Did you ever wonder where Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer came from?

Quote :

"Under trademark laws, anyone who uses the name Rudolph with an image of a reindeer-like animal with a bright, red nose without permission is potentially violating terms of a trademark, which is currently owned and administered by Classic Media. The concern also owns trademarks to several other classic cartoon characters, including Lassie and Frosty the Snowman."

http://ipmall.info/news_activities/news_press/field_031223.asp

More details:

Quote :

"The original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was written in verse by Robert L. May in 1939 for Montgomery Ward, a Chicago-based department store. The verse was published in a book, and given free to children visiting the store at Christmas. May's brother-in-law, the lyricist Johnny Marks, later wrote a song using the verse. In 1964, a stop-action animation feature from Rankin/Bass Studios appeared on television and the friendly reindeer's entry into popular holiday consciousness was complete."

More here http://www.religioustolerance.org/santa1.htm

Quote :

"1931: Haddon Sundblom, illustrator for The Coca-Cola company drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964. The company holds the trademark for the Coca-Cola Santa design. Christmas ads including Santa continue to the present day. 1939 Copywriter Robert L. May of the Montgomery Ward Company created a poem about Rudolph, the ninth reindeer. May had been "often taunted as a child for being shy, small and slight." He created an ostracized reindeer with a shiny red nose who became a hero one foggy Christmas eve. Santa was part-way through deliveries when the visibility started to degenerate. Santa added Rudolph to his team of reindeer to help illuminate the path. A copy of the poem was given free to Montgomery Ward customers. 1949: Johnny Marks wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Rudolph was relocated to the North Pole where he was initially rejected by the other reindeer who wouldn't let him play in their reindeer games because of his strange looking nose. The song was recorded by Gene Autry and became his all-time best seller. Next to "White Christmas" it is the most popular song of all time. "

As far as I can tell, no one owns the names of the other reindeer, but an interesting sidenote is that their names have changed a bit since they were first imagined.

http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/xmas/reindeer.htm

Henry Livingston's "Night Before Christmas," where the names of the reindeer first appear, first had the names written like so: "Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen, On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;" Pretty Interesting.

Quote :

"We've learned that poor Blixem was doomed from the start. His name first changed to Blixen in McClure's 1825 Almanac. We've learned that the name Donder first appeared in Hoffman's 1837 New York Book of Poetry, and reappeared in Hoffman's 1840 Poets of New York. We've learned that Norm Tuttle is responsible for the rhythm of the reindeer names in his 1830 Troy Sentinel Broadsheet, but that he kept the original reindeer names. His rhythm was slow to catch on, and for years it was mix and match of Tuttle's rhythm on one line and the original rhythm on the next. We've learned that Clement Moore went back to Tuttle's reindeer rhythm, and that it pretty much stayed there after that. And we've learned that Moore is responsible for the change of the reindeer name to Blitzen."

Finally, it's been said that the original names of the reindeer came from the names of the horses in Livingston's stable.

12/7/2005 10:18:40 AM

good finds.

12/7/2005 10:20:39 AM

i hate Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

12/7/2005 10:34:30 AM

My money would have been on Hallmark

12/7/2005 10:37:50 AM

^^ omg war on christmas!

12/7/2005 10:45:12 AM

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN CAN GO TO HELL, TOO

HE CAN GO TO HELL AND DIE

12/7/2005 10:47:18 AM

Nice work there!!

On a side note: I remember the Montgomery Ward in Greensbro at Carolina Circle Mall from when I was itty bitty!

12/7/2005 10:49:20 AM

Hell Yeah CC Mall. Ice skating and gang fights.

Good times.

12/7/2005 11:20:55 AM

now that area has been razed for a super wal-mart.

woo hoo!

12/7/2005 2:50:01 PM

Really? Not surprised. That area shit the bed a long time ago. The county IIRC either bought CC mall and put some offices out there (DSS, and some other stuff) but I hadn't heard anything else about it for a few years.

12/7/2005 3:07:58 PM

The Jews... they own everything. Right, sal?

12/7/2005 3:57:22 PM

nm

[Edited on December 7, 2005 at 10:10 PM. Reason : /]

12/7/2005 10:10:00 PM

Quote :

"The Jews... they own everything. Right, sal?"

That's what I thought this thread was going to be about, but then I remembered that I wasn't in the Soap Box

12/7/2005 10:59:09 PM

Wait

Are you saying Jews don't own Christmas?

When'd we sell it?

12/7/2005 11:15:40 PM

Well no shit the Jews don't own it...Hitler stole it, gave it the ultra right wing conservatives before he died in 1957.

12/8/2005 3:24:03 AM

my favorite is the right wingers busting the balls of stores who don't say merry christmas to them, only happy holidays because they're afraid it's gipping christmas..... so they're ok with the outright commercialization of christmas, but damn it, they want to be greeted appropriately.

12/8/2005 10:54:35 AM

Al Gore Invented Christmas.

12/8/2005 10:56:00 AM

http://www.orphanworks.org/
yet another kind of thing that belongs in public domain, but isn't.

12/8/2005 11:23:11 AM