RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSE REINDEER Turns 60 — Here’s the Beloved Movie’s Story
By Movieguide® Staff
One of the most beloved Christmas movies turns 60 today. In honor of its anniversary, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSE REINDEER returns to NBC tonight, Dec. 6, at 8 p.m., and Thursday, Dec. 12, at 8 p.m., after airing on CBS each year since 1971.
On Dec. 6, 1964, RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSE REINDEER made his debut on NBC, and today he really is “the most famous reindeer of all.”
Though the claymation’s creators expected people to forget about the movie soon after it premiered, it’s now the “longest continuously running Christmas TV special in the United States,” PEOPLE reported.
And who can’t relate to its sweet story?
Rudolph’s shiny red nose ostracizes him from the other reindeer, and he, along with Hermy the elf, embark on an adventure. Along the way, they meet other “misfits” — prospector Yukon Cornelius, the misfit toys and the Abominable Snow Monster. When they return home, Rudolph’s nose guides Santa’s sleigh and saves Christmas.
“I think all kids are looking for guidance. I think all kids feel slightly inferior,” Arthur Rankin, Jr., one of the creators, said in 2005 about why kids identified with the movie. “Kids have problems, whatever they may be, and to see other characters that also have problems, they can associate with them.”
But the character of Rudolph dates back to the ‘30s.
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery Ward department store asked one of its copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to create a Christmas story the store could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick,” US Today reported.
READ MORE: DIRECTOR, PRODUCER BEHIND RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER DIES AT 87
Instead of buying and giving away coloring books every Christmas as it had in the past, the retailer wanted to make its own book.
“In the first year of publication, 2.4 million copies of Rudolph’s story were distributed by Montgomery Ward,” the outlet continued.
According to the Smithsonian, May’s brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, adapted Rudolph’s story into a song. That version was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949.
The movie went through a few different alterations — adding a credit sequence that showed a happy ending for the misfit toys, removing a scene where we learn Cornelius is looking for a peppermint mine and replacing (and later restoring) “We’re a Couple of Misfits” — but today, RUDOLPH is the most beloved holiday film.
READ MORE: RECENT SURVEY UNVEILS RUDOLPH AS AMERICAN’S FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE
Of its longevity, Rankin said:
Kids love to see someone of their own stripe, their own age or their own inferiority, achieve things. It makes them feel good. I think that’s probably the reason these films last so long, because in all our films that happens. The bad guy becomes a good guy, he’s reformed, and the underdog fulfills his quest.
- Content: +4Share:
- Content: +4