Christmas with Jam Handy, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1944)

~ Howdy, Folks!

A perennial Christmas favorite is "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". First animated in 1944 by the Jam Handy Corporation, a Chicago based advertising firm. Max Fliescher directed this short with animation help from William Sturm, who worked on hundreds of Fliescher cartoons. Enjoy!

Based on the Montgomery Ward Christmas promotional give-away book written by Robert L. May in 1939. The animation is indeed from 1944, but the addition of the song (and song credits) to the title sequence shows that this is the 1948 re-issue, as the song wasn't written until 1947. Unable to interest any music publishers, composer Johnny Marks (May's brother-in-law) set up his own company (St Nicholas Music inc) to publish the sheet music himself. It would appear that the addition of the song to the title sequence and subsequent re-issue was done at Mark's and May's request, to publicize the song. It seems to have worked, as Gene Autry was persuaded to record it the following year.

~ Hey, Peter!

Thanks for the back-story about Rudolph. Interesting that the story was originally an in-store book promotion for Montgomery Wards. I've always wondered that if the film was animated by Jam Handy in 1944, which seems right as Max Fleischer had recently left his studio and was available, and then the song was inserted into the cartoon later in 1948, was the cartoon ever distributed by Handy between 1944-1948? Just wondering when the legend of Rudolph started to buzz?