Rudolph | History Fix

Return to Episode Guide

Support the Show

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph of course, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. The most famous reindeer of all. And yet, and yet, have you read “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas?” Of course you have. It’s actually called “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” but we all call it “The Night Before Christmas,” it’s one of those. Published anonymously in a newspaper in 1823 but later credited to an American writer and scholar named Clement Clarke Moore, it reads, and I quote “When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; "Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN! On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONNER and BLITZEN! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!" Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen… no Rudolph. Where’s Rudolph? Well you may be surprised to learn that the most famous reindeer of all would not appear for another 116 years. And when he did, he took the world by storm becoming one of the most beloved Christmas characters of all time. But did you know that Rudolph was not the genius idea of some big business tycoon like Mattel or Disney, no. Rudolph was the genius idea of a regular old guy, a department store copy writer, struggling to support his family, an underdog determined to live out the same fate as his beloved reindeer character. Let’s fix that.

Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix, where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. After getting sucked into the abyss of the French Revolution for a few weeks, I was determined to swing things more in the light and inspirational direction for you leading up to the holidays. I hope you found last week’s episode about the Wright Brothers' first flight as inspirational as I did. That one really surprised me and just became more and more meaningful and special as it developed, like it just took its own shape. I couldn’t have anticipated the way that one came out and I love it so much and, honestly, this story is thematically kind of similar. These are underdog stories where regular, normal, underrated people rise up, quite literally in the case of the Wright brothers, seemingly out of nowhere, to create something significant. I think this type of story resonates with everyone at least a little bit. This one in particular, the one I’m going to tell you today, really speaks to me for reasons that I’ll get into later. This episode idea, by the way, came from my dear friend Ryan who shared an Instagram reel with me by Alex at popculturebrain. I was planning to cover a totally different topic this week, one I wasn’t very excited about. So, thank you Ryan, your timing was perfection and I think you guys are going to love this story.

Let’s go back to the early 1900s, around a hundred years ago. There was no Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer yet. There weren’t very many big Christmas characters at all. There was no Grinch, there was no Frosty the snowman, certainly no Kevin McCallister or Buddy the Elf. There was Santa Claus of course. There was Ebenezer Scrooge as well. Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” AKA “the night before Christmas” pretty much put Santa Claus and his flying reindeer on the map back in the 1820s. And then came Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” in 1843 and that was kind of it. Those were the two big Christmas pop culture literary anythings. Until 1939 when a department store copy writer named Robert L. May came up with the idea for Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Robert was born on Long Island, New York in 1905. He was Jewish, like ethnically, but not religiously. His family was not religious so they were what we would call secular Jews. His family owned a lumber company called May Lumber Co. and they were relatively wealthy. Robert had a brother and two sisters and, fun fact, one of his sisters, Evelyn May, was the grandmother of economist Steven D. Levitt who would go on to write the wildly popular book Freakonomics. His other sister Margaret, would go on to marry song writer Johnny Marks who would become quite successful, especially when it comes to hit Christmas songs, we’ll come back to that. But I just find that very interesting, so much talent and success in this one family. But at the time when Robert was growing up, no. There was none of that yet. They were just a Jewish family from Long Island that owned a lumber company. And actually Robert was a rather shy, small, nerdy kid. According to an NPR interview between David Greene and Robert’s daughter, Barbara May Lewis, quote “Robert was a bit of an outcast, just like Rudolph. He skipped a grade or two and so was younger and smaller than his classmates. He was a nerdy kid who saw himself as a loser,” end quote. Robert himself would later say that he quote “had known what it was like to be an underdog,” end quote. And so as he graduated high school and headed off to Dartmouth College, he was not the most confident fellow.

And you may be thinking, skipped a few grades, Dartmouth College, this guy seems destined for success, nerdiness aside. But Robert was by no means an instant success. Despite dreams of one day writing the next great American novel, Robert graduated from Dartmouth in 1926 and went to work as a copywriter for R.H. Macy & Co. department store in New York City. You know this business as Macy’s department store, which is what it’s called now. Like, of Thanksgiving parade fame. So Robert gets hired as a copywriter for Macys. A copywriter, at that time, wrote the words for catalogues basically. He wrote ads for the Macy's catalogue. So he was a writer to some extent but certainly not the type of writer he’d hoped to be. He left that job after only a year and moved around a bit, working as an advertising manager for J. L. Brandeis & Co. department store in Omaha, Nebraska and Rich’s department store in Atlanta, Georgia. During those years he got married to Evelyn Ruth Heymann who was from New York, like him. In 1930, they moved back to New York and Robert got a job as an assistant sales manager at Butterick Company. So he was basically Dwight Shrute, but not at a paper company, at a publishing company. Butterick published sewing patterns.

Okay so copywriting, publishing, we’re dancing around a writing career, sort of here. But unfortunately, 1930s, not a good time to be in any sort of career because the Great Depression hits and Robert loses his job at Butterick in 1932. And he can’t even fall back on ‘ol ma and pa. The absolutely abyssmal economy means they are forced to close their lumber company and they lose most of their wealth. Jobs are few and far between at this point and Robert spends a year unemployed and desperately seeking work. In 1933, he is finally hired as a copywriter at Gimbel Brothers department store in New York City. And if that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s where Will Ferrell’s character, Buddy the Elf, works in the movie Elf, at Gimbels. Gimbels was a real department store that operated for 145 years. It was actually Macy’s biggest rival. They were like dueling department stores. According to the American Business History Center Gimbel Brothers was the largest and most profitable department store retailer in America. But Macy’s would ultimately come out on top and Gimbels officially closed its doors in 1987. Now, when making the movie Elf back in 2003, they wanted to film the department store scenes at Macy’s and use the store name Macy’s but Macy’s wasn’t having it. They refused to have their name or location used in the movie which I think was kind of dumb. Seems like a missed opportunity to me for some very powerful publicity but whatever. So the filmmakers went with Gimbels instead which was, of course, a now out of business old competitor, archrival, of Macy’s. They were actually able to license the Gimbels name for the film. And I feel like that was this sort of sly, underhanded “screw you guys” to Macys after they wouldn’t let them use their name. I’m like, y’all blew it Macys.

Anyway, we’re way off topic. Robert gets a job at Gimbel department store writing catalogue ads, copywrighting again. Robert and Evelyn have a daughter together, Barbara, during this time. And then, in 1936, he resigns from Gimbels and moves his family to Chicago. I’m not entirely sure why but he must have really wanted to be in Chicago because he takes a job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward department store that pays significantly less than his old job. And although this isn’t in any of my sources anywhere, I kind of have a hunch that they move to Chicago for his wife, Evelyn’s health. Maybe there was a doctor or a specialist there or something that they needed to be near. Because at some point around here, Evelyn starts suffering from what Robert called quote “a long illness,” end quote. NPR’s Morning Edition with Jessica Pupovac says she has cancer but I don’t know like what type of cancer or anything. But it’s not good. She’s not doing well and of course they have a toddler, little Barbara. And let me tell you from experience that chronic and debilitating illnesses with toddlers are not fun. That’s not an easy situation. But, then again, according to Wikipedia, quote “Throughout these years, Evelyn worked full time as a social worker, while also studying at Columbia University's New York School of Social Work and teaching part-time at Northwestern University,” end quote. So maybe they actually moved to Chicago for Evelyn’s job? I don’t know.

All I know is Robert moves his family to Chicago, takes this new lower paying job. They are getting absolutely buried in medical bills trying to treat Evelyn’s cancer. He’s in debt at this point. He would later write quote “I was heavily in debt at age 35, still grinding out catalogue copy. Instead of writing the great American novel, as I'd always hoped. I was describing men's white shirts,” end quote. And it was around this time, early 1939, like January 1939 that his boss at Montgomery Ward approached him with an interesting proposal. Every year at Christmas time, Montgomery Ward gave out coloring books to kids. It was like a gimmicky, incentivey, whatever for customers, right. They purchased coloring books in mass from coloring book publishers and gave them out to their customers. But this year, they wanted to do something different. Instead of buying coloring books to give out, they wanted to save a little money and write their own children's book. They were going to create their own book to give away to the kids this next Christmas. According to Pupavac quote “May was a hit at holiday parties for his way with limericks and parodies,” end quote. And so he was the natural choice as the author of this children's book they wanted written. They were like “Robert’s always saying silly little sing songy things. Let’s get him to write the book.

Robert’s boss requested a quote “animal story with a character like Ferdinand the Bull.” Disney had just released a short film of Ferdinand so it was like trending at the time. Also, I love Ferdinand. What an incredible timeless classic. If you’re not familiar, Ferdinand is a bull who likes to sit in the grass under a tree and smell the flowers while all the other young bulls are like snorting and stomping and ramming each other with their horns. And everyone thinks Ferdinand is so weird, like what is he doing just sitting there smelling the flowers? Why isn’t he doing the things that bulls do? Why isn’t he ramming his horns into us? And when some men come from Madrid to pick a bull for the bull fights, they see all these bulls snorting and stomping and ramming and showing off and they’re trying to pick the best one, the most ferocious, impressive bull and Ferdinand is like, “well, they aren’t going to pick me,” and he goes off to sit under his tree. But when he does, he sits on a bee and it stings him and he jumps up and starts snorting and stomping and ramming and going all crazy because he got stung by this bee and the men from Madrid see him and they’re like “that one, we want that one.” And they load him up in a cart and take him to the bull fights in Madrid where, presumably, although Ferdinand certainly doesn’t know this, but presumably he is going to die. Right? That’s what happens at bull fights. They torture an innocent bull and then they ultimately kill it. Ferdinand gets to the center of the ring and the matadors get ready to start the bullfight. They wave their red flags and they flash their swords and spears and pokers but Ferdinand just plops down in the ring and starts to smell the flowers on all the ladies’ hats in the audience. He won’t move. He won’t fight. They can’t rouse him and so they just take him home and he goes back to his tree and sits down and continues doing his thing. And it’s such a beautiful story of being true to yourself even when others think you are weird. That it’s okay to be different. It’s good to be different. So that’s what they were going for with this children’s book. Robert’s boss was like “think Ferdinand, but make it Christmas.”

Now, this brief must have resonated with Robert as well. He was a bit of a Ferdinand himself in his youth, underrated and misunderstood by his peers. During his time at Dartmouth, Robert majored in psychology. He had studied the work of Austrian psychotherapist Alfred Adler who proposed that the basic human motivation for all things is striving for perfection and that this comes from a need to overcome feelings of inferiority. And we see this in Robert’s own life, this need to overcome feelings of inferiority. He was the smallest, the youngest, the nerdiest kid growing up. Now, as an adult, he was describing men’s white shirts in department store catalogues instead of writing the great American novel. He also claimed to have been inspired by the story “The Ugly Duckling” which he said always appealed to him as a child. He had always felt like the ugly duckling, just waiting to someday grow into a swan.

“But make it Christmas,” right? That was the brief. So Robert decided on a reindeer. He wanted to use alliteration with the name so it needed to start with an R like reindeer. He came up with a list of names Rollo, Rodney, Roland, Rogerick, Reginald. Later, in a 1963 interview, he said that Rollo sounded quote “too happy for a reindeer with an unhappy problem” and Reginald quote “seemed too sophisticated,” but Rudolph quote “rolled off the tongue nicely.” And so Rudolph the Reindeer came into being. But what about the red nose part? Well, Robert’s in Chicago, now remember? As the story goes, one winter day as he was sitting in his Chicago office staring out the window. He’s staring out the window watching the fog roll in from lake Michigan and he starts to think about Santa and how hard that would be to steer a sleigh, to deliver all those presents on a foggy night like this. And then he has a light bulb moment, a nose bulb moment. What if Rudolph’s nose could light up like headlights so that Santa could see to steer the sleigh through the fog. And what if that light was red, for no other reason than the alliteration I’m pretty sure, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Can’t be like Rudolph the Green Nosed Reindeer, that’s silly. And he goes to his boss and he’s like “I’ve got it. He’s a reindeer, his name’s Rudolph and he’s smaller than all the other reindeer so they all make fun of him but he has this red nose, you see?” And they’re like “nope, no red nose. No way.” Because, at the time, a red nose was closely associated with alcoholism and like drunk people. So to them, it’s totally inappropriate. I don’t really know why. I don’t feel like drunk people have red noses but that was the association at the time. So they shut down the red nose idea.

But Robert doesn’t give up on it. He gets his coworker Denver Gillen who worked at Montgomery Ward as an artist he like drew catalogue illustrations and whatnot, he gets this Gillen guy to go with him and his daughter Barbara who is 4 years old now, to Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo where they have deer. I don’t think they were actual reindeer, I think they were just like regular deer. And Robert gets Gillen to draw Rudolph based on these deer at the zoo. And if you look at Rudolph, I never noticed this you guys, but if you look at illustrations of Rudolph, he does not look like a reindeer. He looks like a deer. But whatever, Gillen draws Rudolph, pops a red nose on him and Robert takes the sketch back to management for approval. And despite shutting down the red nose idea at first, this sketch is so cute and like innocent and harmless and clearly not an alcoholic that they okay the red nose idea after all.

So he has his character, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, and he has his story premise, this underdog reindeer that all the other reindeer make fun of gets to prove his real worth by saving Christmas, guiding Santa’s sleigh through the fog with his glowing red nose. He starts to write the book which takes him around 50 hours. It’s really more of a poem. He decides to write it in the same style as “The Night Before Christmas” which is anapestic tetrameter, in case you were always wondering that. So “The Night Before Christmas” goes “‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.” You can kind of hear that rhythm that it has. Here’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer “‘Twas the day before Christmas and all through the hills, the reindeer were playing… enjoying the spills, of skating and coasting and climbing the willows… and hopscotch and leapfrog (protected by pillows.)” And if you just heard that and realized that you’ve never actually read Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer then welcome to the club because that was the same realization I had. I know the song. I’ve seen the 1964 stop motion film. I’ve read the 1972 Little Golden book version illustrated by Richard Scarry. I have not read the OG 1939 Robert L. May Rudolph until now. Come to find out. I’m going to link, um, NPR has the full original manuscript for Rudolph, like handwritten pages that Robert wrote with illustrations, it’s really cool, I’m going to link that. You can also listen to his daughter Barbara May Lewis read it aloud on that same page. She introduces herself as Rudolph’s big sister which I think I love. So I’m definitely linking that in the description. If you’ve never read the OG Rudolph like me, read it, listen to it. You gotta.

So Robert puts in 50 hours writing this poem for this children's book. And remember it’s just like, they’re just giving this thing away for free at Christmas. This isn’t like some prestigious opportunity. He’s not writing “The Cat In the Hat Comes Back” here. He’s just like kind of doing extra work for his already underpaid job. But it becomes something more than that. He finds passion in it. In July of 1939, Robert’s wife Evelyn dies after a long battle with cancer. Her parents had moved in with them to help out towards the end. When she dies in July, his boss at Montgomery Ward offers to give the book project to someone else, take a little off his plate. But Robert refuses. He’s going to see this thing through. He later wrote quote “I needed Rudolph now more than ever.” And so he keeps writing, finishing the book in late August. Speaking of this moment, Robert said quote “I called Barbara and her grandparents into the living room and read it to them. In their eyes, I could see that the story accomplished what I had hoped,” end quote.

But remember, it’s still just a gimmicky free book giveaway thing for a department store. And so he hands the manuscript over and they publish it in time for Christmas 1939. They handed out some 2.4 million paperback copies of the original Rudolph book and customers loved it. It was very clearly a hit from the beginning. After that, World War II leads to restrictions on paper use and so they don’t reprint and re-handout Rudolph again until after the war in 1946. That year Montgomery Ward gave away 3.6 million copies to shoppers. Earlier that same year, 1946, Robert received an offer from RCA Victor which is a record label. They want him to record a spoken word version of Rudolph. And, you know, they’re going to like pay him and stuff. They want to give him a Rudolph record deal. And, at this point, remember, Robert is still very much in debt. He’s still buried in his late wife’s medical bills. He didn’t get paid extra for Rudolph. It was just a project at work. He continued to collect his measly salary. He wasn’t getting royalties or anything. So he could really use this money. The problem was, he didn’t actually own the rights to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Montgomery Ward held the rights. He wrote it as part of his job for them so it’s actually theirs. And I understand this. I know all about this because of my own job which started as creating lesson materials for my own students when I was teaching. And then later transformed into a business where I sell those materials to other teachers. Technically, anything that I created for use in my own classroom while I was employed as a teacher, belongs to the school district. I technically have no rights to it. So that’s how that works. I am no longer employed by a school district and so am now free to create and sell whatever the heck I want. But that is how it works. But, kind of amazingly, in Robert’s case, the Montgomery Ward President Sewell (Sule) Avery decided to give Robert full rights to Rudolph, like no strings attached, they just gave it to him. Well, okay, one string attached. He had to wait until January 1st, 1947 so that they could give the book away again that 1946 Christmas. But how awesome is that? I mean it’s possible they overlooked the potential ironically because that’s like the whole message of Rudolph. But I like to think they just did the right thing. You know, this young father, down on his luck, in debt, tragically lost his wife. I like to think they gave it to him because it was just the right thing to do.

So as of January 1947, Robert owns the rights to Rudolph. But then, I guess other people overlooked the potential as well because he has a hard time finding a publishing company that will publish the book commercially. Robert said quote “Nobody wanted him, not with 6 million copies already distributed. Finally I found a publisher, a little guy with a big nose, who said he knew what it was like for Rudolph and was willing to take a chance on a printing,” end quote. And that little guy with a big nose was Harry Elbaum who was the head of Maxton Publishers in New York. He printed 100,000 copies of the book in time for Christmas 1947 and they sold for 50 cents a pop and it was a huge success. That RCA Victor spoken word recording of the poem was also successful. And that year a stuffed Rudolph toy, a puzzle, and children’s Rudolph slippers were also sold.

But Rudolph didn’t really fully take off until the song. Remember I said that Robert’s sister Margaret was married to a song writer, Johnny Marks? Well, in 1948, Robert persuaded Johnny to write a song to go along with the Rudolph story. Johnny wasn’t super successful at this point, he was more of an aspiring songwriter but he agreed and he wrote the song Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer that we all know. “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose…” you know it. He wrote that song. And then they tried to get a big name to sing it. Bing Crosby turned it down, Dinah Shore turned it down. Finally, Gene Autry agreed to record it in 1949 at the insistence of his wife and it was a smash hit. Gene Autry’s original recording of it is the one we all know and love but it was covered by many different musical artists after that, Mitch Miller, Dean Martin, Perry Como, and even, even Bing Crosby. Bet he regretted turning that one down. To this day, it is the second most popular Christmas song of all time, second only to White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby. Dude could have had both of the top two Christmas songs if he hadn’t underrated Rudolph like all the other reindeer. Such a reindeer move Bing. Rudolph, the song, really launches Johnny’s song writing career and he would go on to write quite a few other well known Christmas songs including Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, a Holly Jolly Christmas, Silver and Gold, and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Dude can write a Christmas song. He also composed the score for the 1964 stop motion animation film of Rudolph, The Island of Misfit Toys, all those songs.

So Rudolph really took off. During the 1950s, Robert licensed and sold over 100 different Rudolph inspired products. It became such a big operation that he resigned from his job at Montgomery Ward in 1951 and started Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Enterprises. But by the late 50s, his initial success starts to fizzle some. Apparently, and I am honestly blown away by this but apparently at that time, 1950s, the top federal income tax rate was 91 or 92 percent for individuals and 72 percent for corporations which like, I’m sorry, what? But this cuts into Robert’s profits so considerably that just 7 years after starting his Rudolph company he’s forced to return to his old department store job According to an April 1977 edition of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Robert returned to his copywriting job at Montgomery Ward, “quote remind[ing] them of company policy: 'Ward's will take anything back!'"end quote. So, at least the man’s still cracking jokes. He’s been through a lot. I’m glad he’s still finding some humor. And Robert would continue to work as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward until he retired in 1970.

So, despite the success of the Rudolph character and the way that it infiltrated Christmas so fully, it didn’t exactly make Robert rich. I mean, he was still working his old job until he retired. He did make enough money from it to get out of debt though, to live comfortably, and to provide for his children after he died in 1976. Because he had remarried after Evelyn’s death and had 5 more children with his second wife. So he’s able to leave them the rights to Rudolph and any royalties that come in from that. But he didn’t become like Dr. Seuss right. He’s no Eric Carle, no Maurice Sendak. You probably hadn’t heard of him before you listened to this episode. Robert L. May remained relatively unknown. But Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, now that’s another story. The Gene Autry song, number 2 Christmas song of all time. The 1964 film is the longest running television special in American history. According to a Hollywood Reporter article by Mia Galuppo, it was chosen as the quote “most beloved holiday film” by a whopping 83% of respondents to a recent survey. Rudolph is a big deal. He’s Santa’s sidekick. And, just like the song promised, he did in fact go down in history.

Something about this story really resonates with me. Maybe it’s the creating something as a part of your duties for a job and then being able to transform that into something more, into its own business. Robert and I have that in common I guess. An unexpected opportunity, a chance to pivot to something you can be proud of, something you feel passionate about. I think about Robert in July of 1939. He’s in the thick of it, right in the middle of his work writing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and his wife loses her cancer battle. His wife dies. He loses Evelyn, the mother of his young child. And his boss offers to pass the project on to someone else but he says no. He’s determined to finish it. He says quote “I needed Rudolph now more than ever,” and I feel that so deeply. That’s how I feel about History Fix. I need History Fix in the same way that Robert needed Rudolph. It makes no sense. It makes no sense on paper. I shouldn’t be doing this. It’s insane that I pull this off every week with everything else that I have on my plate that is of much higher priority. But I need it. I need to do it. It distracts me from the harshness of reality at times. It gives me purpose, direction. You guys do, really. All of you listening right now, I have you to thank for History Fix. Without you there would be no point to any of this. So thank you, thank you, thank you for listening in each week. For giving me purpose. Listening alone is huge but if you ever feel compelled to support the show further, leaving a 5 star rating and subscribing on whatever podcast app you use is a super easy and free way to do that. Telling people about the show. Tell your friends, tell your family, spread the word, also free, also huge. If you want some not free options, they’re always linked in the description, ways to donate, join the Patreon that’s beyond huge. If you subscribe to my Patreon please know that I bow down in gratitude to you. Every time I get a new Patreon subscriber I literally jump for joy you guys, I literally do. I know all of your names and I am so incredibly grateful for each of you because you are helping to make History Fix sustainable and that’s such a big deal. Also, one last thing, I don’t know how this turned into like a shameless plug, but I have a permanent merch store now. I haven’t said that on an episode yet. There’s a link for that in the description too. There’s all kinds of stuff, shirts, jackets, hats, bags, whatever, all kinds of History Fix merch, perfectly too late for Christmas, but that’s a thing now so if you want to rep some History Fix gear and support the show that way, the link is there.

I don’t know, I don’t know y’all. I’m feeling so inspired. I’m inspired by the Wright brothers. I’m inspired by Robert L. May. And I hope you are too. I want you to know, going into 2025 that you can do big things, no matter how small you feel. No matter how inferior. Maybe you aren’t where you want to be right now. Maybe you want to be a famous author and instead you’re writing catalogue ads. That’s okay. That’s part of your journey. If Robert May wasn’t writing ads for Montgomery Ward in 1939, he never would have had the opportunity to write Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. He never could have known that then though. He never could have known that department store copywriting was just a stop on the way to where he wanted to be. He could not see that through the fog. Do not underrate yourself. You may be scrawny and little and weird but, despite all that, you have something the world needs, an idea, or a skill, or a passion. And you’re probably already on that path, you just don’t realize it. You can’t see it through the fog. Let your light shine. Don’t hold it back. Light up that foggy Christmas Eve. Because once you can see where you’re going, you’ll realize, like Wilbur and Orville and Robert and me, that it’s all been part of your journey.

Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.

Information used in this episode was sourced from Time Magazine, NPR, The Chicago Tribune, American Business History Center, On Location Tours, Wikipedia, and Hollywood Reporter. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.

Support the show!

Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)
Buy some merch
Buy Me a Coffee
Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine

Sources: