Joe Gentry

Jeffrey D. Brasie listed in a recent column, 10 Christmas movies worth watching this holiday season. One special movie was left off the list, not because it is such an iconic cinematic masterpiece, but for a couple of other reasons. One, most of us baby boomers can relate to its popularity as we grew up, but most important is the story behind the movie. And, one thing I’ve learned is people enjoy a good story.

In 1938 in Chicago during the holiday season, Bob May was not feeling much comfort and his tank was empty of joy. Bob was a 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward and he was exhausted and nearly broke. His wife, Evelyn, was bedridden and on the losing end of a two-year battle with cancer. Bob was left with the task of looking after their 4-year-old daughter, Barbara.

One night, Barbara asked her father, “Why isn’t my mommy like everybody else’s mommy?”

Bob struggled to answer his daughter’s question as he remembered the pain of his own childhood. Bob was a small sickly boy and he was constantly bullied, picked on, and called names. In spite of his own feelings, he wanted to give his daughter hope, and show her that being different was nothing to be ashamed of. More than that, he wanted her to know that he loved her and would always take care of her.

So, he began to spin a tale about a reindeer with a bright red nose who found a special place on Santa’s team. Barbara loved the story so much that she made her father tell it every night before bedtime. As Bob retold the story, it grew with embellishments and became more elaborate. Bob could not afford to buy his daughter a gift for Christmas, so he decided to turn the story into a homemade picture book.

Bob’s wife died in early December. Though he was heartbroken, he kept working on the book for his daughter. A few days before Christmas, he reluctantly attended a company party at Montgomery Ward. His coworkers encouraged him to share the story he had written. After he read it, there was a standing ovation. Everyone wanted copies of their own. Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book from their debt-ridden employee. Over the next six years at Christmas, Montgomery Ward gave away six million copies of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to shoppers. Every major publishing house in the country was making offers to obtain the rights to the book. In an incredible display of good will, the head of the department store returned all rights to Bob May. Four years later, “Rudolph” had made Bob May a wealthy man.

Bob remarried and had a growing family and felt blessed by his good fortune. There was more to come. His brother-in-law, a successful songwriter named Johnny Marks, had set the uplifting story to music. The song was pitched to artists from Bing Crosby on down. They all passed. Finally, Marks approached the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. A few years previous, this cowboy star had scored a holiday hit with “Here Comes Santa Clause.” Like others, Autry was not impressed with the song about a misfit reindeer. Marks begged him to give it a second listen. Autry played it for his wife, Ina. She was so touched by the line, “They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games” that she insisted her husband record the tune.

Within a few years, it had become the second-best selling Christmas song ever, right behind “White Christmas.” Since then, Rudolph has come to life in TV specials, cartoons, movies, toys, games, coloring books, greeting cards, and even a Ringling Bros. circus act. That little red-nosed reindeer dreamed up by Bob May and immortalized in song by Johnny Marks has come to symbolize Christmas as much as Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and presents. As the last line of the song says, “He’ll go down in history.”

“Rudolph” will air at 8 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 6, on NBC. I hope as you watch it you will be inspired to be kinder, more compassionate and accepting of everyone even as they are different than you.

Joe Gentry is the executive director of the United Way of Northeast Michigan. Reach him at 989-354-2221 or jgentry@unitedwaynemi.org.