Is your ceiling the best?

FOR THE SEASON:

The True Story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Bob May, sat depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty window into the chilling December night in 1938...

His 4-year-old daughter, Barbara, sat on his lap quietly sobbing.

Bobs wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer and passed just days before Christmas in 1938.

Bob was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression.

Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums.

But if he couldn't buy a gift, for his daughter, he was determined a make one - a storybook!

Bob had created an animal character in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope.

The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose.

Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day.

The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book.

By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph.

That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book.

In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the then CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May.

The book became a best seller.

Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter.

Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph.

It was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success.

The recording we all know and love - Autry recorded it on the first take.

When the bees were all in for the night the beekeeper closed the doors.

It was…Un Bee Leave Able.

I’ll show myself out. Please tip your waitress.

Good jokes. And love that story too.

From Tonight's Movie -

Why can't you trust Atoms?

I'll never forget Frasier Crane's interpretation of that story...

Thanks LLOF