A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared
out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night.
His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bob's wife, Evelyn, was dying of
cancer.
Little Barbara couldn't understand why her mommy could
never come home. Barbara looked up into her
dad's eyes and asked,
"Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's Mommy?"
Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes welled with
tears. Her question
brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been
the story of Bob's life. Life always had to
be different for Bob.
Small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to
compete in sports.
He was often called names he'd rather not remember. From childhood, Bob was different and never
seemed to fit in.
Bob did complete college, married his loving wife
and was grateful to get his job as a
copywriter at Montgomery Ward
during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed
with his little girl. But it was all
short-lived. Evelyn's bout with cancer
stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a
two-room apartment in the Chicago
slums.
Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.
Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas
gift. But if
he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined to make one
– a
storybook! Bob had created an animal character in his own
mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to
give her comfort and hope. Again and again
Bob told the story,
embellishing it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all about? The
story Bob May
created was his own autobiography in fable form.
The character he created was a misfit
outcast like he was. The
name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph,
with a big shiny nose. Bob finished the book
just in time to give
it to his little girl on Christmas Day. But the
story doesn't end there.
The general manager
of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little
storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the
rights to print the book. Wards went on to print, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and
distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their
stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more
than six million copies of Rudolph. That
same year, a major
publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to
print an updated version of the
book.
In an unprecedented
gesture of kindness, the CEO of Wards returned all rights back to Bob May. The book became a best seller.
Many toy and
marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with
a growing family, became wealthy from the
story he created to
comfort his grieving daughter. But the story doesn't
end there either.
Bob's
brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such
popular
vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore , it was
recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry.
"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed
Reindeer" was released in 1949 and became a
phenomenal success, selling more records
than any other Christmas song,
with the exception of "White Christmas." The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on
returning back
to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned
the lesson, just like his dear friend
Rudolph, that being
different isn't so bad. In fact, being different can be
a blessing.
