On a December night in Chicago several years ago, a little girl climbed onto her father's lap and asked a question. It was a simple question, asked in a child's curiosity, yet it had a heartrending effect on Robert May.
"Daddy," four year old Barbara asked, "Why isn't my Mommy just like everybody else's mommy?"
Bob May stole a glance across his shabby two-room apartment. On a couch lay his young wife, Evelyn, racked with cancer. For two years she had been bedridden; for two years all Bob's income and smaller savings had gone to pay for treatments and medicines. The terrible ordeal had shattered two adult lives. Now Bob suddenly realized the happiness of his daughter was also in jeopardy. As he ran his fingers through Barbara's hair, he prayed for some satisfactory answer to her question.
Bob May knew only too well what it meant to be "different". As a child he had been weak and delicate. With the innocent cruelty of children, his playmates had continually goaded the stunted, skinny lad to tears. Later at Dartmouth, from which he graduated in 1926, Bob May was so small he was always mistaken as someone's little brother. Nor was his adult life much happier. Unlike many of his classmates who floated into plush jobs, Bob became a lowly copy writer for Montgomery Ward, the big Chicago mail order house. Now at thirty-three, Bob was deeper in debt, depressed and sad.
Although Bob didn't know at the time, the answer he gave the tousled haired child on his lap was to bring him fame and fortune. It was also to bring joy to countless thousands of children like his own Barbara. On that December night in the shabby Chicago apartment, Bob cradles his little girl's head against his shoulder and begins to tell a story...
"Once upon a time there was a reindeer named Rudolph, the only reindeer in the world with a big red nose. Naturally people called him Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." As Bob went on to tell about Rudolph, he tried desperately to communicate to Barbara the knowledge that, even though some creatures of God are strange and different, they often enjoy the miraculous power to make others happy.
Rudolph, Bob explained, was terribly embarrassed by his unique nose. Other reindeer laughed at him; his mother and father and sister were mortified too. Even Rudolph wallowed in self-pity.
"Why was I born with such a terrible nose?"
"Well," continued Bob, "One Christmas Eve, Santa Claus got his team of husky reindeer, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen ready for their yearly trip around the world. The entire reindeer community assembled to cheer these great heroes on their way. But terrible fog engulfed the earth that evening, and Santa knew the mist was so thick he wouldn't be able to find any chimney.
Suddenly Rudolph appeared, his red nose glowing brighter than ever, Santa sensed at once here was the answer to his perplexing problem. He led Rudolph to the front of the sleigh, fastened the harness and climbed in. They were off! Rudolph guided Santa safely to every chimney that night. Rain, fog, snow and sleet; noting bothered Rudolph, for his nose penetrated the fog like a beacon.
And so it was that Rudolph became the most famous and beloved reindeer. The huge red nose he once hid in shame was now the envy of every buck and doe in the reindeer world. Santa Claus told everyone that Rudolph had saved the day and from that Christmas, Rudolph has been living serenely happy. "
Little Barbara laughed with glee when her father finished. Every night she begged him to repeat he tale until finally Bob could rattle it off in his sleep. Then at Christmas time he decided to make the story into a poem like "The Night before Christmas" and prepare it in bookish form illustrated with crude pictures, for Barbara's personal gift.
Night after night, Bob worked on the verses after Barbara had gone to bed for he was determined his daughter should have a worthwhile gift, even though he could not afford to buy one. Then as Bob was about to put the finishing touches on Rudolph, tragedy struck. Evelyn May died. Bob, his hopes crushed, turned to Barbara as his chief comfort. Yet, despite his grief, he sat at his desk in the quiet now lonely apartment, and worked on "Rudolph" with tears in his eyes.
Shortly after Barbara had cried with joy over his handmade gift on Christmas morning, Bob was asked to an employee's holiday party at Montgomery Ward. He didn't want to go but his office associates insisted. When Bob finally agreed, he took with him the poem and read it to the crowd. At first the noisy throng listened in laughter and gaiety. Then they became silent, and at the end, broke into spontaneous applause. That was in 1938.
By Christmas 1947, some 6,000,000 copies of the booklet had been given away or sold making Rudolph one of the most widely distributed books in the world. The demand for Rudolph sponsored products, increased so much in variety and number that educators and historians predicted Rudolph would come to occupy a permanent niche in the Christmas legend.
The above account was given to me years ago. History sometimes tells different tales of the origin of a story. Below you can see and read with Barbara the original manuscript and read other thoughts on the origin of Rudolph. For personal reasons. I still love the above story. I am a different kind of mommy without the ability to run and roughhouse with my young boys. There is still joy and maybe like Rudolph, I will also find purpose in this new life.
Robert May and Rudolph
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