The whole story of Rudolf appeared, out of nowhere, in 1939. Santas at
Montgomery Ward stores gave away 2.4 million copies of a booklet entitled
"Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer." The story was written by a person in
the advertising department named Robert May, and the booklet was illustrated by
Denver Gillen. The original name of the reindeer was not Rudolf, according to
the book Extraordinary Origins of Ordinary Things by Charles Panati. The
original name was Rollo, but executives did not like that name, nor Reginald.
The name Rudolf came from the author's young daughter! In 1949, Gene Autry sang
a musical version of the poem and it was a run-away best-seller. The Rudolf song
is second only to "White Christmas" in popularity.
See the complete story of Robert May and what inspired him to write Rudolph in
the Story and Poem section.