.
May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks jotted down the title in a notebook he kept of possible song ideas. After returning from fighting in the Second World War – where he won a Bronze Star for his bravery – he penned the song, a tune that has since sold more than 100 million copies around the world and been recorded by hundreds of artists.
Marks was so certain that “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” would be successful that he spent $20,000 to create his own company, St. Nicholas Music Inc, which he based on the sixth floor of Manhattan’s Brill Building. The first recorded version was by country singer Gene Autry, who initially rejected the song until his wife persuaded him to sing it. Autry’s version, recorded in June 1949, sold two million copies.
By the time Burl Ives came round to recording “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in 1964, the song had already been a hit song for scores of musicians, including Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Dean Martin, and Ella Fitzgerald. Ives, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1958 film The Big Country, had released a Christmas album in 1957. He returned to festive music with his voiceover role as Sam the Snowman in the NBC television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Listen to “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” now.