Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

[bbabe24]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:27pm

This is my favorite holiday show from childhood. It's a classic and it's on now. Love the snowman narrator. Anyone else remember Rudolph?

[BluCat500]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:30pm

...the greatest reindeer of all?

I actually don't recall...

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:38pm

I think it's a wonderfully touching film. I love "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas."

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:38pm

Never heard of it.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:40pm

I heard that his nose was red from an infection.

[bbabe24]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:41pm

Best12, you don't know what you're missing. I still enjoy it now as an adult.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:43pm

bbabe, I hope you know I'm joking.

Rudolph is a classic and has been enjoyed annually for over 40 years now.


Same as me!

[bbabe24]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:45pm

Best12, glad to know that you love old Rudy like I do. Carry on...

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:51pm

I'm glad you like the snowman, bbabe. He is voiced by Burl Ives, a brilliant, respected actor and folk singer... he played Big Daddy in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (both on Broadway and the film).

Forgive me, if you already knew that!

[bbabe24]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 8:56pm

I didn't! Thanks best12. Burl Ives does have a lovely voice.

[EverythingIsRENT]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 11:13pm

darn i missed it! when will it be on again??

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 11:19pm

Is this the one with the elf who wants to be a dentist?

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 11:30pm

We're a couple of misfits
We're a couple of misfits
What's the matter with misfits
That's where we fit in!

We're not daffy and dilly
Don't go 'round willy nilly
Seems to us kinda silly
That we don't fit in.

We may be different from the rest
Who decides the test
Of what is really best?

We're a couple of misfits
We're a couple of misfits
What's the matter with misfits
That's where we fit in!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 11:51pm

You could even say it glowed.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 12:36am

And it was in High Definition. You could see some of the strings holding up the sleigh which is something I never noticed before.

I remember when I was a little kid and it was on NBC. They had commercials for GE and later from Norelco which starred the elves from the show.

Burl Ives also starred in Disney's "Summer Magic" with Hayley Mills (sister of Juliet from "Passions" )

From IMDB:

Alternate Versions for
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) (TV)
1998 restored release contains a longer version of "We Are Santa's Elves", a duet reprise of "We're A Couple Of Misfits", plus additional narration by Burl Ives and two short scenes towards the end resolving Yukon Cornelius' quest for gold (he discovers that all he was really searching for was a peppermint mine) and Santa's lead reindeer Donner looking up at Rudolph in the air and proclaiming "That's my buck". The version that originally premiered on NBC in 1964 had these sequences minus the Island Of Misfit Toys ending (where Santa and company return to the Island to rescue the toys that had been left behind earlier in the story)--that was animated, filmed, and used for the 1965 re-release (and all subsequent television and video releases through 1997) after viewer protests demanded a resolution of that storyline. The original version also had a different main title that does not mention "Rankin/Bass present" (as it had already been established it was originally a General Electric presentation--GE had been the show's original sponsor), and an end credits sequence where the elves show the technical credits on gift boxes before dumping them on the ground to their destinations. The 1965-1997 re-edit has the "Rankin/Bass present" subtitle at the beginning, and an alternate end credits sequence with the elves putting their gifts under flying umbrellas to take them to their destinations (as the techincal credits are superimposed on the screen), while omitting the instrumental bridge to "We Are Santa's Elves" and the "Peppermint Mine" & "That's my buc" dialogue sequences, and finally replacing the "...Misfits" reprise with the song "Fame And Fortune" (which appears on the current DVD release as a separate supplement). The Island Of Misfit Toys ending was later incorporated into the 1998 restored version, which (as of 12/02) continues to air annually on CBS.

"I've lost everything! Luis, Marty, my baby with Chris, Chris himself, James. All I ever wanted was love." --Sheridan Crane "Passions" ------- "Housework is like bad sex. Every time I do it, I swear I'll never do it again til the next time company comes."--"Lulu" from "Can't Stop The Music" ----- "When the right doors didn't open for him, he went through the wrong ones" - "Sweet Bird of Youth" ------------ --------- "Passions" is uncancelled! See NBC.com for more info.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 12:57am

Rudolph is a logo. He was created from scratch by an ad executive from Montgomery Ward so that the now-defunct chain could own a Christmas Character to use in it's advertising. They came up with the idea of a Reindeer with a glowing nose and hired songwriter Johnny Marks to write a jingle. At first Rudolph was just in Montgomery Ward ads, windows and Xmas POP but eventually they allowed commercial release of the jingle and even several cartoons and this stop-action Rankin-Bass TV special. Now he's in the public domain and turns up everywhere, second only to Santa in the Xmas hierarchy.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 12/9/06 at 1:36am

FYI. Montgomery Ward is back.....at least in name





Montgomery Ward brand returns, but not stores

CHICAGO - There is life after death - at least in retail.


Five years after Montgomery Ward went out of business, its brand name has been revived on the Internet and there's even a 21st-century version of the Wards holiday catalog that was standard fare in American households for decades at this time of year.

Without stores, this Wards is a bit different from the chain that thrived for over a century until liquidating in 2001 after Wal-Mart and other discounters and department stores left it badly out of fashion.

But Direct Marketing Services Inc., the catalog marketer that acquired the Wards name out of bankruptcy in 2004, insists it is faithfully carrying on a legacy that dates to 1872 when Aaron Montgomery Ward established the first mail-order business.

Many of Montgomery Ward's old vendors and products and several former employees are part of the new Wards, which sells 46,000 items online ranging from rugs to recliners and home electronics to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer yard art. And David Milgrom, the private firm's president and founder, notes that the cataloger shares Wards' Chicago roots and retail industry experience.

"As a retailing pioneer, Mr. Ward would be pleased to know that the tradition of excellence which he began continues in an exciting new way with Wards.com," the Wards Web site proclaims.

Still, it's the famous brand name that the direct marketer is counting on most to draw shoppers. In the fierce competition among retailers, industry experts say a trusted brand - even a heretofore dead one - can be half the battle.

"People are always open to believing that however wayward one got, even for a retailer, given proper management you can go back on the right track," said George Rosenbaum, chairman of Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, a Chicago-based retail consulting firm. "Wards was a good enough name, so there's probably a good amount of hope or willingness to believe that they've come back."

Sue Montoya, a longtime Wards devotee who was "devastated" when her favorite chain shut down, says she was thrilled to get a catalog from the resurrected business this year. She promptly placed an order.

"I am sure that if my dear mother was still alive today she would be just as excited, as she is the one who introduced me to the Wards tradition," the 56-year-old Montoya said from her home in Denver.

Wards isn't the only moribund brand to get rehabilitated under new ownership.

FAO Schwarz toy stores, another century-old retailer that landed in bankruptcy after failing to keep up with the likes of Wal-Mart and Target Stores Inc., reopened on New York's Fifth Avenue and in Las Vegas in 2004 after the failing company's remnants were bought for $41 million by D.E. Shaw Laminar Portfolios.

Pepsodent toothpaste, once the No. 1 U.S. toothpaste before fading into oblivion, was purchased by Church & Dwight Co. in 2003 from Unilever and now is a value brand sold in discount stores.

White Stag, a leading maker of ski clothing and sportswear dating to the 1930s and '40s, is now an in-house brand at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. after being bought from Warnaco Group Inc. in 2003.

Not everyone is taken with the brand-revival practice.

Sid Doolittle, a retired retail consultant who worked at Montgomery Ward for 29 years and was president of its catalog division, contends that bringing back the Wards name deceives customers who may not realize it's not the same company they knew.

"It's an old familiar name and there is a halo around the name with some people," he said. "This isn't the old reliable company at all, it's a company leveraging the name."

Milgrom takes exception to that characterization, noting that retailers change owners all the time. He says his company adheres to the Montgomery Ward practice of offering affordable merchandise that's not readily available in retail stores with home delivery, a credit option and a customer satisfaction guarantee.

"We take great pride in offering a wide variety of quality products just like the original Wards did," he said in an interview at the company's two-story offices. "We are in the same lines of business as the original Wards, with many of the same suppliers. The overwhelming majority of customer responses are that they are so happy to see Wards back."

The 48-year-old Milgrom has built a $160 million-a-year company through a strategy of acquiring older, established domain and catalog names. A former lighting products supplier to Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s home furnishings catalog, he licensed the right to use Sears' name on catalogs after founding the firm in 1993 and now mails several Sears specialty titles, gifts book Charles Keath, its core HomeVisions catalog and Wards.

The native Chicagoan outbid several others to acquire the Montgomery Ward name for an undisclosed sum in June 2004, sensing that the historic brand would resonate with middle-income consumers over 40.

"To build a brand today is so expensive. There's only so many Wal-Marts and Amazons out there," he said. "We just picked up where they (Wards) left off."

Within three months, Direct Marketing Services had revived the Web site and begun publishing a slimmed-down version of the catalog that vanished 12 years earlier, culminating in the reappearance of a 150-page holiday book last month.

"The Montgomery Ward name certainly has a lot of brand equity so it makes sense for them to make a serious attempt again, more of a traditional direct marketing approach," said George Hague, senior marketing strategist at J. Schmid & Assoc. Inc., a catalog consulting company in Mission, Kan. "They're able to focus and highlight their best-selling merchandise and use the best industry practices of cataloging to drive traffic to their Web site."

Direct Marketing Services, which has 50 employees in Chicago, still derives the largest portion of its revenue from Sears catalogs. But Milgrom says Wards sales, boasted by nearly 20 million catalog mailings have more than doubled this year to become "a very significant piece of our business." He declined to give dollar figures.

The new Wards' strategy gets a thumbs-up from experts so far. Hague said the Web site has "a nice feel to it" and "a nice brand presence."

Despite all the catalog mailings, the comeback has been quiet and consumers may be surprised to trip over the familiar name from the past during a Web search for home furnishings or bedding.

But Wards' presence is growing. A Montgomery Ward Kids site debuted in June, a Spanish-language version is coming, and the company will soon expand into clothing and shoes.

Explaining the gradual buildup, Milgrom said: "We're rebuilding the brand and we want to do it right."

http://www.examiner.com/a-442448~AP_Centerpiece__Montgomery_Ward_brand_returns__but_not_stores.html


WARDS Online Link