Rudolph’s red nose still shining after 50 years

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Through Dec. 28. $9.25-$20.50. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-873-3391, puppet.org.

That glowing schnoz, the elf who wants to be a dentist and those oh-so-catchy holiday anthems that get stuck in your head like dancing sugarplums.

So goes the annual holiday drill of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the 1964 stop-motion TV special. For the past 50 years, Rudolph’s blinking beacon has been glowing on the small screen each Christmas season with no signs of losing its shimmer. And at 8 p.m. Dec. 9, he plays his reindeer games once again on CBS.

Yet that’s not the only way to indulge in your annual tribute to “Rudolph.” The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta offers its version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” through late December.

So where did all this reindeer worship start?

Long before the first TV flickered, author Robert L. May created the character in the 1939 book “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” for the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward department store. May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, transformed the book’s poemlike text into a song, and singing cowboy Gene Autry took it to the top of the charts in 1949.

Marks happened to be a neighbor of animation producer Arthur Rankin Jr., who eventually persuaded the protective songwriter to allow him and his company, Rankin/Bass, to adapt the song into the TV special. Screenwriter Romeo Muller expanded the story by pairing Rudolph, an outcast because of his flaming honker, with Hermey, an elf who’d rather work on teeth than toys. The misfit duo face a towering yeti and visit the Island of Misfit Toys before Rudolph saves the day by leading Santa’s team of reindeer on that foggy Christmas Eve.

So how does a 50-year-old animated special keep flying in the age of CGI and YouTube instant gratification? If you ask 84-year-old actor Paul Soles, who provided the voice of Hermey the Elf, it comes down to one fact: We’re all misfits.

“I don’t know if there are very many people around who haven’t suffered some kind of exclusion of one kind or another in their lives,” Soles said. “Either they weren’t good enough to make the team at school, were ostracized by a family member, or were rejected by boys or girls. Or even more boldly, if you’re of a different color, if you speak in an accent, if you have a last name that’s different, you can relate to Rudolph.”

Jon Ludwig, who adapted the “Rudolph” TV special into the puppet show he directs at the Center for Puppetry Arts, agrees. He recalls watching the special for the first time and feeling a kinship with square pegs Rudolph and Hermey.

“I thought they had written it just for me,” Ludwig said. “It was exactly what I went through every day at school. It’s about acceptance, being a misfit and finding your place in the world. And it’s about hope. Things can get better. It’s still as relevant today as it was back then.”

As the “Rudolph” TV special turns 50, Ludwig and the center ring in an anniversary themselves. Having become an annual tradition in its own right, the center’s all-puppet production of “Rudolph,” the first of its kind, turns 5 this year. Children and their parents, who grew up on the reindeer’s yearly televised visits, experience the magic right in front of their eyes.

The center’s version stays tried and true to the original. You could call Ludwig’s mantra if Santa’s sleigh ain’t broke, then don’t fix it.

“We don’t really embellish it in any way,” Ludwig said. “We talked about things we could add, but the more you do that, the more you get away from the beauty and simplicity of the original.”

According to Ludwig, Jason von Hinezmeyer, the center’s resident puppet builder, and his team took great pains when creating Rudolph’s puppet counterparts. They used micrometers to measure every single angle to make sure the puppets were exact doppelgangers of their TV brethren. The details, right down to the tools on Yukon Cornelius’ belt, remain spot on. Even the scale of the puppets rings true. When Bumble the abominable snow monster stomps onstage, he towers just as he does on the tube.

Author Rick Goldschmidt, who penned “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic,” says it’s that trademark character design and the stop-motion animation — dubbed “Animagic” by Arthur Rankin Jr. — that keeps “Rudolph” beaming on television after all these years. Combine it with Muller’s timeless storytelling, additional songs by Marks and a score by Maury Laws, and you have the perfect snowstorm.

“Really at the core of the ‘Rudolph’ story is the writing, and that’s why it’s lasted 50 years,” Goldschmidt said. “But what attracts me is the look of it. …That style of animation is much warmer than today’s CGI animation. … It’s a believable world and the characters have such personality. These are characters that last and have become a part of Christmas, and it has a lot to do with the style and character designs.”

Not only does “Rudolph” still hold the reins as an endearing holiday special, but its influence shines brightly among today’s crop of stop-motion feature films. “The Book of Life” and “The Boxtrolls” both owe a debt to Rankin/Bass. And artists such as acclaimed Sandy Springs illustrator Derek Yaniger warm their creative chestnuts by “Rudolph’s” fire. In fact, some of Yaniger’s Rankin/Bass-inspired work is currently being shown at a gallery in Burbank, Calif.

“I was 4 years old (when ‘Rudolph’ premiered), and I swear I remember it,” Yaniger said. “My spongy little artist brain soaked it up, and I looked forward to it every year. All of the Rankin/Bass shows really flipped my switches while growing up.”

And if 50 years of staying power is any indication, that reindeer’s switch may just stay at full blast for countless Christmases to come.