What a Christmas Gift - one to tell the kids

Here's a heartwarming Christmas tale Lord Patel shed a tear over, when he stumbled on it at Inactivist.

The original story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was written by Robert May in 1939 then a 34 year-old copywriter working for Montgomery Ward, a now defunct US department store chain. Ward printed 2.4 Mn copies to be used as a Christmas holiday promotional giveaway - atotal of 6MN copies were given away until 1946.

May's wife had died of cancer after a lengthy illness leaving May with a daughter (Barbara who is said to have christened the glistening nosed reindeer) to raise alone and a hefty pile of medical bills. So May approached Sewell Avery, President of Montgomery Ward and asked for the rights to publish the story commercially. Avery granted his request (he had originally been hesistant that the red nose suggested insobriety) and in January 1947 the copyright to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was given to May by his employer.

May published a book of the story commercially in 1947. A 9 minute cartoon was also produced and released produced by Austrian Max Fleischer (perhaps better known for Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman cartoons and inventing the bouncing ball to follow the words of the song on the screen) for the Jam Handy Corporation. May and his brother-in-law, the songwriter Johnny Marks (who penned "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" -a hit for Brenda Lee), also turned the story into a song "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer", originally sung by Gene Autry the cowboy film star andcountry and western songster and released for Christmas in 1949. IT sold 2 MN copies that year and is second in sales only to "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas".

Curiously this famous Christmas song was written by a Jew.

Fleischer died in poverty see a Popeye memorial site - superb