Record:Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Writing a 1939 Christmas booklet for the Montgomery Ward department store chain, Robert May invented a reindeer with a shiny nose named Rudolph. All the other reindeer ridiculed him, but Rudolph proved his value on a foggy night, leading Santa and his sleigh safely on their rounds. In 1939, Montgomery Ward produced 2.5 million copies of the booklet and another 3.5 million were distributed in 1946. Only then did Johnny Marks turn Rudolph's tale into a song--only to find that no one was interested. Marks established his own music publishing company (St. Nicholas Music) and persuaded Gene Autry to record the single. The resulting disk, released in 1949, was Autry's biggest single and the largest-selling record in Columbia Records' history. Since then, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer has come to be an established part of the American Christmas mythology, appearing printed on Christmas cards and lighted on rooftops. The holiday chorus known as the Caroleers produced this album with children in mind, adding songs like "When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter" and "Giddi-Yap, Giddi-Yap, Whoa! Santa" to the title song.