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Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
A Geek Culture Podcast - Two life-long Nerds explain, critique and poke fun at the major pillars of Geek Culture for your listening pleasure.
Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
Rudy! Rudy! Rudolph!
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A glowing red nose didn’t start as folklore—it started as copy. We follow Rudolph’s unlikely path from a 1939 Montgomery Ward booklet written by Robert L. May, forged in grief and grit, to Johnny Marks’ earworm melody and Gene Autry’s reluctant hit that stormed both pop and country charts. Then we pull the curtain on the Rankin/Bass special: GE’s sponsorship, Arthur Rankin’s partnership with stop‑motion pioneer Tadahito Mochinaga, and the Animagic craft that studied real deer in Nara to give Rudolph those lifelike blinks and gentle turns. Commerce met creativity, and somehow a marketing project became a tradition that refuses to fade.
We also sit with the hard questions. The bullying, the “man’s work” line, Santa’s chilly management style, and the idea that acceptance arrives only when difference becomes useful—these critiques have followed the special into the modern era. Defenders argue the story still delivers courage, resilience, and belonging. Between those poles is the real story of American holiday culture: capitalism can launch a narrative, but families, memories, and repetition give it meaning. That’s how a department store promo turned into the longest‑running Christmas special on TV, and how a bright flaw became a guiding light.
If you love media history, Christmas traditions, marketing strategy, stop‑motion animation, or pop culture debates, this one’s for you. Hear how rights, royalties, and risk shaped a classic; how Canadian radio talent and Burl Ives sealed the deal; and why the special still pulls ratings decades later. Listen, share with a friend who hums along every year, and leave a review to help more curious listeners find the show.
Well, we'll simply have to overlook it. Gentlemen, let's broaden our minds.
SPEAKER_01:Are they the proper approach button for today? Negative.
unknown:Charge the lightning field.
SPEAKER_00:When it comes to Christmas, much of what we think of as enduring forever histories and time honored traditions are really just ad schemes and marketing ploys. The creation of the holiday, Santa Claus, and many of its highly regarded mythologies are creations of the 19th and 20th century, many by corporations and brands to influence spending and realize capitalistic manifestations. But that doesn't mean that they can't gain significance or that we can't derive our own nostalgia-laced grace from their crude origins. No, Christmas can be magical and joyous, and just because something we love was engineered to sell us something, it can still contain deeper meaning and lasting, heartening import. Thusly, I'd like to light up my bulging red bulb and guide you on the podcast holiday journey with the creation of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
SPEAKER_01:Jake walks backwards when he guides you somewhere.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's that way. No, I I'm I'm pointing. Do you not can you Oh, I see. I'm never taking this ride again. You don't bored. Montgomery Ward, the now defunct shopping enterprise, was prepping for their Christmas of 1939 many, many months in advance. They had called upon Chicago Jewish Montgomery Ward copywriter Robert May to write a new holiday tale that they could market to their shoppers. May took this job, but was given the option to abandon the assignment. His wife had been diagnosed with cancer, and over the year of 1939, her health was rapidly deteriorating until in July when she passed. But May found consolation in his writing assignment and drew inspiration from the reindeer at Lincoln Park Zoo, who his now motherless daughter enjoyed so much. By August, May had finished and turned in a story compiled of 89 couplets. It was the story of a reindeer with an abnormally large, shiny red nose who gets teased by other black nosed reindeer. But on a foggy Christmas Eve, Santa realizes Rudolph's glowing snout is the beacon he needs so that he can deliver presents to the children on time. May said he was inspired by the story of the ugly duckling, which he later wrote had always appealed to him as someone who growing up was shy and small as a boy, and who had known what it was like to be an underdog. Though Santa's reindeer had already had names, I mean we all know them, right? Dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, donner, blitzen, thanks to that 1820s poem, A Visit from Saint Nicholas. But May had come up with a ninth name, or at least at least a list of possible names. He brainstormed and began with the letter R for a liter of purposes. Some of those he suggested were Rolo, Rodney, Roland, Roderick, and Reggie. This list is now held at my pal Reggie. Just Reggie. This list is now held at May's alma mater Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire with the rest of his papers. In a 1963 interview, he said he thought Rolo sounded too happy for a reindeer with unhappy problems. And Reginald seemed too sophisticated. But Rudolph rolled off the tongue nicely. As for the idea of the glowing nose that was apt for navigating, that light bulb moment came from looking out his office window in the middle of one Chicago's infamous winter days, seeing the fog from Lake Michigan, and thinking of Santa trying to do his work on such a foggy night. But this idea almost got shelved, May would note, after focus group participants said that they thought a red nose had connotations of alcoholism. Hmm. But Montgomery Ward went with it, they liked it, and they then transformed the poem into a 32-page booklet that they gave out to children for free. Now mind you, this isn't long after the Great Depression, so it was quite meaningful for them to give it away, and they gave away more than two million copies. Rudolph was successful, it was a hit, but May struggled as a single father. He was weighed down with medical debt, but he continued to work at Montgomery Ward and eventually remarried. After World War II, Montgomery Ward gave May the rights to Rudolph, which was quite unexpected, but ends up being quite the win for him in the end. Now May knew that Rudolph was popular and had promise, and he sensed an opportunity. So he persuaded Johnny Marks, his brother-in-law, to write music for accompaniment. And Marx had been writing songs his entire adult life, already having worked as a professional composer. He published TV scores, radio hits, and commercial jingles. Over 175 original songs. Besides Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Marx composed the seasonal songs I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, first recorded by Bean Crosby in 56, or Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, 1960 by Brenda Lee. He also did A Holly Jolly Christmas by Berl Ives in 1963. So he kind of had a knack for this. After jotting down the title when it first came out, Mark after jotting down the title when it first came out, Marks had carried it around with him for almost a decade. When he finally tried to write it in 1949, he said, I wrote it. Easily one of the worst songs ever written. It was just terrible. Nailed it. Now what happened is a year later, I'm walking along the street. It's never happened before. I don't know if it's walking on the street or what. I started a hum. Never happened. Dum dee da dum dee da dum. Dum dee da dum dee da dum dum. You see, what I'm doing is inverting the notes. Instead of going down, I'm going up. Okay. When he finally composed the melody, he was so certain of its existence, he was so certain of its success that he formed his own company to publish the song. He invested$25,000 to form Saint Nicholas Music. In doing so, he would fully own the song, as opposed to sharing half the royalty with a song publishing company. Now Marx began to look for a singer for this song that he thought really had some promise. He approached Bing Crosby, he approached Dinah Shore, and Pericoma was also an option. In fact, Coma would have had it, but Marx wouldn't give him permission to change the lyrics when they were going to record. Okay. So eventually it came in front of Jean Autry. But Autry wasn't enthusiastic about it. He didn't really vibe with it. But Autry's wife, Aina, felt that the underdog story of Rudolph was moving and thought it would be the same for listeners to hear that story. They would also be moved and it would be a hit. Ina was right. Autry recorded Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in time for the 1949 holiday season. It went straight to the top of the Billboard's Country Western and pop charts. Now, although there are some variations in the creation of the song, there is a story that Hecke Cransaw, the producer of children's music at Columbia, the company that distributed Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, that he was the one behind Autry coming on board and that he led to its success. Ah, yeah. It's like Ghostface. But it's kind of a little murky, but most people point to Marx being the leader in all of this. But either way. If you're a Marxist for sure. According to the official Rankin Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt, the song's popularity ignited a chain reaction of coincidences and connections. Now Marx, he lived in Greenwich Village, where he had become friends with a neighbor of his in the area. A gentleman Dr. Stephen Strange. He's more of a wong guy, really, I think. I'll say. This gentleman he became friends with was Arthur Rankin. In 1960, Rankin formed Rankin and Bass Productions, although originally named Videocraft International, with Jules Bass, his collaborator. Forthwith, they began producing children's TV specials. Rankin approached Marx to discuss the possibility of making Rudolph into a TV special as part of the GE Fantasy Hour. Woo! We all remember that. As discussions were underway, May's time with Montgomery Ward also became part of this. It seems that because one of Montgomery Ward's people, a Willard Sayoff, was now in GE, it lubricated the path to bring Rudolph to the network. Say Loff was the VP of Housewares and influenced the company's TV specials, which at that point aired on NBC. In another strange turn of events, it was the GE engineer named Nick Hollonak that first developed the LED light bulbs capable of emitting emitting visible red light in 1962. This was the same bulb that would provide the bioluminescence of Rudolph Snows.
SPEAKER_01:That's funny, because like, first of all, we call that vertical integration in our current monopoly state. But also, that's essentially the origin story of Jack Donegie on 30 Rock. He was in GE's Department of Microwave Development. And then when GE bought NBC, he gets taken to the he gets put as president of NBC.
SPEAKER_00:Art imitating life. By mid-1963, Rudolph was officially Greenlit and being made. Because the Fantasy Hours series created a pipeline to market its goods to viewers directly. GE bankrolled more than 4.5 million into the innovative stop-motion animation production. Along with the hour-long special, GE produced four commercials featuring the accompaniment of Rudolph's characters. These ads included new products like the Electric Toaster, the Electric Can Opener, and the brand new Electric Blanket. Oh boy. Rinkinbass needed to transform this poem into a full workable script, so they turned to Romeo Mueller, who they had previously collaborated with on the Return to Oz specials. Hell yeah. Mueller and writer Tony Peters expanded the story and the character cast and drew out the themes of individuality and alienation. Mueller was keyly responsible for Hermi the Elf's dentistry fascination and the creation of the Bumblebeast. Okay. Franken Basses trusted Tatohito Mochinaga for the animation. He was a pioneering filmmaker and had developed the first puppet-based stop-motion animation in China and Japan. Now, Mochinaga was born in 1919, and he had fallen in love with animation upon seeing a Mickey Mouse short in a Tokyo movie theater as a child. He studied at the Nippon Art College, and Mochinaga then landed a job in animation and distinguished himself with his innovation in camera techniques that pushed animation to a new level of technical sophistication in Japan. During World War II, he left Japan for Manchuria, then a Japanese-occupied puppet state in China. That's fitting. Mm-hmm. Where he produced propaganda films with the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese animators. And puppets. In 1947, Mochinaga was instructed to create an animated propaganda film mocking Chinese politician Chang Kai-shek. To drive home the message that Kai shek was controlled by the U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, Mochinaga created literal puppets of the two figures.
SPEAKER_01:There we go.
SPEAKER_00:The result was China's first stop-motion puppet animation. In 1955, Mochinaga returned to Japan and brought this technique with him, using it to produce a beer commercial that became the first Japanese stop-motion puppet animation. The commercial success spurred Mochinaga to form the puppet animation studio in Tokyo, and his unusually fluid true to life animation technique became known as Animagic. Oh wow. He was one of the leading animators in the world. And during a 1959 tour of Japan animation studios, Rankin met Mochinaga. They would go on to work together extensively. In fact, it was Tad Mochinaga and his MOM production that headed all of Rankin Bass's production. Rankin Bass would also employ many other studios to outsource their work like Toei Animation and Topcraft, among many, many others. Just like Disney, many major visionaries came out of these companies, namely Hayo Miyazaki, who was on Topcraft staff and would go on to establish Studio Ghibli after Topcraft's closure. Now Mochinaga directed the creation of 22 handmade sets, built to scale for the four-inch puppet cast created by designer Ichiro Komuro. Before filming, Mochinaga had journeyed to Nara, Japan. Now Nara is home to Nara Park, a deer sanctuary established in 1880 to protect the area's sacred deer population. Nanara deer are unique in their climatization to humans and will boldly approach visitors to munch on food that they provide and mimic human bowing. That's awesome. Yeah. He and his assistant spent two days there observing and translated the details of their observations into the animation itself, with rich, delicate eyelids crafted from leather and the subtle movements of Rudolph. Now it was a painstaking process to create, as each second of filming required 24 frames of animation. But they made it work and it was magical. But they weren't the only ones responsible. Most of the characters that were portrayed in these in the animated film were portrayed by Canadian actors that recorded our RCA studios in Toronto. The recording session lasted two days, which was then followed by a session in New York City to polish the songs. Now Rankin Bass chose Canadian actors for two reasons. First, while the last radio dramas in the United States had ended production a few years previously, many were still being produced in Canada, giving the producers a large talent pool to choose from. CBC was large enough to enable American workers such as Rankin Bass to get their shows done in Toronto. Secondly, Rankin and Bass were taking loans from Friends to bankroll and chose Toronto's Crawley films to financially stretch out 130 short episodes of Tales of the Wizard of Oz, which made the Canadian labor cost cheaper. Obviously there were there were many great actors on there, you know, Burl Ives being a key figure there. But they also had Billy Mae Richards, who provided the voice of Rudolph and would reprise the role for Rudolph's Shiny New Year and Rudolph's Frosty Christmas in July. But in the original production, Billy Mae Richards, who voiced Rudolph, was credited under the name of her husband, Billy Richards, since Rankin Bass did not want to disclose that a woman had done the part. Jesus. Sam the Snowman was originally supposed to be voiced by Larry D. Mann, but it was later decided that Burl Ives would voice him. Ives was hired to appease NBC and its sponsor, General Electric, with Rankin Bass's marketing strategy to employ a bigger celebrity, which would later happen in other specials such as Jimmy Durante and Frosty the Snowman and Fred Astaire and Santa Claus is come to town. But it's essentially because they needed a name that would get GE on board, is why they went through our lives. When the special finally aired in 1964, it became such a hit. It has been rebroadcast every year since, making it the longest-running Christmas special in history. In fact, in 2016, Rudolph the Red Nose Reader, airing on CBS, beat out every show on the air except for This Is Us. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:There's a lot to say there, okay?
SPEAKER_00:But I mean, you know. Nope, there's just a lot. Almost 50 years later, still being like, you know, almost the top show on TV. What?
SPEAKER_01:Just like Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is you. Just it broke the all-time record for a single being in the number one slot over time.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, God.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's been 30 years, but so I don't know if that should count or not, but.
SPEAKER_00:30 years of hell. Though Rudolph has become a beloved classic, in recent years there's been some pushback. Some online have pointed out some negative aspects of the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer story. That bullying and ostracization, as Rudolph and the Misfit toys, are mocked, excluded from the games, and told they're useless. Also that Santa is a bully, that he rejects Rudolph and the Misfitch, showing them the door, leading to accusations that he is exploited a figure, certainly not a benevolent one, perhaps even the villain of the story. There's also the sexism at work, and one scene Donner tells Mrs. Donner that this is a man's work when she wants to join the flight practice. Yeah. There's also uh conditional acceptance that Rudolph is only deemed worthy and accepted once his flaw becomes a useful asset for Santa. 100% suggesting that his value is based on utility rather than inherit worth.
SPEAKER_01:Right. It's not exactly a mer the meritocracy they think they're presenting there. Yeah, and the fact that he's only even moderately accepted when he finds use for the the higher class group. Yeah, now he's beloved.
SPEAKER_00:Um defenders, including the original voice actress Corrine Conley, argued that the story resolves with acceptance and joy, offering a valuable lesson about overcoming adversity and finding your place by being yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Being yourself as long as it fits into the overarching Zeitgeist. Isn't that the thing? That's why I hated the movie. The Heath Ledger one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Where at the end it's like, oh, it's so romantic. He abandoned who he was and conveniently folded into the mainstream stereotype. It's so cute.
SPEAKER_00:It always reminds me of uh the Breakfast Club, you know, the outsider girl. She's only accepted at the very end. Like everyone else gets to have their journey, but she becomes critified by the the popular girl.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and then she's accepted, and it's like she can't be accepted for who she is.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and then later it's always the uh taking the glasses off of the nerdy girl and making her super hot, even though she was probably hotter with the glasses.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And more interesting. Then you also point that you know, this was a tale told in its time, and that it's a beloved holiday tradition, and it's teaching kids that being different is okay and they can be human. Heroes, even if they're not like everybody else. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:There are some ableism issues going on here.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, there's there certainly are. Unfortunately, it's kind of been like this argument, especially when it it really rose to prominence around 2018. It took a dark turn when it was hopped upon by Donald Trump. Oh, Jesus. He had shared a video about some of these observations that were made and labeled it with liberalism is a disease. And of course, this is also picked up by Tucker Carlson and Dave Rubin. In their segment titled Progressives Love Attacking Christmas Traditions, got into all of these particular moments. And as Rubin said, they were literally go after a sunset, suggesting that liberals would seek to destroy anything that is beloved, which Tucker Carlson said, that's such a smart point because he's such a smart guy. Because he is first and foremost a scientist. So it really shades the argument when it falls into that realm of those thought profiles. But it is a beloved holiday classic. Rankin Bass obviously went on to do you have the Santa Claus with you know Burlives, the Little Drummer Boy, uh, and Rudolph the Red Wood Red Nose Reindeer Would Return in other specials. But the idea, Rudolph, has become a bit of a holiday classic. And it's an interesting spotlight on a department story trying to crank out a story related to Christmas that they can provide to kids to then bring their parents into shop that then gets turned into a song by a semi-popular at the time artist that then becomes a big hit where people are then buying the records. And then both a TV studio and a manufacturer of electronics then employs their own programming to create a show and commercials to sell their items in perpetuity. And because of all of this, it creates something that we think has been around a long time. You know, I mean, in our entire life, I mean Rudolph's always been around, it's been a staple. Rudolph is is, of course, one of the reindeer, but when you look at it, it's not that old. It was done for uh, you know, some might say the wrong reasons. You know, it was a, I guess you could say a labor of love for the original creator.
SPEAKER_01:It is part of a the tradition of American Christmas in general, in that Christmas wasn't even really celebrated by a majority of Americans until the mid-19th century. And when, you know, the Gilded Age took off and capitalism started running amok, that's when you started seeing Christmas as a celebration, eventually for children, but that's sort of a little later down the line. But it was an excuse to buy and sell things in celebration of this holiday that really wasn't that big a deal. Rudolph is part and parcel part of the output of this phenomenon that you write is not very old. And in fact, though its origins happened a little earlier, doesn't even look anything like what we see today until post-World War II, and then, believe it or not, post-9-11. So it gets even weirder after that.
SPEAKER_00:Fantastic. But I hope you've all enjoyed this little jaunt through the fog, as our glowing podcast, red throbbing beacon of hope, teaches you about the holidays and on this nostalgic journey into a little reindeer creature and a goofy little elf that we all loved as kids, and maybe still love today, because hey, the animation is good, the story's fun, the song's catchy, you know, and uh you know the you could say maybe the idea of the story is a heartwarming one. Maybe not best told in execution, but you know the idea is still relevant.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's it's it's that classic uh 50s American like propaganda film the US would put out about fitting in and and you know about uh you know conforming to mainstream society, even though that's exactly what they complained about the Soviet Union. It's right in that wheelhouse, but we're still dealing with it today, so it's true.
SPEAKER_00:And we hope you guys are still dealing with us next time as we explore more thoughts about the holiday season. But until then, if you wouldn't mind like, sharing, subscribing, if you wouldn't mind giving us five throbbing, glowing red noses on the podcast app of your choice. Irritating that's the best way for just get heard and thus seen. And again, we'd like to just thank you. Thank you for spending the holidays with us, your favorite geek podcast, hopefully. I mean, at least maybe in the top 50 of your favorites. But until Santa straps the harness on us, whips us in the bottom, and gets us to ride in his sleigh. Skip, what should they do?
SPEAKER_01:Feel like you and I came from different places just now there, but I'm already in the harness, bro. I guess you came. Well, it is uh you know, coming to the end of the year, and we're gonna have some fun stuff coming up here leading into that. So please be patient, wait for us. We promise we'll stay chaste until that moment in which you arrive. Lies. That is a lie. Please make sure that you have paid your tabs, cleaned up after yourselves to some sort of reasonable degree, been generous to your fellow man in this time of need. Aww. And that also includes supporting your local comic shops and retailers. But that having been said, despite being not motivated by profit, because nobody makes money off of the show at all, we'd like to say, Godspeed, fair wizards.
SPEAKER_00:I don't want to be a podcasher, I want to be a dentist.
SPEAKER_01:And we being a dentist. I want to pull teeth. Eli Rodz Herbie the Elf.
SPEAKER_00:That'd be better than some of his other stuff. Probably true. A new holiday classic. Please go away.