Dec 12, 2007 9:13 pm US/Eastern
Zelienople Man Acquires Original 'Rudolph' Puppets
ZELIENOPLE (KDKA) ―
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The holiday classic "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" debuted more than 40 years ago.
KDKA
More than 40 years ago a children's classic entered the holiday entertainment lineup, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Now a Zelienople man owns a piece of the action.
Kevin Kriess, a toy store owner, acquired the original stop-motion puppets "Santa" and "Rudolph" used in the Rankin-Bass production.
"Nobody thought they existed. Even the producer of the show said they were thrown away in the early 70's, they didn't exist," he said.
But Kriess traced the ownership back to a secretary at the production company and was able to authenticate them and convince the show's producer.
When he bought the puppets, they were in pretty shabby shape. Rudolph's nose had been replaced with Play-Doh and half of Santa's mustache was missing.
Kriess had the puppets restored by a Hollywood animation studio and insured for $100,000. He plans to display them at his Monroeville Mall store Toy Galaxy this weekend.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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