Meet Me in St. Louis

and Judy Garland perform the song "Under the Bamboo Tree" in Meet Me in St. Louis The backdrop for the film is St. Louis, Missouri, in the year preceding the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair. In the summer of 1903, the Smith family leads a comfortable upper-middle class life. Alonzo Smith and his wife Anna have a son, Lon Jr., and four daughters: Rose, Esther, Agnes, and Tootie. Esther, the second-oldest daughter, is in love with the boy next door, John Truett, although he does not notice her at first. Tootie rides with iceman Mr. Neely and debates whether St. Louis is the nation's top city. Rose, the eldest daughter, hopes in vain to receive a marriage proposal from Warren Sheffield. Esther finally meets John properly when he attends the Smiths' farewell party for college-bound Lon Jr. She hopes to see him again on a trolley ride to the construction site of the World's Fair. On Halloween, Tootie and Agnes attend a bonfire. Later, after Tootie appears with a split lip and lost tooth, she claims John tried to kill her. Esther confronts John, physically attacking and scolding him. After Esther returns, Tootie and Agnes confess: John was trying to protect them from the police after a dangerous prank went wrong. Upon learning the truth, Esther apologizes to John and he kisses her. Mr. Smith announces that he has been promoted to his firm's New York City office, and the family will move there after Christmas. Everyone is devastated by the news, especially Rose and Esther, whose romances, friendships and educational plans are threatened. Esther is also aghast because they will miss the World's Fair. Although Mrs. Smith is also upset, she reconciles with her husband and they sing a tender duet at the piano. An elegant ball takes place on Christmas Eve. John apologizes to Esther because he was too late to pick up his tuxedo at the tailor, and cannot escort her. An upset Esther is relieved when her grandfather gallantly offers to take her instead. At the ball, Esther and Rose plot to ruin the evening of Warren's date Lucille Ballard by filling her dance card with losers. They are surprised to find that Lucille is warm, friendly, and not a snob. Lucille suggests that Warren should be with Rose, allowing her to be with Lon. Esther switches her dance card with Lucille's and takes on the clumsy and awkward partners. After being rescued by Grandpa, Esther is overjoyed when John appears in a tuxedo and they dance for the rest of the evening. Later, John proposes to Esther and she accepts, but their future is uncertain because she must still move to New York. Esther returns home to find Tootie waiting impatiently for Santa Claus and worrying about whether she can bring all her toys with her to New York. After Esther sings a poignant rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", a neurotic Tootie runs out to the yard and destroys the snowmen they must leave behind. Esther reassures Tootie that they will be together no matter where they go and carries her off to bed. Mr. Smith, who witnessed the emotional scene outside, begins to have second thoughts. After thinking in the living room, he summons the family downstairs and announces they will not move to New York, much to everyone's surprise and joy. Warren rushes into the Smith home, declares his love for Rose, and announces they will marry at the first possible opportunity. Realizing that it is now Christmas, the Smiths celebrate. The next spring, at the World's Fair, the family gathers overlooking the Grand Lagoon just as thousands of lights around the grand pavilion are illuminated. ==Cast==

Judy Garland in Meet Me in St Louis trailer.jpg|Judy Garland as Esther Smith Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St Louis trailer.jpg|Margaret O'Brien as "Tootie" Smith Mary Astor in Meet Me in St Louis trailer.jpg|Mary Astor as Mrs. Anna Smith Lucille Bremer in Meet Me in St Louis trailer.jpg|Lucille Bremer as Rose Smith Tom Drake in Meet Me in St Louis trailer.jpg|Tom Drake as John Truett Marjorie Main in Meet Me in St Louis trailer.jpg|Marjorie Main as Katie (Maid) • Leon Ames as Mr. Alonzo Smith • Harry Davenport as Grandpa • June Lockhart as Lucille Ballard • Henry H. Daniels Jr. as Lon Smith Jr. • Joan Carroll as Agnes Smith • Hugh Marlowe as Colonel Darly • Robert Sully as Warren Sheffield • Chill Wills as Mr. Neely • Dorothy Tuttle as Girl on Trolley ==Production==

and Judy Garland The film is based on "The Kensington Stories", a series of sentimental family stories by Sally Benson that appeared in The New Yorker in 1942 and later in novel form as Meet Me in St. Louis. Shortly after the publication of the stories, Arthur Freed, who had enjoyed previous success with Judy Garland in MGM musicals, convinced studio head Louis B. Mayer to purchase the film rights for $25,000, and Benson was also hired to work on the screen adaptation. The idea for the film was also inspired by Life with Father, a nostalgic family play that had been running on Broadway to great success and acclaim since 1939. Production delays were also caused by illnesses suffered by O'Brien, Mary Astor (pneumonia) and Joan Carroll (appendicitis), but Minnelli used the delays to prepare O'Brien's most demanding and important scenes. Severe rains and flooding in the Los Angeles region caused further delays in the production of exterior scenes. Filming began on December 1, 1943, and was completed on April 7, 1944, behind schedule and with a final budget near $1.8 million. The first rough cut exceeded two hours in length, so the writers suggested edits that brought the film down to 113 minutes for its preview screenings in the summer of 1944. MGM, encouraged by overwhelmingly positive audience previews, held the film's release for the Christmas season. Minnelli's idea to introduce each season segment with a greeting-card illustration dissolving into live action was most likely influenced by a similar technique used in Orson Welles' 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons. Freed's process for Meet Me in St. Louis established a pattern for Minnelli's future musicals: budgets in excess of $1 million, preproduction schedules sometimes exceeding a full year, shooting schedules of three to six months and postproduction phases of six months or longer. ==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, and others were written for the film. • "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 sections sung to the tunes of "Kingdom Coming", "Turkey in the Straw" and "Yankee Doodle" arranged by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, 1944 • "I Was Drunk Last Night", performed by Margaret O'Brien. • "Under the Bamboo Tree", words and music by Robert Cole and the Johnson Bros., 1902, performed by Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien. • "Over the Banister", 19th-century melody adapted by Conrad Salinger, lyrics from the 1888 poem "Over the Banisters" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, adapted by 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 Freed, the film's producer, and Denny Markas (the young woman in blue on the trolley, as seen in one of the pictures below), voices dubbed for Leon Ames and Mary Astor. • "Goodbye, My Lady Love", instrumental, Joseph E. Howard, 1904. • "Little Brown Jug", instrumental, Joseph Winner, 1869. • "Down at the Old Bull and Bush", instrumental, Harry von Tilzer, 1903. • "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. The song's lyrics were originally different. Lyricist Hugh Martin's opening lyrics were deemed too depressing by Judy Garland, Tom Drake, and Vincente Minnelli, and Martin changed them. The lyrics originally were: "Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past." Years after the film's release, additional lyric changes were made for Frank Sinatra, who objected to the song's generally downbeat tone. Deleted song Garland's prerecording of "Boys and Girls Like You and Me" survives, but the cut film footage has been lost. This song was originally composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein for their Broadway musical Oklahoma!, but was cut prior to its opening. ==Release==

Original theatrical run The premiere was held in St. Louis on November 22, 1944, and at New York's Astor Theatre one week later. MGM held its general release for the Christmas season due to overwhelmingly positive audience previews. It solidified the studio's reputation for high-quality musicals. Television The film aired on the Lux Radio Theatre in December 1946, with Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien reprising their roles. In 1959, CBS aired a television version featuring a new cast, including Jane Powell and Tab Hunter. A pilot for a TV series adaptation was filmed in 1966 but was not picked up for further production. Home media Meet Me in St. Louis has had several home media releases over the decades, reflecting its enduring legacy in popular culture. The film was first released on VHS and LaserDisc by MGM/UA Home Video in 1989, offering improved audio and video quality of the LaserDisc release compared to VHS. In 2004, Warner Home Video issued a two-disc DVD set to celebrate the film's 60th anniversary. This edition featured a restored version of the film along with audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, and other supplementary materials. A Blu-ray edition was released in 2011 by Warner Home Video. This release included many bonus features from the 2004 DVD. In 2023, the Warner Archive Collection introduced an updated Blu-ray version, further enhancing the picture and sound quality to modern standards. ==Reception==

Upon its 1944 release, Meet Me in St. Louis was a gigantic critical and commercial success. During its initial theatrical release, it earned a then-massive $5,016,000 in the US and Canada and $1,550,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $2,359,000. Time called Meet Me in St. Louis "one of the year's prettiest pictures" and wrote: "Technicolor has seldom been more affectionately used than in its registrations of the sober mahoganies and tender muslins and benign gaslights of the period. Now & then, too, the film gets well beyond the charm of mere tableau for short flights in the empyrean of genuine domestic poetry. These triumphs are creditable mainly to the intensity and grace of Margaret O'Brien and to the ability of director Minnelli & Co. to get the best out of her." O'Brien drew further praise from Time: "[Her] song and her cakewalk done in a nightgown at a grown-up party, are entrancing acts. Her self-terrified Halloween adventures richly set against firelight, dark streets, and the rusty confabulations of fallen leaves, bring this section of the film very near the first-rate." In The New Yorker, Wolcott Gibbs called the film "extremely attractive" and the dialogue "funny in a sense rather rare in the movies", though he felt the film was too long. In 2005, Richard Schickel included the film in Time.com's list of the 100 best films, writing: "It had wonderful songs [and] a sweetly unneurotic performance by Judy Garland....Despite its nostalgic charm, Minnelli infused the piece with a dreamy, occasionally surreal, darkness and it remains, for some of us, the greatest of American movie musicals." Film historian Karina Longworth also noted its fantastical and surreal elements, calling it "a gothic art film in disguise as a standard Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical". Producer Arthur Freed remarked: "Meet Me in St. Louis is my personal favorite. I got along wonderfully with Judy, but the only time we were ever on the outs was when we did this film. She didn't want to do the picture. Even her mother came to me about it. We bumped into some trouble with some opinions—Eddie Mannix, the studio manager, thought the Halloween sequence was wrong, but it was left in. There was a song that Rodgers and Hammerstein had written, called Boys and Girls Like You and Me, that Judy did wonderfully, but it slowed up the picture and it was cut out. After the preview of the completed film, Judy came over to me and said, 'Arthur, remind me not to tell you what kind of pictures to make.' [It] was the biggest grosser Metro had up to that time, except for Gone With the Wind." Meet Me in St. Louis holds a 99% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 81 reviews with an average score of 8.70/10. The site's critics' consensus for the film reads: "A disarmingly sweet musical led by outstanding performances from Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien, Meet Me in St. Louis offers a holiday treat for all ages." ==Accolades==

" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. won an Academy Juvenile Award for her screen work in 1944. • In 1994, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. • The American Film Institute ranked the film 10th on its AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals list. Two songs from the film were included in the AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs list ("The Trolley Song" at #26 and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" at #76). ==Adaptations==

• Meet Me in St. Louis was remade in 1959 for television, starring Tab Hunter, Jane Powell, Jeanne Crain, Patty Duke, Walter Pidgeon, Ed Wynn and Myrna Loy. It was directed by George Schaefer from the original Brecher and Finklehoffe screenplay. • 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, Reta Shaw, Tammy Locke and Morgan Brittany. It was directed by Alan D. Courtney from a script written by Sally Benson and was intended as a pilot for a television series that failed to materialize. It was later included as a special feature on the two-disc DVD set released in 2004. • A Broadway musical based on the film was produced in 1989, with additional songs. ==Later history==

• The late-19th century vintage carousel in the film was located at the Boblo Island Amusement Park in Amherstburg, Ontario until the park closed in September 1993. It was dismantled and sold to private collectors. • Gerald Kaufman wrote a study of the film, with the same title, which was published by the British Film Institute in 1994. • The Smith family's former house at 5135 Kensington Avenue in St. Louis no longer exists. After being sold, it fell into disrepair, eventually became uninhabitable, and was demolished in 1994. The backlot house used as the exterior of the Smiths' family home later was used in the film Cheaper by the Dozen as the Gilbreths' family home. ==Source material==

The plot points for the film originate from the following of Sally Benson's stories published in The New Yorker: • "5135 Kensington: January, 1904" January 31, 1942 – Tootie and Grandpa visit the fairgrounds • "5135 Kensington: February, 1904" February 28, 1942 – Mr. and Mrs. Smith go out and the girls have a gay time at home • "5135 Kensington: March, 1904" March 28, 1942 – The family visits the World's Fair • "5135 Kensington: April, 1904" April 11, 1942 – Not moving to New York • "5135 Kensington: May, 1904" May 23, 1942 – A last look at the fair ==See also==