who invented rudolph the red nose reindeer

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by American copywriter Robert L. May in 1939 for the Montgomery Ward department store.

Who invented Rudolph?

• Robert L. May, a marketing copywriter for Montgomery Ward in Chicago, invented Rudolph as a character for a Christmas booklet the store could give away to customers.

• He originally considered names like Rollo and Reginald before finally choosing the name Rudolph for the red-nosed reindeer.

Why was Rudolph created?

• Montgomery Ward had been buying Christmas story booklets from outside publishers, but in 1939 they decided to have their own employee create one to save money and build a unique promotion.

• May wrote Rudolph’s story as a heartwarming tale about a misfit reindeer whose glowing red nose turns from an embarrassment into a gift that helps guide Santa’s sleigh through bad weather.

How Rudolph became famous

• The original Rudolph story was distributed as a free booklet to millions of customers by Montgomery Ward, which quickly made the character widely known in the United States.

• Rudolph’s popularity later exploded further with the famous song written by May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks and the 1964 stop-motion TV special, both of which cemented Rudolph as a modern Christmas icon.

TL;DR: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was invented by Robert L. May in 1939 as a promotional Christmas story for the Montgomery Ward department store.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.