What ever happened to … Hermie the elf?

Hermie, of course, is the elf made famous by the Rankin and Bass television special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. If you recall, Hermie (NOT Herbie, as many people mistakenly call him) wanted to be a dentist, not a toymaker like all the other elves. Everyone made fun of Hermie, until he helped save the day by pulling the Abominable Snowman’s teeth and rendering him harmless.

After the story covered by the special, Hermie did indeed go to dental school, where he graduated at the top of his class. He returned to the North Pole to marry Suzy, the little doll who cried ice cubes from the Island of Misfit Toys, and opened the first dental practice in the area. It turns out to have been a shrewd business move. All that Christmas candy meant a lot of cavities. Hermie got rich and retired from dentistry in 1982. Still young for an elf (280 years old in 2005), Hermie and Suzy (who retained her youth thanks to the cosmetic surgery skills of the toymaking elves) split their time between their summer home at the South Pole, and their home at the North Pole. Hermie volunteers as a toymaker to help Santa out, which more and more retired elves are doing to help Santa compete with Asian competition.