 He had a very shiny nose and if you ever saw it you might even say glowed. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call them names. They wouldn't even let him play in any of their reindeer games. Rudolph first appeared in a book written by Robert L. May in 1939 and published by the Montgomery Ward department store. May considered naming the reindeer Rolo or Reginald before deciding upon using the name Rudolph. Retailer Montgomery Ward had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year. However, they soon decided that creating their own book would save money and so they approached May about creating one for them. The inspiration for Rudolph came from May's daughter who liked reindeer as well as his own childhood experiences with the way he was treated in school. Once it was completed and published, Montgomery Ward sold 2.4 million copies of the story. The original story as presented in the book was actually written as a poem in the same meter as a visit from St. Nicholas, which is better known as Twas the Night Before Christmas. While May was pondering how best to craft his Christmas story about a reindeer, he was staring out his office window in downtown Chicago as a thick fog from Lake Michigan blocked his view. This gave him a flash of inspiration. Suddenly I had it, he recalled. A nose, a bright red nose that would shine through the fog like a spotlight. But the story was initially rejected due to the idea that a red nose at that time was associated with alcoholism. May asked his illustrator friend Denver Gillan at Montgomery Ward to draw a cute reindeer using zoo deer as models. The alert bouncy character Gillan developed convinced management to support the idea. Maxston Books published the first mass market edition of Rudolph in 1947 and a sequel Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer shines again in 1954. In 1992 Applewood Books published Rudolph's Second Christmas, an unpublished sequel that Robert May wrote in 1947 and in 2003 Penguin Books issued a reprint version of the original Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with new artwork by Lisa Pap. Rudolph made his first on-screen appearance in 1948 as a cartoon short produced by Max Fleischer for the Jam Handy Corporation that was more faithful to May's original story than the song, which was written the following year. May's brother-in-law Johnny Marks adapted the story of Rudolph into a song while Gene Autry's recording of the song hit number one on the Billboard Pop Singles The Week of Christmas in 1949. Autry's recording sold 2.5 million copies the first year, eventually selling a total of 25 million and it remained the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s. The best known and most popular interpretation of the story is of course Rankin Bass's stop-motion animated TV special, which was released in 1964. In the movie Rudolph is born to Donner the Reindeer and Donner's wife. He is discovered by Santa to have a shiny glowing red nose. For a while he hides this quality that makes him different, but when his nose is discovered and he is ostracized, Rudolph runs away with Hermie, an elf who considers himself a misfit. On their aimless journey, they ran into Yukon Cornelius and attempt to stay away from the Bumble, a huge, abominable snowman. Their journey leads them to the island of Missa Toys, where sentient but unorthodox toys go when they are abandoned by their owners. When Rudolph returns, he discovers his family went to look for him and must be rescued. Then Santa announces that due to bad weather, Christmas must be cancelled. Santa changes his mind though when he notices Rudolph's red nose and asks Rudolph to lead the sleigh team, which he happily accepts. After the story's initial broadcast, its closing credits were revised. Images of wrapped presents being dropped from Santa's sleigh were replaced by a scene in which Santa stops to pick up the misfit toys and delivers them to the homes of children below via umbrellas. The changes were prompted by viewer feedback pleading for a happy ending for the misfit toys as well. The special now airs annually on CBS rather than NBC and is hailed as a classic by many. The special's original assortment of characters have acquired iconic status and an uncertainty surrounding an error in the special's copyright has allowed the special to be widely parodied and imitated in the decades since its original airing. The success of the special led to two sequels, Rudolph's Shining New Year, which originally aired in 1976 and continued the reindeer's journeys as well as the feature length film Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July which originally aired in 1979. The latter special integrated the Rudolph universe into that of Rankin-Bass's adaptation of Frosty the Snowman which originally premiered in 1969. Being one of the most popular Rankin-Bass characters, Rudolph also made his cameo appearances in three Animagic specials. Santa Claus is coming to town, which premiered in 1970, Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey in 1977 and in the Easter Television special, the first Easter Rabbit in 1976. An animated full-length feature film was produced and released in 1998 in 2D animation by Good Times Entertainment. It received a limited theatrical release before going straight to video. Good Times Entertainment brought back most of the same production team for a CGI animated sequel, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys in 2001. Unlike the previous film, the sequel featured the original characters from the Rankin-Bass special due to Good Times learning that Rankin-Bass had made a copyright error that made the characters unique to their special, free to use. A live-action version of Rudolph, complete with glowing nose, along with Donner and Blitzen appeared in the Doctor Who Christmas special, Last Christmas, which was broadcast on BBC One on December 25th, 2014. In this special, Santa is able to park him like a car and turn off his nose. So I hope you guys enjoyed this Christmas edition of History and Origins. Please stay safe this holiday season and enjoy your celebrations with family and friends even if only virtually. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!