WASHINGTON — The very shiny nose of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
nearly kept him from going down in history.
The tiny reindeer who safely guided Santa’s sleigh through fog has a history
filled with little known facts.
When Rudolph was created for a department store promotion in 1939, Montgomery
Ward executives worried that an image strongly associated with
drunkards, at the time, wasn’t appropriate
for Christmas.
Smithsonian Magazine notes
that the reindeer’s nose was first described as glowing “like the eyes of a
cat.” Additionally, the magazine says author Robert May almost named the
reindeer “Reginald,” and based the character on himself.
Rudolph was not one of Santa’s reindeer who lived at the North Pole. The myth
debunking website Snopes.com
details how Rudolph was discovered elsewhere by accident in an
ordinary reindeer village.
The ubiquitous Christmas carol
originally turned down by Bing Crosby also
didn’t impress Gene Autry, according to the National
Archives. The singing cowboy’s wife loved it, however, and predicted
correctly that it’d be a smash hit.
This is a big year for the hero, who started out as an undersized outcast.
Rudolph turns 75 this Christmas and the “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
holiday special celebrates its 50th anniversary at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 9 on CBS.
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