For many people, one of the holiday traditions is at least one viewing of 1966 animated classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The How the Grinch Stole Christmas TV show was adapted from Dr. Seuss’s equally famous children’s book by legendary animator Chuck Jones. Mental Floss dug deep into how the Grinch stole Christmas and here are some facts about the TV special that will surely make your heart grow three sizes this holiday season.
The Army started the Grinch. During World War II, Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel joined the United States Army Air Forces and served in the Animation Department for the First Motion Picture Unit, a unit commanded by Frank Capra, tasked with creating various training and pro-war propaganda films. It was here that Major Geisel found himself working closely with Chuck Jones cartoon artist on an instructional cartoon called Private Snafu. Originally classified as for-military personnel-only, Private Snafu featured a bumbling protagonist who helped illustrate the dos and don’t’s of Army safety and security protocols.
The special almost didn’t happen. Television specials of the past, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, had to rely on company sponsorship to get made. How the Grinch Stole Christmas struggled to find a benefactor. With storyboards in hand, Chuck Jones, creator of some of my favorite Looney Tunes, pitched the story to more than two dozen potential sponsors until he finally found his sponsor in an unlikely source: the Foundation for Commercial Banks. “I thought that was very odd because one of the great lines in there is that the Grinch says, ”‘Perhaps Christmas doesn’t come from a store,’” Mr. Jones said of the surprise endorsement. “I never thought of a banker endorsing that kind of a line. But they overlooked it, so we went ahead and made the picture.”
Its budget was massive. Coming in at over $300,000, or $2.2 million in today’s dollars, the special’s budget was unheard of at the time for a 26-minute cartoon adaptation. It took 10 months to complete because as Mr. Jones explained the animators would create 3 drawings per foot for children’s shows, but the Grinch was drawn with 15 drawings per foot. The Grinch included 25,000 drawings and 200 backgrounds, “You have to do this for believability,” Mr. Jones wrote.
No credit for The famous voice actor and singer. Thurl Ravenscroft, best known for providing the voice of Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger, wasn’t given credit for his work in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Because of this, most viewers wrongly assumed Boris Karloff, the narrator of the special also sang “You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch.”
Max is a filler. Because reading the book out loud only takes about 12 minutes, Mr. Jones had the challenge of extending the story. In order to extend the show, Chuck Jones explained to TNT that he turned to Max the dog.
Mr. Jones would go on to name Max as his favorite character from the special, as he felt that he directly represented the audience.
The Grinch’s green color was inspired by a rental car. In the original book, the big green grump is illustrated as black and white, with hints of pink and red. Rumor has it that Mr. Jones was inspired to give the Grinch his iconic coloring after he rented a car that was painted an ugly shade of green.
The Grinch was censored. Over the years, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was edited to shorten its running time (to allow for more commercials). However, one edit—which ran for several years—censored the line “You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch” from the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Additionally, the shot in which the Grinch smiles creepily just before approaching the bed filled with young Whos was deemed inappropriate for certain networks and was removed.
Two less memorable Grinch tales were produced to exploit the popularity of the Christmas special. Halloween is Grinch Night aired in 1977 and tells the story of the Grinch making his way down to Whoville to scare all the Whos on Halloween. In 1982’s The Grinch Grinches The Cat in the Hat, the green guy finds himself wanting to renew his mean spirit by picking on the Cat in the Hat. In addition, there have been several re-makes:
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Santa’s reindeer, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen have been around since 1823 when they first appeared in Clement Moore’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. But Santa’s most famous reindeer, Rudolph didn’t even exist until 1939. As shocking as that is, here are some more secrets about Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.
Rudolph worked for Montgomery Ward In 1939, execs for the now-defunct Montgomery Ward department store decided they needed a character for the freebie coloring books they were handing out to kids who visited Santa. That character ended up being Rudolph, who was an immediate hit with the kiddies. Montgomery Ward gave out 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph booklet in the first year alone. In 1948 Fleischer Studios, the home of Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman created a Rudolph cartoon as an advert for Montgomery Ward.
He could have been Rollo. Rudolph might have had another name. Robert L. May, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward’s mail-order catalog division, who wrote the story considered a number of names. Santa’s new reindeer might have been named Rollo, Reginald, Romeo, or Rodney until they settled on Rudolph.
Rudolph nearly lost his red nose. At first, Rudolph 
used a different method to guide Santa’s sleigh. Instead of having a red, glowing nose that cuts through the fog, Mr. May considered giving Rudolph large, headlight-like eyes that would light the way. After much consideration, he decided mean kids would be more likely to make fun of a red nose than huge eyes.
He has a son named Robbie. The BBC developed three cartoons based on Rudolph’s offspring, but the name of Robbie’s famous dad is never actually mentioned. The plotline tells us that the villain of the series, Blitzen, can’t stand to hear Rudolph’s name. In reality, it’s because the BBC couldn’t get permission to use it (or didn’t want to pay to use it). Fox Family ran the show in the U.S. for a few years in the early 2000s with re-dubbed voices, including Ben Stiller as Robbie, Hugh Grant as Blitzen, Britney Spears as Donner, and Brad Garrett as Prancer.
Robert May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks who wrote the lyrics for some of the most beloved holiday songs including, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Run, Rudolph, Run,” and “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,” also wrote the lyrics and melody for “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
The song was recorded 10 years after the character was invented. Bing Crosby turned down the song and Gene Autry nearly passed on the tune, but his wife urged him to give it a shot. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” became number 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1949. Since Mr. Autry recorded it, the tune has sold more than two million copies in its first Christmas, with over 150 million copies sold to date.
The Ventures recorded their version of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1965 – In which they included a very noticeable riff from the Beatles.
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The 1964 Rankin/Bass stop-motion TV special is the longest-running holiday special ever. However this year Rudolph has come under attack, led by the Huffington Post. What the hater miss is the Jewish experience baked into the story. In the Rudolph story, the author turned a mark of antisemitism into a point of pride. Mr. May and company made the stereotypical Jewish nose noble at Christmas-time.
Rudolph’s red nose first has other reindeer laughing, calling “him names,” never letting “poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games.” “Then one foggy Christmas Eve” Rudolph with his “nose so bright” helps guide Santa’s “sleigh tonight.”
Author May explained,
Today children all over the world read and hear about the little deer who started out in life as a loser, just as I did. But they learn that when he gave himself for others, his handicap became the very means through which he received happiness.” Thus, Rudolph’s mass marketing and altruistic message, not just Rudolph’s gift-delivering-heroics, “will go down in history.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Halloween is here – giving techies a reason to dress up as your favorite tech-inspired costume or better yet costume fails. You won’t believe these incredible Halloween costume fails. When people get Halloween costume ideas from their job, things can get scary fast. … here is some proof!
Google Map Guides
Code 
Identity theft
Error 404 Page
Computer Man
iPug
Cloud computing
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
