83 Fun Facts About Rudolph

Which department-store copywriter created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1939?

Robert L. May wrote the Rudolph booklet as a work assignment, drawing on his own childhood as a small, shy boy who was often teased, and tried each part out on his four-year-old daughter Barbara.

Which Chicago-based department store chain commissioned the original Rudolph booklet as a 1939 Christmas giveaway?

Montgomery Ward had been buying booklets to hand out to shoppers' children every Christmas and decided that writing its own would save money, so it gave the job to one of its copywriters.

Rudolph's author rejected the name Rollo as too cheerful and which other name as too British?

Reginald sounded too British and Rollo too carefree for the story of a misfit, so the author kept hunting for an alliterative name and settled on Rudolph.

What gave Rudolph's author the idea for a glowing nose?

Fog off Lake Michigan rolled past the author's Chicago office window as he puzzled over his story, and he pictured a bright red nose that could shine through it like a spotlight.

Why did the store's managers at first reject the idea of giving Rudolph a red nose?

It suggested alcoholism: in the 1930s a bright red nose was the mark of a drunkard, so the author had an artist friend sketch an appealing young reindeer to change his bosses' minds.

Which fairy tale did Rudolph's author draw on when shaping his story?

The Ugly Duckling was his model for an outcast who comes good; to see how his hero should look, he took a store artist to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo to sketch the deer.

The Rudolph booklet borrows its metre from whose 1823 Christmas poem?

Clement Clarke Moore is credited with the poem known as 'The Night Before Christmas', which first named Santa's reindeer; Rudolph's author set his newcomer's story to the same galloping anapestic beat.

Who was given Rudolph's copyright by the store in 1947?

Its author got the rights for nothing from the head of the company; the copywriter, deep in debt from his late wife's medical bills, could at last earn from his own creation.

What was the 1954 sequel called?

The author's 1954 sequel was titled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again; it followed the 1939 booklet by fifteen years and was again written in verse.

Which songwriter turned the Rudolph story into the hit song of 1949?

Johnny Marks was the brother-in-law of Rudolph's author, who talked him into writing it; the 1964 television special later took its title and much of its story from his song.

In the 1964 Rudolph special, which song does a young doe sing to him after the reindeer games?

There's Always Tomorrow is the doe's attempt to cheer Rudolph up once he has been laughed out of the reindeer games; when he runs away she joins his parents in the search for him.

Which company sponsored the first broadcast of the 1964 Rudolph special?

General Electric put its name on the slot, The General Electric Fantasy Hour, and a star narrator was added late in production to help sell the special to the network.

In the 1964 Rudolph special, Hermey lures the Abominable Snow Monster from its cave by imitating which animal?

A pig: Yukon Cornelius reckons the monster likes pork better than deer meat, so Hermey oinks at the cave mouth and a falling rock knocks the creature out as it steps outside.

What did Rankin/Bass call the stop-motion process used in its Rudolph special?

Animagic was the studio's name for nudging flexible puppets a fraction at a time between frames; the special later helped inspire The Nightmare Before Christmas.

In which city was the stop-motion animation for the 1964 Rudolph special actually filmed?

Tokyo: the special was conceived and designed in New York, then sent to Tadahito Mochinaga's MOM Production studio, whose animators moved the puppets frame by frame.

Which singer voiced Sam the Snowman, the narrator of the 1964 Rudolph special?

Burl Ives was the cast's one celebrity, and a song he sings in the special, 'A Holly Jolly Christmas', climbed to No. 4 on the US singles chart in January 2020, 55 years after the broadcast.

The 1964 Rudolph special's mostly Canadian voice cast was recorded in which city?

Toronto offered the producers a ready pool of trained voices, because radio drama was still going strong in Canada in the early 1960s.

What job does Hermey the elf want instead of making toys?

Hermey's wish to be a dentist ends up saving the day: once the Abominable Snow Monster is knocked out, he pulls every one of its teeth and leaves it harmless.

What is Yukon Cornelius searching for?

Silver and gold are what Yukon Cornelius seems to be tasting for when he licks his pickaxe, but a closing scene has him strike it rich with a peppermint mine instead.

Which creature is King Moonracer, ruler of the Island of Misfit Toys?

A winged lion, King Moonracer circles the earth every night looking for toys nobody wants and brings them back to his island until children can be found to love them.

At the end of the 1964 Rudolph special, what job does the tamed Abominable Snow Monster do?

Trimming a Christmas tree suits the reformed monster, which Yukon Cornelius brings back looking for work: it is tall enough to set the star on top without a ladder.

Which network took over the Rudolph special in 1972 and aired it every Christmas for over 50 years?

CBS lured the special away from the network where it had premiered and made it a December fixture, until in 2024 the original broadcaster won it back in time for the 60th anniversary.

Unlike the TV special, where does Santa first find Rudolph in the original 1939 booklet?

Asleep in his bedroom: Santa is delivering presents to the deer's house when he notices the glow, because in the booklet Rudolph is no North Pole resident but a youngster raised in a loving home elsewhere.

On the Island of Misfit Toys, the cowboy rides which animal?

An ostrich is the cowboy's mount in place of a horse, and that alone earns him a line in the misfit toys' own song, which asks how anyone would like to be a cowboy who rides one.

On the Island of Misfit Toys, why does the jack-in-the-box count himself a misfit?

His name is Charlie, and he is sure no child wants to play with a Charlie-in-the-Box; so he stays on the island and serves as its sentry.

How is Rudolph usually counted among Santa's reindeer?

Ninth and youngest: the rest of the team was named in a poem of 1823, and Rudolph was added 116 years later, invented for a department store's Christmas giveaway.

In the 1964 special, which of Santa's reindeer is Rudolph's father?

Donner is so embarrassed by his son's nose that he keeps it hidden, yet when Rudolph runs away he heads into the wilderness to find him and ends by apologising.

Which two Rankin/Bass sequels followed the original special?

Rankin/Bass followed the original with Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976) and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1979), both also made with stop-motion puppets.

What is the scientific name of the reindeer?

Rangifer tarandus has a nose worth a song even without the glow: its passages warm freezing air on the way in, so the animal can breathe Arctic air without chilling its lungs.

What makes reindeer unique among deer species?

Females may grow antlers, and they keep them longer: males shed theirs in late autumn while females carry theirs through the winter, so an antlered reindeer on Christmas Eve is probably female.

Which is the smallest subspecies of reindeer?

The Svalbard reindeer was hunted almost to extinction before it was protected in 1925, and the herd had recovered to roughly 22,000 animals by 2019.

What is a female reindeer called?

A cow is the female and a bull the male, as with cattle; her calf arrives in late spring weighing about 6 kg and can double that within two weeks.

Reindeer live right round the Arctic, but what are the wild ones called in North America?

Caribou and reindeer are the same animal: North Americans keep the word reindeer for domesticated herds, while in Europe it covers the wild ones too.

In which year did NBC begin airing the special annually again?

NBC brought the special back in 2024 after more than half a century on a rival network; NBC had carried its earliest airings.

Whose recording of the Rudolph song hit No. 1 on the US charts at Christmas 1949?

Gene Autry took on a song that many singers had refused, wary of tampering with the Santa legend; it became the biggest hit of his career and one of the best-selling Christmas records ever.

In the 1964 special, what is the name of the doe who tells Rudolph he is cute?

Clarice's compliment so thrills Rudolph that he out-flies every other fawn at the reindeer games, moments before his false nose pops off and the rest of the herd turns on him.

How does Rudolph's father first try to hide his newborn's glowing nose in the 1964 special?

Covering it with mud is his first idea; later he fits a false nose over it, which stays on until the reindeer games, where it pops off in front of everyone.

Which of Santa's reindeer serves as the coach who expels Rudolph from the reindeer games?

Comet bans Rudolph the moment the false nose comes off, turning the song's line about the reindeer games into a scene; by the end of the special the whole herd is apologising to him.

Which song was cut from the Rudolph special in 1965 and not restored until 1998?

We're a Couple of Misfits, the duet for Rudolph and Hermey, gave way in 1965 to a newly made number, 'Fame and Fortune'; the original song returned in 1998.

Which scene, missing from the 1964 broadcast of the Rudolph special, was added in 1965?

Santa collecting the misfit toys was left out at first, and viewers wrote in to complain that he had not kept his promise to them, so a new closing scene was animated for the 1965 repeat.

The 1964 Rudolph special's copyright notice got what wrong?

The year: the Roman numerals read MCLXIV, which is 1164, because an M was left out of MCMLXIV; the faulty notice is said to have left parts of the special in the public domain.

The restored original Rudolph and Santa puppets sold at auction in November 2020 for how much?

$368,000 was paid by an anonymous donor, who then gave the pair to Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts; after filming, the puppets had been handed out as souvenirs and played with by a crew member's family.

Arthur Rankin Jr. later said the misfit toy Dolly for Sue was a misfit because she was what?

Clinically depressed was Rankin's answer when a historian of the studio put the question to him: her owner had cast her off, and nothing in the script ever gave her a physical flaw.

Rudolph's creator was asked for a festive animal story with a hero like which gentle storybook character?

Ferdinand the Bull had just been released as a Disney short film, so the boss who ordered the 1939 giveaway asked for a cheery outsider animal in the same mould.

What did the retailer that owned Rudolph do with the story's copyright in 1947?

Gave it to its author: the store's president signed the rights over free and clear from January 1947, letting an employee buried in medical debt finally profit from Rudolph.

Which rock and roll pioneer recorded the 1958 single Run Rudolph Run, a sequel to the original Rudolph song?

Chuck Berry wrote it himself, but the writing credit went to the composer of the original Rudolph song, who held a trademark on the reindeer's name.

Rudolph's sleigh-mates Donner and Blitzen take their names from Dutch and German words meaning what?

Thunder and lightning: the 1823 poem that named Santa's team first called the pair Dunder and Blixem, after a Dutch oath, and later printings gave them a German spelling.

Which star crooner turned down the Rudolph song before its release, then recorded his own hit version in 1950?

Bing Crosby passed on the song, as did Dinah Shore, before a singing cowboy took it to No. 1. Crosby's own version still reached the pop top twenty.

In the 1964 Rudolph special, what does Santa announce moments before he notices Rudolph's glowing nose?

Christmas is cancelled, Santa declares, because a huge snowstorm has grounded the sleigh. One look at the glow changes his mind and puts Rudolph at the head of the team.

A 2012 medical study explained Rudolph's red nose by finding that reindeer noses are unusually rich in what?

Blood vessels are a quarter denser in a reindeer's nose than in a human's, the researchers found, which keeps the nose from freezing and helps regulate the brain's temperature on a sleigh run.

In which British sci-fi series' 2014 festive special does Santa park Rudolph like a car and switch off his nose?

Doctor Who put a live-action Rudolph, glowing nose and all, beside Donner and Blitzen in the episode Last Christmas, with Nick Frost playing Santa.

Which festive standard by the composer of the Rudolph song is sung by the snowman narrator of the 1964 special?

A Holly Jolly Christmas was first meant for prospector Yukon Cornelius. The producers gave it to the snowman once they had hired a famous folk singer to narrate.

Which part of a real reindeer, Rudolph's wild cousin, changes colour from gold in summer to blue in winter?

Its eyes change because the reflective layer behind the retina turns from gold to blue, sharpening the animal's vision through the months of continuous winter darkness.

The singing cowboy who first recorded the Rudolph song rejected it at first; who talked him into recording it?

His wife persuaded him to cut a tune that had only been pitched as a B-side, and the single went on to become the first No. 1 hit of the 1950s.

Counting every cover version, the Rudolph song trails only which festive classic in total record sales?

White Christmas is the only seasonal song to outsell it: with covers included, sales of the reindeer's tune are put at more than 150 million records.

In the 1964 Rudolph special, what exposes Rudolph's glowing secret to the other bucks at the reindeer games?

His false nose pops off while he celebrates with the other bucks, and the coach promptly bans him from the games.

In the 1964 Rudolph special, how do Yukon Cornelius and the snow monster survive their fall from a cliff?

The beast bounces: Yukon walks back in alive to explain that the creature's springiness saved them both, and he brings it home tamed.

Why does the 1964 Rudolph special follow the famous song rather than the original 1939 storybook?

Its writer had no copy of the book: Romeo Muller said he would have preferred to adapt it but could not find one, so he built Hermey, Yukon and the rest around the song.

Paul Soles, the voice of Hermey in the 1964 Rudolph special, later voiced which superhero in a 1967 cartoon?

Spider-Man was his in the web-slinger's original animated series, launched three years after he played the elf who would rather not make toys.

At the reindeer games in the 1964 Rudolph special, what skill do the new fawns learn while Santa scouts them?

Flying is the lesson, because Santa is scouting for future sleigh duty. Rudolph takes off better than anyone once a doe calls him cute.

Which Hollywood star voices the wicked ice queen Stormella in 1998's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie?

Whoopi Goldberg plays the queen who vows to bury Christmas in a blizzard if anyone crosses her ice bridge. John Goodman voices Santa in the same film.

In the 2001 film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, who is the thieving Toy Taker?

A discarded teddy bear named Mr. Cuddles is under the coat, walking on stilts. Thrown away when his boy grew up, he steals toys to spare them the same fate.

A 2015 scholarly article argued that Rudolph's nose suits murky nights because of which property of red light?

It pierces mist better thanks to its long wavelength, an anthropologist wrote, whereas the ultraviolet light that reindeer can also see would scatter and blind the team.

What job did Rudolph's creator hold at the Chicago department store that gave the story away in 1939?

Advertising copywriter: he later wrote that instead of producing the great American novel he had dreamed of, he was describing men's shirts for the catalogue.

Why did a Chicago retailer commission the first Rudolph story instead of buying its usual holiday giveaway?

To save money: the store had been buying booklets to hand out each December and reckoned that one produced in-house would be cheaper.

As he drafted the 1939 story, Rudolph's creator tested each new part by reading it aloud to whom?

His young daughter Barbara, then four, heard every section as it was finished. He completed the poem that August, weeks after her mother died.

Why did the popular Rudolph giveaway booklet of 1939 not return to stores until 1946?

Wartime paper limits prevented a reissue until 1946, when the store handed out another 3.6 million free copies.

Rudolph's creator and his illustrator studied real deer at which zoo before the 1939 story was drawn?

Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago was a Saturday research trip for the pair, who wanted a better idea of what the reindeer should look like.

Which comic-book publisher issued a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer annual every year from 1950 to 1962?

DC Comics, then called National Periodical Publications, ran thirteen Rudolph annuals and brought the title back in a giant format in 1972.

Which beloved picture-book artist illustrated the 1958 Little Golden Book version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Richard Scarry illustrated the retelling years before his Busytown books made him famous. The storybook's plot is similar to that of Rudolph's 1948 cartoon.

Where did the lost Santa and Rudolph puppets from the 1964 special resurface after years in a family attic?

On Antiques Roadshow, where a nephew of the producers' secretary had them appraised. She had given the puppets to the family's children as toys, and attic heat melted several others.

Which singer had a huge hit with Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, written by the composer of the Rudolph song?

Brenda Lee's evergreen came from the same pen as Rudolph: the songwriter, born to a Jewish family, made a speciality of festive standards.

In which novelty act's 1960 cover of the Rudolph song does Rudolph himself sing along with a head cold?

The Chipmunks gave Rudolph a guest vocal with a stuffy nose, a joke about why it is red, and took the record to No. 21 on the Hot 100.

Rudolph's 1964 special is the longest-running US holiday special; which rival classic arrived a year later?

A Charlie Brown Christmas followed in December 1965. Rudolph has been telecast every year since 1964, longer than any other festive special in the United States.

In a 1979 Rankin/Bass feature film, Rudolph shares top billing with which other song-born holiday character?

Frosty the Snowman joined him for a summer circus adventure, the only time Rankin/Bass animated the snowman as a stop-motion puppet rather than a drawing.

In Rankin/Bass's 1976 sequel, Rudolph must find a runaway baby who is hiding which embarrassing feature?

Enormous ears made everyone laugh at Happy, the baby due to take over as the calendar turns, so Rudolph wins his trust by sharing his own story of being teased.

In the 1964 special, why does Rudolph slip away alone at night from the Island of Misfit Toys?

To protect his friends: he worries that his glowing nose puts Hermey and Yukon in danger, so he leaves that night and does not come home until he is a grown buck.

Which bestselling 2005 economics book was co-written by a great-nephew of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's creator?

Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt is a grandson of the creator's sister, and the songwriter who set Rudolph to music married another of those sisters.

In the BBC stop-motion special Hooves of Fire, what is the name of Rudolph's son, who joins Santa's sleigh team?

Robbie's famous father is never named in full, presumably to steer round the Rudolph trademark. Jealous old captain Blitzen plots to keep the newcomer off the team.

Olive, the Other Reindeer, a 1999 special named after a misheard line of the Rudolph song, stars whom as Olive?

Drew Barrymore voiced the little dog who sets out to replace a grounded Blitzen, and she was also an executive producer alongside Simpsons creator Matt Groening.

Rudolph's creator graduated in 1926 from which Ivy League college, where a professor later studied the red nose?

Dartmouth is where he majored in psychology and met Alfred Adler's ideas about overcoming feelings of inferiority, a theme that runs through the outcast reindeer's tale.

Which animation pioneer directed Rudolph's 1948 screen debut, a short cartoon made to promote a department store?

Max Fleischer, the studio boss behind Betty Boop and Popeye, made the eight-minute film for the Jam Handy company, a year before the famous song existed.

Which veteran comedian narrates Rankin/Bass's 1976 Rudolph sequel in the role of Father Time?

Red Skelton tells the tale as the old timekeeper himself, sending Rudolph through islands where old years go to retire, pursued by a giant vulture named Eon.