Robert L. May adaptation of 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". In 1941, May married another Ward employee, Virginia, and had five children with her. She was a devout Catholic, and he converted to Catholicism during the marriage. May wrote two sequels to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". The first is mostly in prose (except that Rudolph
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special) the years. Animator Corky Quakenbush has produced parodies of "Rudolph" for several American television shows: In the sci-fi/comedy series "The Orville", in the episode "About a Girl", characters watch "Rudolph" to make the character Bortus consider his plans to arrange gender reassignment surgery for his newborn daughter (Bortus's species, the Moclans, are a single-gender species who statistically produce only one female every seventy-five years, with females thus having no clear place in their society) by demonstrating how unconventional people can accomplish great things, although Bortus humorously misinterprets the film to suggest that Rudolph's father might have considered euthanizing his child