One-of-a-kind Rudolph steals show

The real red-nosed reindeer may be back at the North Pole until he’s called into action next December, but this Christmas, Rudolph had a clone as competition.

Wanting to add a wow factor to Quail Creek’s Christmas show “Holiday’s Inn,” Jim and Donna Gregory put their creative heads together and built a one-of-a-kind Rudolph and trompe d’oeil or fool-the-eye Santa that was a real show-stopper.

As winter residents from Colorado, they’ve been involved in Quail Creek’s Performing Arts Guild since their arrival; Jim has appeared in every Madera Revue, and Donna has made costumes and props for many of the productions.

Neither had spent their working years in this kind of work. Jim sold safes and burglar alarm systems and Donna was a bank teller.

Of all Jim’s stage endeavors, Donna said Rudolph was the most complicated of any of the projects he’s done to date.

“The whole process was done without any design plans. The concept began when Davey Jones (who played Santa) showed us a video of a musical production that involved a cowboy ‘riding’ a horse. Davey asked Jim if he could build something similar—but as a reindeer.”

Gathering photos of reindeer from the library and the Internet, Jim began the design process working on graph paper to correctly calculate the proportions.

All of the construction plans were in Jim’s head, Donna said. Actual construction of Rudolph began in July and started to take shape in the Gregory’s Pagosa Springs, Colo., workshop.

“The ‘bones’ of Rudolph started with a few sheets of plywood and several two-by-fours. I cut a shape from the plywood that was the front-to-back of the reindeer, then, using more plywood I cut the shoulders, rump, sides and belly.

“These pieces were all screwed to the main frame with two-by-twos,” Jim explained.

A wooden rod and two bearings were used to make Rudolph’s neck move up and down and rotate sideways. He covered the head with wire and paper mach/, glued faux fur onto the head, mounted antlers and added glass eyes.

With the essence of Rudolph born, he was ready to be transported to Quail Creek.

“Once Jim got this framework assembled, he had to take it all apart and nail it together in as flat a bundle as possible so it could be transported on the roof rack of our car,” Donna said.

Reassembled in Green Valley, Rudolph began to take his final form. As Jim described it, “To achieve a smooth surface over the ‘wooden bones’ I cut cardboard pieces and nailed, stapled, glued and duct taped every piece to the wooden form. Lastly, legs were attached. More faux fur was added until it looked like a real reindeer.”

With Rudolph virtually completed, Donna began working on a custom-fitted Santa suit. As Rudolph and Santa came onto the stage it appeared that Santa was sitting on Rudolph; that’s the amazing trickery of this project. It’s a real fool-the-eye masterpiece.

Seeing Santa ‘on’ Rudolph an observer’s first thought is ‘How does he do that?’ The trickery is hard to detect.

Built solid and weighing 82 pounds Rudolph is strong and might be called back for an encore at some future Christmas show; the entire project took about 90 hours.

The Gregory’s admit they were disappointed to work so hard and not be able to see the production; they had returned to Pagosa Springs for Christmas where Jim subsequently had knee-replacement surgery.

Speaking of his talent and skills, Donna said, “He’s very creative and has wonderful design sensibilities. It was fun to see the progress as it came together turning into an ‘animated costume.’

“We knew it would be a hit because it’s something few people have seen. Hopefully, the audience was as thrilled watching Rudolph as we were seeing him come to life.”

Ellen Sussman is a freelance writer in Green Valley. Contact her at ellen2414@cox.net. Comment on this story online at www.gvnews.com.