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N0KFQ > TODAY 07.01.15 16:57l 56 Lines 2559 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 44129_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jan 7
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Sent: 150107/1555Z 44129@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.62
Jan 7, 1947:
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is the #1 song on the U.S. pop
charts
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen because of the
1824 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (aka "'Twas the Night
Before Christmas"), but your knowledge of Rudolph_the most famous
reindeer of all_comes courtesy of a department store copywriter
named Robert L. May, May's songwriter brother-in-law who set his
words to music and the singing cowboy who made a household name
of May's creation.
The story of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" begins in 1939 at
Montgomery Ward, the Chicago-based retail and catalog giant.
Seeking a cheaper holiday giveaway than the children's coloring
books they had purchased and distributed in years past,
Montgomery Ward asked its own marketing department to create a
new and original Christmas storybook from scratch. The task fell
to May, a family man with a four-year-old daughter. The story
that May wrote was given away to more than 2 million Montgomery
Ward customers in 1939. It was not until May's brother-in-law
adapted the story into song almost 10 years later, however, that
"Rudolph" truly entered the national consciousness.
May's brother-in-law was a professional songwriter named Johnny
Marks, best known for works like "Rockin' Around the Christmas
Tree" (1958) and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (1962) in addition to
"Rudolph." In 1949, Marks' song found its way to radio legend
Gene Autry, the original Singing Cowboy, whose recording of
"Rudolph" sold more than 2 million units in its first year alone
on its way to becoming the second-most successful Christmas
record in history (after "White Christmas").
It is at this point in the story of "Rudolph" when those with a
nose for legal issues begin to wonder who owned the rights to the
beloved Christmas story and money-making juggernaut. In fact, as
a paid employee of Montgomery Ward, author Robert L. May had no
legal claim whatsoever to an ownership stake in "Rudolph."
Furthermore, May was a widowed single father by 1947, facing
enormous debts as a result of his wife's terminal illness. Yet in
a twist that will boggle the minds and warm the hearts of those
hardened to the ways of modern American capitalism, the president
of Montgomery Ward, one Sewell Avery, signed over to Robert L.
May 100 percent of the "Rudolph" copyright in January 1947. May
lived comfortably on the royalties from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer" until his death in 1976.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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