He Nailed The Holiday Niche; Sound Of Success: Perseverance put songwriter Johnny Marks on the charts.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: PATRICK SEITZ

Johnny Marks knew he had a hit on his hands. Convincing others was a different story.

Marks suffered rejection after rejection when he started shopping around a little song he wrote called "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." He submitted it to Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra. All said no.

"Its demo tape was sent around to many singers, but the tune was perceived as a novelty children's record and was turned down by virtually everyone in the business," James Adam Richliano wrote in the book "Angels We Have Heard: The Christmas Song Stories."

But Marks (1909-85) kept trying. He finally took the tune to cowboy crooner Gene Autry. Autry didn't think much of the song at first. But he decided to include it on the flip side to one of his records after his wife said she liked it. Autry recorded the Christmas tune in 1949.

From the start, Marks believed "Rudolph" could be a hit, even though most people didn't share his enthusiasm. Marks formed a company, St. Nicholas Music, in 1949 in order to publish the song. If nobody else would record it, he figured he'd do it himself.

"His belief in the song's potential played a major role in its eventual success," Kevin Alexander Boon wrote in a biographical essay on Marks in "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives."