Christmas in the post-war United States with Montgomery Ward. The song tells the story of a reindeer whose shiny red nose guides Santa's sleigh through the fog on Christmas Eve. Gene Autry's 1949 recording remained at #1 for a week and brought the song widespread fame. Only "White Christmas" has sold more copies. Autry had another hit in 1950 with "Frosty the Snowman", written by Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson as a direct attempt to create a success in the vein of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer". The song tells the story of a magical snowman who has playful adventures with children. In 1963, "Frosty" hit its
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special) Couple of Misfits". The special has been edited to make more time for commercial advertising by shortening some musical numbers. When "Rudolph" was first issued on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc by Family Home Entertainment and Broadway Video from 1989 to 1997 under the "Christmas Classics Series" label, the 1965 rebroadcast print described above was used. All current video prints of "Rudolph" by Classic Media are a compendium of the two previous telecast versions of the special. All the footage in the current versions (starting with the 1998 VHS by Sony Wonder) follow the original 1964 NBC broadcast (without the original