Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 MGM musical movie. It tells the story of a family living in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair in 1904. It stars Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien. Garland sang "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Both songs became big hits. The movie was the second-biggest money-making movie of 1944. Going My Way was the biggest money-maker.
The movie was adapted from a series of short stories by Sally Benson. These stories were first published in The New Yorker magazine. Later, they were published in the novel 5135 Kensington. The movie was directed by Vincente Minnelli. He met Garland on the set. Later, they married. The critics liked the movie. In 2005, Richard Schickel wrote, "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."
The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Color, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, Best Music, Song ("The Trolley Song") and Best Writing, Screenplay. In 1994, the movie was chosen for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The American Film Institute ranked the movie 10th on AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals. Two songs from the movie made AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs ("The Trolley Song" at #26 and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" at #76).
