History

2019

December 2019

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U.S. Census Bureau History: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Robert L. May wrote the iconic holiday story Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in
1939, as part of a holiday promotion for the Montgomery Ward department store. By 1945,
more than 5 million copies had been published.

Today, many early Rudolph-related artifacts, including copies of the original soft-covered
books from 1939, plush toys, and other personal items owned by Robert May are housed
at the Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College, in Hanover, NH.

Photo courtesy Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.

In 1939, advertising copywriter Robert L. May published Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as part of a holiday promotion sponsored by the Montgomery Ward department store headquartered in Chicago, IL. In the decades since its publication, Rudolph has become an iconic holiday character featured in books, music, and television specials, recognized by millions of children (and adults) worldwide.

Raised in New Rochelle, NY, Robert L. May graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH (home to the Rauner Special Collections Library, which holds May's papers related to the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). May moved to Chicago, IL, in the 1930s, where he worked as an advertising copywriter for the Montgomery Ward department store. Tasked with writing a Christmas book that could be given to the store's young visitors during the holidays, May chose a reindeer because his daughter liked the deer at the Chicago Zoo. Recalling the writing of the book years later, May noted that the idea for Rudolph's guiding red nose came after watching a fog bank from his office window. Despite initially rejecting the story, May's supervisors reconsidered after May resubmitted the story along with illustrations drawn by a friend in Ward's art department. Supervisors' initial misgivings about the story were quickly forgotten as Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer during the 1939 holiday shopping season.

Following World War II, Montgomery Ward executives agreed to transfer its Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer copyrights to Robert May. In 1948, Max Fleischer directed an 8-minute animated short film based on May's poem as part of Montgomery Ward's holiday advertising. That same year, Johnny Marks—husband of Robert May's sister Margaret—wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Singer Harry Brannon introduced the song to New York City, NY, radio listeners during a live performance in November 1949. After popular singers like Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore turned down the opportunity to record the song, cowboy-crooner Gene Autry released a recording of the holiday tune that rose to "Number 1" on the American pop music chart by January 1950. Montgomery Ward sponsored the re-release of the 1948 animated film featuring the Gene Autry version of Marks' song in 1951.

A Little Golden Books version of the Christmas story, illustrated by Richard Scarry, and comic books published in the 1950s were followed by one of the most popular adaptations of Rudolph's story—the 1964 stop-motion animated "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" television special. In the decades that followed, Rudolph and his glowing red nose appeared in holiday television specials, music, books, and even feature-length films.

In addition to two Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer sequels—Rudolph's Second Christmas and Rudolph Shines Again—Robert May wrote a number of other children's books prior to his death in 1976, including Benny the Bunny Liked Beans and Sam the Scared-est Scarecrow. Today, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is as much a part of holiday folklore as Santa Claus, Elf on a Shelf, Dr. Seuss' "Grinch," and the Ebeneezer Scrooge character from Charles Dickens' book A Christmas Carol. Thanks to Robert May's imagination, millions of children around the globe will sleep easier this month knowing that Rudolph is guiding Santa's sleigh.

You can learn more Robert L. May and his holiday story using census data and records. For example:

• Robert L. May was born in 1905 and grew up in New Rochelle, NY, with a brother and two sisters. Between 1900 and 1910, the population of New Rochelle, NY, grew from 14,720 to 28,867. In 2018, New Rochelle's population was 78,742.
• Aaron Montgomery Ward founded the Montgomery Ward mail order catalog and department store in 1872. Sixty-seven years later, Robert May wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer while working at the store's Chicago, IL, headquarters. One year after publication of the holiday poem, the 1940 Census counted 3,396,808 living in Chicago, making the city the nation's second largest. With a population of 3,485,398, Los Angeles, CA, surpassed Chicago (population 2,783,726) as America's second largest city in 1990. In 2010, Chicago remained the nation's third largest behind New York City, NY (8,175,133), and Los Angeles, CA (3,792,621), with a population of 2,695,598.
• Like Clement Clarke Moore's famous 1823 holiday story A Visit from St. Nicholas, Robert May wrote Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a poem. You can learn more about other American poets and poems using census data and records at December 2017's American Poets Web page.
• Robert May's brother-in-law, American songwriter Johnny Marks, adapted the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer poem into a hit song in December 1949. Recorded by Gene Autry, the song topped the U.S. music charts at Christmas 1949. Nicknamed the "Singing Cowboy," Autry—a Tioga, TX, native—also recorded the holiday hits Frosty the Snowman, Here Comes Santa Claus, and Up on the House Top. You can learn more about Gene Autry at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, CA.
• Santa's reindeer would feel at home in a number of American towns, including: Rudolph, OH; Dasher, GA; Comet, GA; Cupid, in Frontier County, NE; Donner, in Duval County, FL; and Blitzen, in Harney County, OR. There's also Antler City, OK; Silver Bell, in Pima County, AZ; Snowflake, AZ; North Star, MI; and North Pole—a hamlet within Wilmington, NY, in the state's Adirondack Park.
• When not guiding Santa Claus' sleigh on Christmas Eve, Rudolph and the other reindeer reside at Santa's North Pole workshop. The city of North Pole, AK, lies southeast of Fairbanks, AK, along the Tanana River. In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 2,117 people living in North Pole, AK. Despite its name and being home to Santa Claus House , North Pole, AK, is actually about 1,700 miles from the geographic North Pole, which explorer Robert Peary explored in April 1906.
• Johnny Marks followed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with a number of other holiday-themed songs, including Run Rudolph Run and Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree in 1958. Several other songs, like A Holly Jolly Christmas and Silver and Gold, accompanied the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer television special. In 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 64,700 worked as music directors and composers. These composers supply content to some of the 4,868 musical groups and artists (NAICS 711130) enumerated during the 2017 Economic Census.
• Robert L. May's papers—held by Dartmouth College's Rauner Special Collections Library—indicate that several names were considered for his red-nosed reindeer, including Rollo, Reginald, Romeo, and Rodney. According to the Social Security Administration, 8,198 babies were named "Rudolph" in the 1930s, making it the 172nd most popular boy's name in the United States that decade. "Rodney" was the 154th most popular boy's name, but Rollo, Romeo, and Reginald did not make the agency's list of 200 most popular names.
• The Census Bureau first asked about television ownership during the 1950 Census, finding that 9 percent of the nation's households owned a television set. In 1964, Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.—founded by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass—produced a stop-motion animated television special based on Robert May's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story that was narrated by American singer and actor Burl Ives. In time for Rudolph's television debut, the 1960 Census reported that 87 percent of homes owned a television set. The number grew to 95 percent in 1970. Since 1992, more than 99 percent of American households own at least one television.
• Did you know that reindeer and caribou are different names for the same animal (Rangifer tarandus)? In Europe, "reindeer" can be found in Russia, Norway, Greenland, Finland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. In North America, "caribou" can be found in Alaska and Canada. (The last members of a small population of woodland caribou living in Idaho's Southern Sellkirk Mountains were captured and relocated to Canada in January 2019.) According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the world's population of caribou/reindeer declined in the past 20 years from approximately 4.7 million to about 2.1 million in 2018.

In 1948, animator and director Max Fleishcer produced and directed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer—an 8-minute animated short film based on Robert May's poem—that
promoted the Montgomery Ward department store. Montgomery Ward released the film again in 1951 to include the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" written by
Johnny Marks and sung by Gene Autry.

The Library of Congress published the original 1948 film online in 2014.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

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Toys

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series, there were 509 doll, toy, and game manufacturing establishments (NAICS 33993) in the United States in 2017.

California led the nation with 86 manufacturers, followed by 28 in Illinois and 27 New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

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Holiday Shopping

Many stores depend on holiday shoppers—like this family browsing window displays in Providence, RI, in December 1940—to finish the year with a profit. In 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau's Monthly Retail Trade Survey reported that jewelry stores earned 19.7 percent of their total annual sales in December 2016. Likewise, hobby, toy, and game stores earned 18.9 percent and department stores earned 21.9 percent of their annual sales during the final month of 2016.

The National Retail Federation reported that the average consumer spent more on winter holiday shopping ($1007.24) than any other spending event in 2018.

The National Retail Federation predicts retail sales during November and December 2019 will total $727.9 to $730.7 billion.

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This Month in Census History

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, William P. McCracken (seated) issued Santa's pilot's license on December 24, 1927.

McCracken received the first federal pilot license in the United States. He offered Orville Wright the first license, but he declined. Learn more about Orville and Wilbur Wright's first flight without the help of reindeer at our 2018 Wright Brothers Web page.

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Visit https://www.census.gov/history every month for the latest Census History Home Page!