"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"

Based on a series of short stories written for the New Yorker, Sally Benson’s Meet Me in St. Louis was turned into a movie of the same name. Benson based the story on her life as a child and she was even called “Tootie” in her younger days. The 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis has gone on to become a classic musical. Though not centered around Christmas, the film has its climax during the Christmas celebrations and introduced the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, a song with a depressing message in the film that has gone on to spread holiday cheer.

The film in set in 1903 St. Louis and centered around the wealth Smith family, their son, and four beautiful daughters: Esther (Judy Garland), Tootie (Margaret O’Brien), Rose (Lucille Bremer) and Agnes (Joan Caroll). Parents Anna (Mary Astor) and Alonzo (Leon Ames) have a peaceful life with their children and Grandpa (Harry Davenport). Esther is harboring a secret crush on the new neighbor’s son, dashing boy next door John Truett (Tom Drake) who doesn’t even know she exists. The film comes to its climax when Alonzo announces to the family he has taken a big paying job in New York City, which will lead the family to moving after Christmas. The family is in an uproar over leaving their home of St. Louis, especially before the big World’s Fair is to take place.

The film was directed by Vincente Minelli and is what introduced Judy Garland to her future husband. Minelli did his best to recreate the period as accurately as he could. At first, Judy was skeptical about playing a teenager since she was twenty-one and tired of being cast in teenage roles. However, she fell in love with the script and did the picture. Garland’s version of the song “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” is the one that is still sung today.

For more information on the film, you can read this review at Filmsite.org or this review from Reelclassics.com. Resources and information on the film can be found here thanks to The Judy Room, an official Judy Garland fansite. Time Magazine named the film one of the 100 Best Movies of the 20th Century and the film is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Here I leave you with the Christmas scene from Meet Me in St. Louis.