A FASCINATING footnote has emerged to last week's Mid-Ocean News report on Bermudian film producer Arthur Rankin's animated classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The television special, seen by tens of millions of viewers around the world every year, has become synonymous with Christmas for generations.

Yet, it might surprise some to learn that ¿ unlike Mr. Rankin, whose involvement in the film has earned him fame both here in Bermuda and around the world ¿ the two "stars" of this perennial hit were long considered lost to time.

"You make a film and you don't know whether it's going to work or not, whether it will have an audience," Mr. Rankin told the Associated Press last week after it was reported that the puppets of Rudolph and Santa Claus used in the 1964 production had been discovered and refurbished.

"In the case of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, it went beyond any expectations."

In fact, if it had not been for the intervention of Mr. Rankin's secretary, the original Santa and Rudolph puppets would simply have been thrown out. Instead, she took them home after the production wrapped up and gave them to family.

Their location remained unknown for the next 40 years, until they came into the possession of the current owner, American memorabilia collector Kevin Kriess. Mr. Kriess then sent them to a Los Angeles production studio, which agreed to restore the puppets as a "labour of love".

The eight-inch red-suited Santa had his white moustache repaired, and the four-inch Rudolph had his nose rewired to shine again.

Since then, Mr. Kriess has been touring various stores and conventions in the United States ¿ much to the delight of the film's many fans.

One of them ¿ for whom the term "enthusiast" might constitute something of an understatement ¿ is historian Rick Goldschmidt. Mr. Godschmidt, an expert on the programme and a chronicler of the Rankin/Bass film studio which produced it, met the two "stars" at a comic book convention last month.

"It's like meeting a celebrity, like meeting Clint Eastwood. These are icons," said Mr. Goldschmidt, whose books include The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Although several replicas of the puppets were made during production, Mr. Rankin believes that the others would almost certainly have been discarded many years ago.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kriess ¿ who has had to turn down several tempting offers for the puppets ¿ hopes to make the tour an annual event to coincide with the airing of a film millions have come to love.