The 80th anniversary of Meet Me in St. Louis is upon us

I like a blue Christmas.

I’m sorry to say I’ve never loved this movie like everyone else apparently does.

I admire it, of course. And Esther’s red dress is very flattering.

I'll never forget the long debate we had here on an earlier Meet Me in St. Louis thread over what that thing is called that Judy removes from her head as she sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Unfortunately, I'm spacing on the term that was ultimately deemed the correct answer. But someone actually thought it was a fascinator!

My favorite Christmas film! ❤️

Judy has never been more longingly or beautifully shot.

Lovingly*

I suspect she won't live through the night, she has four fatal diseases.

Longingly, too.

June Lockhart and Margaret O'Brien are still with us.

[quote] “ I suspect she won't live through the night, she has four fatal diseases.”

“And all it takes is one.” 😂

This film is quite funny.

Costume Designer Irene Sharaff had a huge crush on Mary Astor and gave her all the best costumes.

Was Irene bi?

I thought she killed herself over a failed affair with Gary “Mule Dick” Cooper.

As opposed to “Meet Me in East St. Louis”.

I’m from there!

I was molested on a trolley car.

I was lucky to see it on a big screen, in a movie theatre at Carnegie Hall. I guess it was the early 1980s. There was once a cinema under the concert hall. Long gone.

Margaret O'Brien is 87. June Lockhart 99.

[quote] I was molested on a trolley car. —Lorna

Imagine the last words she heard as she was about to be molested were “Let her go, motorman!”

r12, that was the other Irene, who was billed only as Irene. They were both at Metro in the 1940s.

Lorna, is that when it went CLANG CLANG CLANG?

I do love watching this film at Christmas.

Judy resembles Lucille Ball on the poster art in OP’s link.

It’s practically the only musical I can sit through. It’s very dark in some scenes.

[quote] Lorna, is that when it went CLANG CLANG CLANG

Define “it”

It drives me crazy that Judy isn't wearing a hat on the trolley like all the other girls. You just know some twat like Arthur Freed or LB Mayer complained that her hat was too distracting.

^^ well, it is nice to make the star look different than the extras, when you can.

My favorite character was Technicolor Hyper Saturation-she was so beautiful at that time.

Let's all celebrate and make catsup!

Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention.

I don't know. A little while ago, your cat got in my way and I kicked her down the cellar steps. I could hear her spine hitting on every step.

Tootie was a spoiled brat who should have had her butt kicked all the way down to Jefferson Avenue and back!

I’m the empty whisky bottles in Mr Brockhoff’s cellar.

Wasn't it a diamond studded scarf around Judy’s head?

Did they force feed Mary Astor for this role? She looked 20 pounds heavier and 20 years older.

R32 I am properly chastened. This really would have been a great "Let's Be" thread.

Same house as ‘’Cheaper by the dozen’’ ‘’ Belles on their toes’’ Some said Clifton Webb May have been gay- the studio changed his name from Ben Dover.

It is a snood.

I hear that John Pruitt likes to go down along the docks and blow sailors........

The waltz around the tree gets me EVER time. And that scene just after, with John and Esther. And the moment Dad changes his mind at the end and he and Mrs. Smith share that wordless moment. Warren storming in. It’s all so much joy.

A perfect film.

It was on TCM yesterday(?). I caught the last part where Judy sings Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. I didn't recall the discussion on DL about the thing on her head, but when she took it off, I thought, "is that a snood?"

It actually was called a fascinator back in the day. Nowadays the term is reserved for those strange, tiny hats that perch top the head.

See? It's a fascinator.

She looks like Lucille Ball in that poster.

Mary Astor also played Margaret O'Brien's mother in "Little Women." (Tne one with June Allyson and Liz Taylor.)

Eat Me In St. Louis

I’d like to see a remake in modern day St. Louis. Nelly could play the boy next door

To R38, who didn't LOVE to go down to the docks and blow Sailors, service them and swallow their yummy semen!!

It is a perfect film R39 but the America it was made in is over-trump over.

[quote] Eat Me In St. Louis

Sizemeat in St. Louis

Sizemeat in St. Louis, the film Kristen Bjorn forgot to make!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Fistmas

Have Yourshelf a Merry Little Christmas is what Mama sang!

I don’t like how the movie makes fun of the boys who are less attractive, when Judy gets her comeuppance from having tried to hurt the innocent girl using the dance card.

To R11-Mary Astor is 1 of my favorite old school actresses, she worked HARD to get the best dresses!!

We watched "The Maltese Falcon" yesterday too. Great movie, everyone works together in the movie.

Mary Astor is awesome.

One of my favorite movies!! It's just so breezy

A true MGM/Minelli masterpiece.

R53, I couldn’t roll my eyes harder. You’re a moron.

Yes, r54, and Mary Astor, like Irene Sharaff, was old enough to have lived through those years depicted in the film. She may have been too young to wear a corset and but she and Sharaff appreciated all those details women went through for the sake of beauty back then.

As did much of the audience back in 1944.

I mean, I would have drained Lon, or Warren, or John, of course.

oh Mr. Smith and Grandpa could use a draining too,

Mr. Smith sure. Grandpa....well, I'd have to see the sizemeat first.

I thought her red wig was very unflattering. Especially the boxy bangs.

I do like the movie though and often watch it when TCM shows it.

It's not Christmas until I see

Meet Me in St. Louis

The Sound of Music

and

A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Agree about the red boxy bangs!

[quote]A true MGM/Minelli masterpiece.

Oh, dear.

[quote] And the moment Dad changes his mind at the end and he and Mrs. Smith share that wordless moment.

That’s the part that ALWAYS makes me cry a little.

[quote]Eat Me In St. Louis

That's what Irene Sharaff wanted to do to Mary Astor!

Judy was hiding her pills in her costumes.

It's interesting to think that the early 1900s was to 1940s audiences as the 1980s are to 2024 audiences.

I know r69! Makes you feel ancient, doesn't it?

Daddy!

To R63-You forgot "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" cartoon& "Santa Clause is coming to town" with Fred Astaire

R71 He's so hot in that film

I've never watched this (and I'm 55) but with everyone speaking so highly of it will add it to my holiday watch-list.

Anyone here familiar with those early Warners" Doris Day musicals On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of the Silvery Moon? Love them dearly but they truly seem to be a rip-off of Meet Me in St. Louis and even have hot daddy Leon Ames as the....hot daddy.

Of course, they are based on Booth Tarkington stories so maybe any family film musical in that pre-WWI Americana is going to seem similar.

I was first introduced to Leon Ames as the title character in the short-lived 1950s TV series of LIFE WITH FATHER.

Yes, I'm ancient.

Best scene: Rose's New York call.

I’ve watched this every year for over 30 years. On my Princeton application, I put this as my favorite movie. I didn’t get in.

Voctave

R75 I know I'm in a minority but I much prefer On Moonlight Bay to Meet Me in St. Louis. I love its cosy atmosphere, something the overblown and garishly lit sets of MMIST are completely lacking in. Wasn't crazy about the sequel though.

Too sweet? Too sour?

Too thick!

[quote]Unfortunately, I'm spacing on the term that was ultimately deemed the correct answer.

What is a doo-rag, Alex?

One must admit Vincente Minnelli ensured Judy looked gorgeous in the films he directed her in. She never looked better after that era. Even in The Pirate, which was a war zone as their marriage unfolded.

The Halloween night segment is very dark and depressing

[quote]On my Princeton application, I put this as my favorite movie. I didn’t get in.

I wonder what Brooke Shields put down to ensure she got accepted....

Well, Judy was also at the height of her beauty (such as it was) when she was married to Minnelli.

R80 the garishly lit sets of Meet Me in St. Louis? What?

[quote]Santa Clause

Oh, dear.

r88 there's this newfangled thing call typing on a Smartphone that uses AutoCorrect.

Thank Liza’s father-

Enough of this-Trump is back in office-forever.

[quote]r34 Did they force feed Mary Astor for this role? She looked 20 pounds heavier and 20 years older.

How very dare you! She looks lovely as the mom!

I do admire how Mary Astor wasn’t afraid to look rough - if need be - as she transitioned into being a character actress.

I think Mary Astor also gave Garland a brisk talking to after the younger actress began keeping the company waiting by being verrrrry late.

I might be imagining this, but Astor may have even told the studio to call her at home once Garland had arrived, and then she’d head over.

(Tho maybe it didn’t get that bad. I just know Astor had been a star longer than Garland, and at some point she was like, “Listen, GURL…”)

Just as often they stopped her altogether, however, and her unreliability not only cost the studio money but also irritated her fellow actors. After one delay, Mary Astor, who was playing her mother, burst through the door to give her a sound spanking. “Judy, what the hell’s happened to you?” demanded Astor, who had also played the mother role in Listen, Darling, six years earlier. “You were a trouper—once.…You have kept the entire company out there waiting for two hours.” After responding with an infuriating giggle, Judy grabbed Astor by the hand and, in a pathetic con­fes­sion of despair, cried, “I don’t sleep, Mom!”

Young Alfred Alderdice—Drake’s original name—was, in short, a walking advertisement for all-American wholesomeness. “Judy was mad about him,” said Ralph Blane, who with Hugh Martin wrote most of the film’s songs. “Ooooh! She had to have him—that was all there was to it.” Friendship led to romance, which led to bed—where the affair ended. To Drake’s em­­bar­rass­ment and to her own dismay, Judy could not arouse him. Drake was an all-American boy, all right, but an all-Am­erican boy who liked other all-­American boys. A woman more certain of her sexual attractiveness would have realized that his failure in bed was nobody’s fault. But Judy was angry, apparently equating his inability to be excited with rejection. Though they did not know what had transpired, those on the set noticed an immediate change in the weather; the flames in Judy’s eyes turned to icicles.

I did read there were elaborate sets made for parents bedrooms and more that were not used in the film.Some photos made it into magazines from that time and may be online but so much was cut as is a big part of the movie making process.

There was a small narrow door next to the fire place that went out to the front porch if anyone was as ridiculously fascinated by the house design as I. Marina Coates doesn’t offer a ‘’virtual walk through’’ of St.Louis house like she does many other famous movie houses-maybe a wake up call to Ms. Coates before Christmas?

Tom got it up for me!

I didn’t find any of the men very sexy in this film.Maybe Rose’s boyfriend but WTF.

Hugh Marlowe of ‘’All about Eve’’ fame was in the movie for a brief moment as Col. Darly.

Lon Jr. was hot

This was my favorite scene as a gayling.

The young men were so handsome and fun.

Judy was nuts from birth…

Lon Jr. was very hot!

I love this movie but always FF past Skip to My Lou, which feels completely extraneous.

R79 Voctave is horribly bland

Marina Coates just did the house in It’s A Wonderful Life.

Young Lon was a cutie, for sure.

Here he looks like he wants to have some 69 time with John Truitt.

After all these posts, R2 still stinks worst.

To R88& R89 (know you're the same person), I always use my play laptop or my "Masters of the Universe" computer system for playing on DL. Smartphones are too small and even though I have 20/20 vision again due to my cataract surgery 3 years ago, I will not use my phone.

I will keep my perfect 20/20 vision as long as possible.

[quote] Santa Clause

I wrote Julie Garland recently on a different thread.

[quote]I wrote Julie Garland recently on a different thread.

R112 is that book inspired by Judy Garland's life story?

[quote]R112 is that book inspired by Judy Garland's life story?

It tells the tale of Julie Goodman, r112. Her breakout role is in a movie musical based on a children's book that gives her her signature song Beyond the Sunset. Her death at the end is caused by choking on a dick. I knew the author. He was a major Judy fan.

^ r113

In St. Louis in 1994, I read that the Smith (Sally Benson) house at 5135 Kensington Avenue was being demolished. The neighborhood, north of the private streets and Forest Park, is rougher than it ought to be 30 years later, I see.

That evening a friend and I went to get a couple bricks. They already had been grabbed by builders and all I could pick up was a half-brick. The next door neighbor came out with something in his hand yelling so I left.

Do you still have that half-brick, r116?

Although too late for 5135 Kensington, the Academy neighborhood is showing the very beginnings of renewal and gentrification, especially those streets just north of the Delmar Divide. Perhaps soon the movement will spread further north to Kensington Avenue and even Page Boulevard.

Even Page Boulevard? No. I don’t believe it.

Yes, R117.

And R119 doesn't know Page.

R118, part of the problem is that the infill throughout most of north CWE and WE from Grand west is anonymous, spiritless and suburban, even when upscale. Of course not every block is reduced as much as many.

[quote]R116 The next door neighbor came out with something in his hand yelling so I left.

Maybe he’d saved a brick for you?

You two could be celebrating 30 years together now if you’d stuck around!

Shit movie

Someone want to meet me in St. Louis...I really need to see this at the St. Louis History Museum.

R116 was it Mr Brockoff?

Minnelli’s ex way back in NYC was Lester Gaba the “famous” soap carving window designing mannequin creating painter/artist.

I'm advised 2025 is also the 60th anniversary of The Sound of Music, and that Salzburg will be celebrating. Thought DL would want to know.

r126 Baroness von Schraeder, is that you, darling?

No, but when I saw it as a small child I was ineffably drawn to her. I thought everyone else in it was tacky except the Captain, who was too effete for her. Even then, I knew instinctively that having to listen appreciatively to a tribe of children who'd been taught to sing a song for you would be purgatory for anyone but the frauiest Frau.

Obviously, I was always destined for the DL.

Sign me up for a threeway with Alonzo Smith and Georg von Trapp.

Just watched this again this week.

I need Warren, John Pruitt and Lon Jr. to circle jerk on my face.

Meet me in St. Louis…Park PARK

I usually hate Victorian production design in Hollywood movies but this one is admittedly fabulous.

[quote]I need Warren, John Pruitt and Lon Jr. to circle jerk on my face.

You'll get Clinton Badger and Hugo Borvis and you'll LIKE it.

Am I alone in thinking there’s nothing that memorable about this movie? It’s cute but there are better Judy Garland vehicles.

John Pruitt....sad life

Lemme go grab my snood....err...fascinator...snood...fascinator...

What's memorable is the immaculate production design and Vincent's perfect creation of emotional atmosphere, with a mix of tones (poignancy, playfulness, nostalgia) and against all odds, emotional depth. You would think this confection would sink under its sentimentality and visual excess, but it rises.

r133 Then Grandpa will insist on cutting in. "Grandpa, you're the first human who's cummed on my face all night!"

Judy GARBAGE.

Tootie is a stupid name...

A virtually perfect movie IMO. Has the same ingredients as dozens of other 1940s and 50s movies, but outclasses them all. I’m not really sure why.

Don’t like it

Eat a dick, R142

I think Judy,Vincente, and Arthur peaked here . They had other great successes of course but this was their best .

[quote] You'll get Clinton Badger and Hugo Borvis and you'll LIKE it.

I'd sooner take Grandpa.

Agnes definitely would've been a school shooter type if the story took place today.

How do you suppose Tom Drake managed to stay undrafted during WWII?

Tom Drake looks quite a bit like a smaller, young Liam Neeson in this...

Never mind the snood/fascinator debate; I recall the DL being almost torn asunder over Judy's periwinkle gloves in the trolley scene and whether or not they matched her outfit. That argument was so vicious and long lasting that Ken Burns almost made a documentary about it.

I think Carol’s version of “The Trolley Song” has more sincerity.

This shit is repeating again today on TCM

R151. Of course it is. It's TCM, after all.

Lon and Warren are exploring each other's holes.