15 Wild Stories From The Making Of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
![15 Wild Stories From The Making Of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/1/8/760318_320x180.jpg)
Reindeer and dentists, puppets and LED fluorescent lamps, Genomic Autry and General Electric–to the lay person these unlikely pairings appear to have little in common. But they all contributed to the creation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a beloved Christmas special that is now in its 57th year of annual episode reruns.
A succession of tragedies, twists of fate, and/or lucky inconsistencies allowed Rudolph's story to survive through the centuries, eventually securing a place throughout holiday tradition.
We look into the beginnings of this and some other Christmas music written by even the most highly improbable people. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was written by a Jewish author who was inspired to create his little reindeer by the death of a spouse and his love for his baby girl.
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, may have even been created for marketing reasons (shocker). In particular, 1930s advertising for a Chicago shopping mall. Scroll down for more information on that and other topics:
![Rudolph characters starred in ads for GE products. e The ads were shown at the movie's first airing, and they hawked things like an electric blanket,](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/4/760404.jpg)
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
![The animation technique they used came from political propaganda films. Tadahito Mochinaga started developing the technique, called Animagic, in his p](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/9/760409.jpg)
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
![Robert L. May chose his subject based on his daughter's obsession. He picked a reindeer to write about not just because reindeer were popping up on Ch](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/6/760406.jpg)
Source: TIME
![In the 7Os, the puppets were used as Christmas decorations. They wound up in the hands of Barbara Adams, who had been a secretary at the movie's prod](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/2/760402.jpg)
Source: ArtNet
![Rudolph almost didn't get to have a red nose, because that reminded people of alcoholics. Some participants in a focus group said the nose had connot](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/1/760401.jpg)
Source: TIME
![The animators went to a deer sanctuary. Before starting on the animation, Tadahito Mochinaga and his assistant Hiroshi Tabata went to Nara Park near O](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/9/5/760395.jpg)
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
![Rudolph was almost Rollo, Rodney, Reginald, Roland, or Roderick. Reginald seemed too sophisticated, and Rollo didn't work because it sounded too ha](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/5/760405.jpg)
Source: TIME
![The Island of Misfit Toys sequence wasn't there originally. They put it in in 1965, a year after the movie was first shown, because viewers complained](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/9/7/760397.jpg)
Source: GeekWire
![Rudolph was created to market a Chicago department store. Wrinen for MONTGOMERY WARD by ROBERT L. MAY Author of Benny the Bunny Liked Beans In the 1](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/9/6/760396.jpg)
Source: NPR
![The TV special only got made because of where the songwriter lived. Johnny Marks, who wrote the Rudolph song, lived in Greenwich Village in the early](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/3/760403.jpg)
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
![The female doll on The Island of Misfit Toys is just a joke. When people asked what the doll was doing there, Arthur Rankin, Jr. would just say she go](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/9/9/760399.jpg)
Source: Entertainment Weekly
![They used cellophane for the animated water.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/7/760407.jpg)
Source: GeekWire
![Burl Ives almost missed out on playing Sam the Snowman. Another actor had already recorded all of Sam's lines, but the filmmakers agreed that wouldn't](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/0/760400.jpg)
Source: Television's Holiday Specials
![The producers tried to hide the fact that Rudolph was voiced by a woman. VAMFHACD> That's why they originally credited the voice actress, Billie Mae R](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/3/9/8/760398.jpg)
Source: BlogTO
![We can partly thank country singer Gene Autry's wife for the TV special. The Rudolph song, based on the booklet, got shopped around to popular '40s si](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/4/0/8/760408.jpg)
Source: 18 Doors