Clang! Clang! Clang! Went The Trolley! A story of Meet Me in St. Louis
Regarded as one of the greatest musicals made, “Meet Me in St. Louis,” starring Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer and Tom Drake and directed by Vincente Minnelli, premiered in St. Louis 80 years ago today.
It would earn $5 million at the box office — an impressive number in 1944, making it the second highest-grossing film in the history of MGM Studios at the time, behind 1939’s “Gone With the Wind.”
A Year In The Life of a Family in 1903 and 1904
“Meet Me in St. Louis” was based on “The Kensington Stories,” a series of short stories by Sally Benson that ran in the New Yorker magazine in 1941 and 1942. The stories were then collected into a novel, with a title that would match the holiday musical that, by that time, was in production at MGM studios.
The story is a year in the life of a well-to-do family in St. Louis and their four daughters and the efforts of the two eldest daughters to attract marriage proposals. The stories are set in 1903, when the city was preparing for the upcoming Louisiana Purchase Exposition — or World’s Fair — of 1904.
The family is thrown into turmoil when the father announces he‘s being transferred to a job in New York City. The plot takes a sharp turn when the father notices how sad his family has become during what would be their final Christmas in St. Louis.
Movie producer and lyricist Arthur Freed fell in love with “The Kensington Stories,” talked MGM chief Louis B. Mayer into buying the film rights and set out to turn the story into a musical featuring MGM’s resident star, Judy Garland. Vincente Minnelli, who had an extensive background in set and costume design, was brought in to direct.
MGM spared no expense on the production, having the script rewritten a number of times to Minnelli and Garland‘s liking and to elaborately decorate the home the fictional family lived in. Benson provided extensive details about the home in which she had grown up. Costumes were based on designs seen during that time period in the Sears & Roebuck, Montgomery War and Marshall Fields catalogues.
Production would be held up by a number of issues: Various cast members fell ill during filming. At one point, the mother of 7-year-old Margaret O’Brien — whose role of the family‘s youngest daughter was a central to the plot at several points during the story — demanded a larger salary and kept O’Brien at home for nearly two weeks.
“Meet Me in St. Louis” premiered on Nov. 22, 1944, and opened nationwide the following January. It would be nominated for four Academy Awards — including one for Best Musical Score and one for Best Original Song. In 1994, it would be selected for preservation in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
1942 First Edition
Vincente Minnelli
Once Again, As in Olden Days, Happy Golden Days of Yore
Garland felt that she was becoming typecast as “the girl next door” and was reluctant to accept the role of Esther. She was 21, had been married and divorced and was a frequent lover of the Hollywood nightlife. She and director Minnelli began dating during production and by the time the film was being edited, they were living together. They got married in 1945.
At the start of production, other actors felt Garland was suffering from “Big-shot-itis.” She was frequently late on the set, causing delays. At one point, Mary Astor — who played her mother — gave her a talking to but later felt badly. Garland was shooting the film during the day and recording at night and was “jittery and weepy with fatigue.”
Garland, on the other hand, worried about her young co-star, Margaret O’Brien. Garland had been overworked herself as a child actor and was concerned about O’Brien. Years later, O’Brien said she appreciated Garland’s concern but that child labor laws had been strengthened and that playing the part of the bratty Tootie was fun.
When Margaret O’Brien’s mother had her boycott production, MGM explored the possibility of hiring a substitute. They brought in the daughter of a studio electrician to test for the part. When O’Brien returned to work, the disappointed electrician intentionally dropped a heavy light to the floor of the stage, narrowly missing O’Brien. The man was arrested.
With the family in mourning over its impending move, Garland’s character sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” to her little sister. Garland was shocked at the lyric — “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last” — and convinced the movie’s songwriters to lighten the tone: “let your heart be light.”
Producer Arthur Freed had his songwriting team work up three versions of “The Trolley Song” before he found one he liked that they based on a children’s book: “Clang! Clang! Clang! went the jolly little trolley.” Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin wrote the song in three hours and a delighted Garland recorded it in one take.
Mary Astor had previously played Garland’s mother in “Listen, Darling” in 1938 and then, in 1942, had starred with Humphrey Bogart in “The Maltese Falcon.” She played the mother of the girls, but, at age 38, was only 11 years older than Lucille Bremer and 16 years older than Garland. She missed nearly a month of work on this film with a case of pneumonia.
In real life, Sally Benson’s father did move his family from St. Louis to New York just before the 1904 World’s Fair and the family did not attend the fair. Among the projects Benson later worked: Adapting Margaret Landon’s “Anna and the King of Siam” for a 1946 film version and wrote an original story for a 1964 Elvis Presley film, “Viva Las Vegas.”
