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Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 romantic musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of four sisters living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904.
It stars Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart, and Joan Carroll.
The movie was adapted by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe from a series of short stories by Sally Benson, originally published in The New Yorker magazine and later in the novel 5135 Kensington.
The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who met his future wife, Judy Garland, on the set.
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Quotations
Agnes Smith: Roses are redJohn's name is TruettEsther's in loveAnd we always knew it.
Grandpa: They'll all be safe with me. I've got twelve guns in my room.
I'd rather be poor if we could only stay here. I'd rather go with the orphalins at the orphalins home.
My dear, when you get to be my age, you'll find out there are more important things in life than boys.
Well, I'll bet there isn't another girl in St. Louis who's had a Yale man call her long-distance just to inquire about her health.
learning that the family must move to New York It'll take me at least a week to dig up all my dolls in the cemetery.
Encyclopedia
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 romantic musical film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which tells the story of four sisters living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904.
It stars Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart, and Joan Carroll.
The movie was adapted by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe from a series of short stories by Sally Benson, originally published in The New Yorker magazine and later in the novel 5135 Kensington.
The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who met his future wife, Judy Garland, on the set. In the film, Garland debuted the standards "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" which became hits before the film was released.
Arthur Freed, the producer of the film also wrote and performed one of the songs (see below). It was the second-highest grossing picture of the year, only behind Going My Way.
Plot
The backdrop for Meet Me in St. Louis is St. Louis, Missouri on the brink of the 1904 World's Fair.
The story centers on the middle-class Smith family, who lead a comfortable and happy life. The family has four daughters, Rose, Esther, Agnes and Tootie and a son, Lon. Esther, the 2nd eldest daughter (Judy Garland), is taken with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), although he does not notice her at first.
The film starts out with Mrs. Smith (Mary Astor) and Katie the maid (Marjorie Main) making ketchup. Esther Smith then walks in and asks Katie to ask Mrs. Smith if dinner can be an hour early because Rose (Lucille Bremer) is expecting a long distance phone call from Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully). Esther then leaves and Katie asks Mrs. Smith if dinner can be an hour early. Mrs. Smith agrees, but when Mr. Smith comes home, he refuses to have dinner an hour early. Everybody is eating when the telephone rings. Mr. Smith answers but says he will not accept the long distance call. Rose starts crying and that is when Mr. Smith finds out about Warren Sheffield. The phone then rings again, and Mr. Smith lets Rose answer it. The whole family is expecting Warren to propose to Rose. Instead, Rose endures an awkward phone call, in which she and Warren talk mainly about the weather.
Act II opens in late October at Halloween - the windows are lit with an eerie yellowish light and there is a pumpkin on the front porch. Agnes and Tootie are getting costumed for trick-or-treating for Tootie's favorite holiday (Tootie is always morbidly obsessed with death and murder). Their plan is to gleefully take revenge on an allegedly-mean and hateful St. Louis neighbor.
The two girls set the mood for the scary night. They frighten Katie with their suitably gruesome costumes. When someone answers the doorbell during trick-or-treating, the girls' goal is to 'kill' the 'victim' by throwing flour in the flustered person's face.
Back at the Smith residence on the same evening, the family is interrupted by Tootie's screams off-screen down by the trolley. Frightened and injured, she arrives home bloodied and sobbing. She is carried into the house and surrounded by the concerned family, as she whimpers and wails: "He tried to kill me." Mrs. Smith decides to summon the doctor rather than the head of the household, declaring, "What could he do?" Tootie alleges that John Truitt attacked her. A close-up of Esther's face reveals her horror and shock and she first reacts that it's "a monstrous falsehood." Esther then runs next door to confront John, physically attacking him when she sees him. As she hits, slaps and bites him, she verbally scolds him for being a "bully" and harming Tootie.
When Esther returns home, Tootie has already been attentively pampered and cared for. Then Agnes and Tootie discuss what really had happened down at the trolley, where the kids had stuffed an old dress to look like a body, and laid it on the trolley tracks to sabotage the trolley car. Tootie gleefully exclaims: "It looked just like a body, a live body too." Rose is upset with Agnes:
- Rose: You're nothing less than a murderer. You might have killed dozens of people.
- Agnes: Oh Rose, you're so stuck-up.
- Esther: Tootie, how did you get that lip?
So it turns out John was only trying to protect Agnes and Tootie and hide them from the police so they wouldn't get in trouble with the rest of the kids, but Agnes and Tootie fought him off and this is how Tootie fell and cut her lip. Agnes and Tootie think John's precautionary concerns were unnecessary. Tootie laughs: "As though police men ever pay attention to girls." Esther is enraged at Tootie for fooling her: "You're the most deceitful, horrible, sinful creature I ever saw, and I don't ever want to have anything to do with you again." Esther again rushes next door to John's front porch to reconcile with him - he accepts her apology. They also share their first kiss. Back at the house once again, the family is having ice cream and Tootie acts completely spoiled, getting carried to the table and wants double helpings of ice cream because she is "recuperating." Mama declares that if Tootie ever lies like that about John Truett again, she will give Tootie something to recuperate over. Agnes and Tootie then tease Esther with their own little rhyme: "Roses are red, John's name is Truett, Esther's in love, and we always knew it!"
Papa arrives with a present for his wife, and the news that he will be sent to New York on business. The family doesn't at first understand the implication. Grandpa promises to protect everyone in his absence, but Mr. Smith makes it clear that he will be sent permanently. He has received a promotion and will be head of a new office there. The family is shocked by the news. The entire family will have to move to New York City right after Christmas. Tootie contemplates what the uprooting means.
The family is stunned, entirely disrupted and upset the news of the move, especially Rose and Esther, whose romances with beaux, friendships, and educational plans are threatened. And Esther is also depressed and aghast because they have to go away before the World's Fair will be held in St. Louis. Tootie and Agnes will lose their playmates, Katie will lose her job, and Mrs. Smith's home will be uprooted. The threatening move also hints at the loss of an uncomplicated way of life or the end of an era of innocence in American life. Mr. Smith defends his firm decision to move in a few months.
Mr. Smith still has an appetite to eat the cake that Katie made - he is the only one in the family who can eat during this traumatic time. Rose is appalled by the thought of living in a New York apartment rather than a house: "Rich people have houses. People like us live in flats, hundreds of flats in one building." And Tootie tells everyone with a wavering voice: "I'd rather be poor if we could only stay here. I'd rather go with the orphalins at the orphalins home."
After everyone has excused themselves from the table and leaves the room, only Mr. and Mrs. Smith are left. Having incurred the wrath of the entire family, he looks over at his wife, and reproves her for ingratitude: "Aren't you afraid to stay here alone with a criminal? That's what I'm being treated like." In the parlor, Mrs. Smith sympathetically stands by her husband and accepts his decision. In a touching and moving scene expressing their family unity, inseparability and loyalty, she joins him in singing "You and I". As they sing, all of the family members slowly re-enter the room, taking their pieces of cake and sitting down quietly -- a sign that they too have accepted and understand the decision, regardless of their reluctance.
The next scene takes place at Christmas time. The older children, Lon, Esther, and Rose discuss their preparations for the big Christmas Ball that evening (their "last Christmas dance in St. Louis,") arguing over their lack of dates. They insult an "Eastern snob," Lucille Ballard, who is escorting Rose's beau Warren. Rose is left without a date and doesn't wish to be ignominiously escorted by her brother - that would make her "the laughing stock of St. Louis." But eventually, Lon is coerced into taking his sister to the dance. Rose and Esther vow to wreck Lucille's evening.
John arrives at the door with "some bad news" for Esther - he arrived too late at the tailor shop to pick up his tuxedo, and it was locked up. He is unable to escort her to the dance. Esther is heartbroken: "This is ghastly!" Esther is left dateless and breaks into tears, explaining that she will stay home to pack for their move from St. Louis. Grandpa gallantly offers to escort her, instead of having brother Lon take the two of them, and Esther accepts.
The elegant ball takes place on Christmas Eve. Everyone soon pairs off with his/her desired partner, Lon with Lucille Ballard and Rose with Warren Sheffield. When Esther's sabotage of Lucille Ballard's dance card is no longer necessary, Esther is left stranded with a dance-card list of motley losers. After many waltzes, Esther is finally rescued by her Grandpa: "You're the first human being I've danced with all evening." Grandpa also surprises her with John's attendance at the ball. She is nostalgic, sad, and painfully reminded of her family's impending departure. John escorts Esther home from the dance and, mindful that she will soon move away, impulsively proposes marriage to her causing her to cry. The couple then shares a tender moment as they try to concoct various ways to make sure they stay true to each other after the Smith Family leaves St. Louis.
Esther ascends the stairs and finds Tootie sitting by the window in the bedroom she shares with Agnes. Tootie is awake and waiting for Santa Claus while looking down into the Smith garden at the snow people she'd made earlier with her sisters and brother. Esther sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to her. The emotional climax of the movie occurs when Tootie cannot cope with the disruption of her social world, and experiences a violent breakdown in the yard full of snowpeople. Mr. Smith then decides after seeing this that the family would not move. He rouses the entire family. It's noted that only Mr. Smith and Esther are still in party clothes. Everyone else is in nightclothes. He announces that the Smith family will not leave St. Louis. Before they can really rejoice, Warren Sheffield bursts in and declares his love for Rose and states that they will marry at the first possible opportunity and then absentmindedly wishes the family a Merry Christmas and a good night. The movie ends when all of the family attends the World's Fair.
Music
The musical score for the film was adapted by Roger Edens, who also served as an uncredited associate producer. Georgie Stoll conducted the orchestrations of Conrad Salinger.
Some of the songs in the film are from around the time of the St Louis Exposition. Others were written for the movie.
- "Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis" Kerry Mills and Andrew B. Sterling, 1904
- "The Boy Next Door", Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, 1944, performed by Judy Garland.
- "Skip to my Lou", Traditional, with section sung to the tunes of "Yankee Doodle" and "Doodletown Fifers" arranged by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, 1944
- "I was drunk last night, dear Mother", performed by Margaret O'Brien.
- "Under the Bamboo Tree", Words and music by Robert Cole and The Johnson Bros., 1902, performed by Margaret O'Brien and Judy Garland
- "Over the Banister leans a face, tenderly sweet and beguiling", Conrad Salinger and Roger Edens, 1944, performed by Judy Garland.
- "The Trolley Song", Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, 1944, performed by Chorus and Judy Garland.
- "You and I", Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, sung by Arthur Freed and D. Markas, mimed by the actors.
- "Home! Sweet Home!", (Instrumental), Henry Bishop, 1823/1852.
- "Auld Lang Syne", (Instrumental)
- "The First Noel", (Instrumental)
- "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, 1944, performed by Judy Garland.
Cast
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, Best Music, Song (Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin for "The Trolley Song") and Best Writing, Screenplay. Margaret O'Brien received an Academy Juvenile Award for her work that year, in which she appeared in several movies along with Meet Me in St. Louis.
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years.
In 2004 the AFI ranked "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs at #26 and #76, respectively; in 2006 the film was ranked #10 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.
Trivia
- Judy Garland at first refused to do the film because she had played too many childish roles and wanted to play an adult. She was also afraid that Margaret O'Brien would steal the film. After a talk with Vincente Minnelli, Judy finally agreed to play the role of Esther Smith. Later, she considered the role her favorite among her films.
- During the shooting of the large dinner scene (where one of the older sisters receives a long distance call from her beau in New York), Margaret O'Brien caused mischief on the set. She would change the cutlery around and put two napkin rings beside a plate. The prop man would say, "Please, Maggie dear," when he would liked to have shaken her.
- The lyrics for "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" were originally different. The lyricist, Hugh Martin, wrote different lyrics, which mentioned the Smith family leaving St. Louis and going to live in New York. Judy Garland thought it too mean to sing it to Margaret O'Brien, so the lyrics were changed.
Adaptations
- Meet Me in St. Louis was remade again for television in 1966. This was a non-musical version starring Shelley Fabares, Celeste Holm, Larry Merrill, Judy Land, Rita Shaw and Morgan Brittany. It was directed by Alan D. Courtney from a script written by Sally Benson herself. This was to be a pilot for a TV series, but no network picked it up.
- A Broadway musical based on the film was produced in 1989, with additional songs.
Source material
Benson, Sally. The New Yorker
- "5135 Kensington: January, 1904" Jan 31, 1942 - Tootie and Grandpa visit the fairgrounds
- "5135 Kensington: February, 1904" Feb 8, 1942 - Mr. and Mrs. Smith go out and the girls have a gay time at home
- "5135 Kensington: March, 1904" Mar 28, 1942 - The family visits the World's Fair
- "5135 Kensington: April, 1904" Apr 11, 1942 - Not moving to New York
- "5135 Kensington: May, 1904" May 23, 1942 - A last look at the Fair
The Benson house at 5135 Kensington Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. no longer exists: after being sold it fell into disrepair, eventually became uninhabitable, and was demolished in 1994 .
Cultural Influences
- In the movie, Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw's assistant buys Carrie a copy of the film.
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