Rudolph was the red-nosed reindeer created for a 1939 Montgomery Ward Christmas booklet.
Copywriter Robert L. May wrote the story for Montgomery Ward, a Chicago-based department-store chain. The company distributed the booklet as a promotional gift to shoppers. May’s story presented Rudolph as an outcast whose unusually bright red nose eventually helped guide Santa’s sleigh through fog.
Rudolph was not one of the eight reindeer named in Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem. His later popularity came from several adaptations, especially Gene Autry’s 1949 recording of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
The character is also widely known from the 1964 stop-motion television special. Because of these later versions, many people assume Rudolph originated in a song or film, but the character first appeared in the Montgomery Ward booklet.