In a bit of nostalgia, I saw
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was on last night, and watched it while I was cooking dinner. As I recall, this was the first of the annual Christmas specials released (in 1964). Followed in succeeding years by
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (1966),
Little Drummer Boy (1968), and
Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970), at least the ones I enjoyed growing up.
Rankin-Bass produced
a number of other Christmas specials up through 1985, some of which I've seen, many I haven't.
But on the subject of Rudolph, I looked up its origins, and was surprised he was only created in 1939, by a guy named Robert L. May, who was actually Jewish, and did it as a Christmas promotional book for his employer Montgomery-Ward. First done as a free promotional giveaway book, then years later re-released as a retail children's book, then a hit song in 1949, and finally 25 years later, an animated stop-action Christmas special.
This below linked article has the history, along with photos of creator Robert L. May and his family:
http://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2017/12/rudolph-alienated-adolescent-saves.html It's kind of funny how he tried out the initial book/poem on his daughter to test its appeal to children, and later on other relatives.
And really nice that the owner of Montgomery-Ward a few years after gave May ownership of the Rudolph character he created, and allowed him to personally reap the profit from his creation.
And now... the PC maniacs want to ban it for having an alleged bullying message. Which is ironic, because it's about persevering over rejection and contributing to the world with what makes you different from everyone else.
