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Among all the famous Christmas stories Rudolph-
the red nosed reindeer is one of the most famous. The character 'Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer' was created for the Montgomery Ward
group of department stores the invention was an advertising gimmick.
Rudolph came to life in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward
company (operators of a chain of department stores) asked their
copywriter Robert L. May, to come up with a Christmas story they
could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. May wrote the
story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer in 1939, and 2.4 million
copies were handed out that year. Despite the wartime paper
shortage, over 6 million copies had been distributed by 1946. May
drew in part on the story "The Ugly Duckling" and in part
from his own experiences as an often taunted, small, frail youth to
create the story of the misfit reindeer. Though Rollo and Reginald
were considered, May settled on Rudolph as his reindeer's name.
May's story "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was printed
commercially in 1947 and in 1948 a nine-minute cartoon of the story
was shown in theaters.
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