The Woman Who Voiced Rudolph

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Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Billie Mae Richards is a Canadian actress best known for voicing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The special first aired on December 6, 1964 on NBC. Here's Billie Mae to share her story. I go back almost 75 years now. I've been in every kind of show business. I'm quite proud of the work in the Navy show as part of the war effort in World War II. We went all across Canada and back and then overseas and we did a command performance for the king and queen and went into Paris and we played for the American troops in Paris and then Brussels and Amsterdam and into Germany. So after World War II, you know how long ago it is, I took my credits from the Navy and I joined Lorne Green's Academy of Radio Arts and he of course is a very famous Canadian and he did Bonanza.

That was a great series. So I joined the Academy of Radio Arts because I had already done stage work and I was a musician and an actor and everything but I didn't know the technique for actually for radio and drama. So that's why I went there. And out of that I graduated and everybody that heard me gave me a part of the child. So that's where my first big show was a big drama and on the state series in Canada. So that it just went from there.

So I spent 25 years in the CBC doing school broadcasts and then when the cartooning came our way, then it was just sort of a natural progression to go into voice work because you're not, you know, I'm not a television actor and certainly not now. Hey, Clarice, after practice, would you... Rudolph, you get back here. It's your turn, you know. Gee, I got to go back. Would you want to go with me?

Uh-huh. Rudolph, I think you're cute. I'm cute! I'm cute!

Magnificent! I'm cute! I'm cute! She said I'm cute!

I just want you to know that I'm still cute. Well, I see Hermy once in a while and I always wanted to be like Hermy. I wanted to be independent.

He wanted to be a dentist. So we were mists together. Hey, what do you say we both be independent together, huh? You wouldn't mind my red nose? Not if you don't mind me being a dentist.

It's a deal! Well, that was fun, you know. So the whole show was fun to do and it was all Canadian. All the voices are Canadian except for Burl Ives. They all say, Well, I thought it was an American show.

No. Well, it was partly Bernard Cowan. He was directing it along with Jules Bass. And they came up to Toronto because we have all the voices from radio because our radio never died. You know, it kept on because of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

We'd all been still working in radio. So we had the voices for radio. Because the puppets are actually three-dimensional and they have to be filmed, you know, one little teeny movement at a time with the 3D puppets, you might say, but they're not puppets. They're moved each little teeny little bit as they move through the snow. For instance, the snowman goes through the snow and the snow is pushed in front of him. It's a unique process that Rankin and Bass first developed and they went on to do other ones, of course.

The shows I did were all aimed for children because that's all I ever did were voice voices, like Care Bears and things like that. I don't tell anybody either because it spoils the illusion, especially for children. I hate to say it, you know, especially now. Oh, I have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They think it's wonderful. When they were little, they went to school and told their teacher that their mother was Rudolph. And the teacher looked at them and said, Oh, yes, dear, of course. We get on with the work now. But sometimes I go to schools and it's very good to teach kids how important it is to learn to read, not only for pleasure, but there actually is a side of that that can be a profession.

So it's a boost for children in the reading. And that's when your character voice is fine. Then you can say, by the way, we thought it would go one year, maybe two at the most, and that was it. That's, you know, that's fine.

Look what's happened to it. You realize it would become a classic, you know, sort of like, you know, Wizard of Oz, you know, that type of show that has a moral to it and, you know, everything works out in the end. And so, I mean, there you go.

What more can you ask? You know, it all worked out in the end. It revived Rudolph from being just the song and a little Christmas book and made it into something that could be watched every Christmas. It became a Christmas classic because, you know, my grandchildren even now are almost beyond it, but they still watch because they say, oh, but it's so cute. And of course, I'm Rudolph in the Rudolph Shiny New Year and the one that's Christmas in July with Frosty the Snowman. So whatever there's a Rudolph, that's my voice.

Rudolph, with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight? It will be an honor, sir. It was wonderful to see it all put together with the actual figures because we didn't really know what they were going to look like. So it was a really fun thing. And I'm very proud that it's been on this long. There are not too many people that can say that. So it's really great. But I enjoy the work that I do and I'm quite happy.

And that's good enough for me. And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. The story of the woman who voiced Rudolph here on Our American Stories. Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.

But we can't do it without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love our stories in America like we do, please go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little.

Give a lot. Help us keep the great American stories coming. That's OurAmericanStories.com Tis the season of making the perfect wish list and the perfect playlist with Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds and headphones. Breakthrough immersive audio uses spatialized sound to bring your fave holiday classics to life. And world class noise cancellation ensures a not so typical silent night and an epic holiday party of one. It's everything music should make you feel taken to new holiday highs.

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