Don't worry, the classic Christmas song is still purely American. The story was created by an employee of Montgomery Ward in his job with the department store, and the Christmas song was written by a Jewish man. Truly an American saga.
But the TV show that CBS shows every year — the Rankin/Bass production with Burl Ives — has a heavy Canadian influence.
As we found out when Billie Mae Richards died this week at the age of 88, the voice of Rudolph, along with most of the other voices, came from Canadians.
The producers reportedly came north because there were more radio dramas in Canada, lending more radio voices, than in the States, and also because it would have been cheaper.
That a woman starred as the young male reindeer isn't a huge surprise now. After all, June Foray is the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Nancy Cartwright is the voice of Bart Simpson. The voice of Rudolph was credited to "Billy Richards" likely in an attempt to mask the gender.
I often wondered even as a child why the voice actors weren't the usual famous people used in American productions. This explains a childhood mystery, and gives proper credit to Canadians for giving voice to an American Christmas TV classic.
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