The True Story behind Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph was created in 1939 by Robert L. May a 34 year old copywriter for Montgomery Ward (a chain of retail department stores) headquartered in Chicago. Every year for Christmas the Montgomery Ward stores had been purchasing coloring books and giving them away to their shoppers as a promotional gift. They asked their own employee Robert May who had a knack for writing childrenﾒs stories, and rhymes if he could come up with a Christmas book just for them.

Robert had been an underdog growing up and wanted to portray his main character a reindeer named Rudolph in the same manner. He than used a series of rhymes and tested them out on his 4 year-old daughter Barbara, who absolutely loved it!  Montgomery Wardﾒs approved the story and distributed over 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph book.  Even though the warﾒs paper shortages had cut down on the printing of Rudolphﾒs book by the end of 1946 6 million copies had been distributed.

After the war there was a huge public demand to license the character of Rudolph.  However since Robert created the story as an employee of Montgomery Ward, they held the copyrights and Robert did not receive any royalties.  Robertﾒs wife died of cancer around the same time he had created Rudolph.  He was deeply in debt from all the medical bills. Finally in January 1947 Robert convinced Montgomery Wardﾒs president to turn over the copyright to him.

Eventually in 1951 Robert quit his copyright job at Montgomery Ward to spend time managing Rudolphﾒsﾒ growing fame and popularity. He then returned to Montgomery Ward where he stayed until he retired.  Robert L. May died in 1976, prosperous in the life his very own Rudolph the Reindeer creation had given him.