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 characters from the Rankin/Bass special (as GoodTimes soon learned that Rankin/Bass had made a copyright error that made the characters unique to their special free to use). A live-action version of Rudolph (complete with glowing nose) along with Donner and Blitzen appears in the "Doctor Who" Christmas special, "Last Christmas" which was broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2014. In this special, Santa is able to park him like a car and turn off his nose. Nathaniel Dominy, an anthropology professor at Dartmouth College (Robert L. May's alma mater), published a scholarly paper on Rudolph's red nose in the