Everyone loves a good underdog story, and if that underdog story also happens to be a Christmas story, well, that's even better.

There's one underdog story that gets me right into the Christmas spirit every time.

It's the story of a little guy who always felt inferior. He was

smaller and weaker than his peers, and he wasn't included in their games. But he would go on to

leave an indelible mark on Christmas. You might say a big, red, glowing mark. You know his name,

of course. Robert? You probably weren't expecting to hear that,

but I was talking about Robert L. May, who created Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer way back in 1939.

And the story behind it is almost as magical and endearing and triumphant as the little oddball who goes on to save Christmas.

Maybe Robert May didn't go down in his story, but try imagining a Christmas season without

his most enduring creation. I'm Brian Earle. This is Christmas past.

I'm embarrassed to admit that until recently, I had no idea that Rudolph started out as a storybook.

I'd only ever known the song and the TV show, and we'll get to those later.

I guess it's not that surprising because the book was first published in 1939, and you can't

buy a copy today. In fact, you could

never buy a copy anywhere. That's because the storybook was a promotional giveaway produced by the

Montgomery Ward Department Store. Year after year, Montgomery Ward gave out free books to children

of holiday shoppers. But in 1939, the management decided to try to save money

by producing its own books rather than buying them from booksellers.

And that's where our story begins.

Robert May was a copywriter for Montgomery Ward.

He was living in Chicago.

He had always had bigger dreams, like writing the Great American novel.

...