"Great bouncing icebergs!"
On Dec. 6, 1964, television audiences watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for the first time. Fifty years later, the TV special continues to be a Christmas tradition as beloved as caroling and putting out cookies for Santa.
Even if you curl up with hot cocoa and candy canes every December to watch Rudolph, Sam the Snowman and Yukon Cornelius, you might not know everything about the television classic. We talked to CBS and Rankin/Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt to uncover 12 little-known facts.
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer airs Dec. 9 at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBS.
IMAGE: CLASSIC MEDIA
1. The puppets were not meant to last forever.
Despite taking great care not to soil the puppets - only the animator and puppet maker were allowed to touch them in the studio, and they wore gloves when working on them - the figures were sprayed with magnetic flock to diffuse reflective light from the cameras. The spray contained acidity which contributed to the puppets' deterioration over time. Rankin/Bass co-founder Jules Bass kept one of the Rudolph puppets on his desk, even though wires were coming out of its legs for the lightbulb nose.
2. Rudolph was a tiny 4-inches tall
Rudolph measured 4-inches high and Santa stood 8-inches. And though he appears relatively large on screen, the Bumble figurine stood 14-inches tall.
3. The special took about 18 months and 22 room-size sets to complete.
The TV specials were created in Japan by MOM Production Studios, led by Tadahito "Tad" Mochinaga, a pioneer in Japanese stop-motion animation.