In 1939, a department store copywriter was asked to create a children's book for the store's annual holiday promotion. He came back with the story of an underdog, red-nosed reindeer. Needless to say, it was a hit.
"Can't you come up with anything better?" the boss asked, according to a May's 1975 telling in a story published in theBut May believed in the story. He got his buddy in the art department to draw up some sketches and, together, they convinced the boss.
Months into the project, May's wife died from cancer. Robert became a widower and a single father. His boss offered to take the reindeer project off this plate. But May refused."I needed Rudolph now more than ever," he later wrote.were shipped to Montgomery Ward stores across the country.Rauner Special Collections Library/Dartmouth Collegewere shipped to Montgomery Ward stores across the country.The book was a hit.
While Rudolph was hitting it big, things grew worse for May. He was living on a copywriter's salary and spent years buried in debt from his wife's medical bills. After World War II, Montgomery Ward's then-CEO Sewell Avery, for reasons that aren't exactly clear, gave May the rights to Rudolph. It just so happened that May's brother-in-law was a songwriter. He hadn't made it big yet, but he was getting there. May talked him into writing a song about Rudolph. That song was picked up by none other than the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. It sold more than 25 million copies and paved the way for the classic Rankin/Bass stop-animation film.
Thanks to Rudolph, Robert May's family was taken care of financially through the end of his life and beyond. And he always delighted in being the man who introduced the oddball reindeer and his triumphant tale to the world.Learn more about these archival materials from the
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