Meet Me In St. Louis

Released November, 1944; screen play by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe; based on the New Yorker stories and the book by Sally Benson; Title song by Andrew B. Sterling and Kerry Mills; new songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane; Music adapted by Roger Edens; music director, Georgie Stoll; orchestrations by Conrad Salinger; dances by Paul Jones; dance director, Charles Walters; directed by Vincente Minnelli; produced by Arthur Freed.

Cast

Ester Smith.......Judy Garland
"Tootie" Smith.....Margaret O'Brien
Mrs. Anne Smith.....Mary Astor*
Rose Smith.....Lucille Bremer
Lucille Ballard.....June Lockhart
John Truett.....Tom Drake
Katie, the Maid.....Marjorie Main
Grandpa.....Harry Davenport
Mr. Alonzo Smith.....Leon Ames**
Lon Smith, Jr......Henry H. Daniels, Jr.
Agnes Smith.....Joan Carroll
Colonel Darby.....Hugh Marlowe
Warren Sheffield.....Robert Sully
Mr. Neely.....Chill Wills
Johnny Tevis.....Darryl Hickman
Baggage Man.....Victor Kilian

*Voice dubbed by D. Markas
**Voice dubbed by Arthur Freed

Songs

Meet Me In St. Louis
The Boy Next Door
The Trolley Song
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Skip To My Lou (traditional)
You And I (Nacio Herb Brown/Arthur Freed)
Under The Bamboo Tree (Bob Cole)

Meet Me in St. Louis is the picture of a year, 1903-1904, in the lives of the Smiths, a well-off, home-oriented mid-west family enjoying day-to-day living during a time when the days were somehow longer and sunnier, exquisite pleasure was to found in evening sings around the piano, and the greatest excitement imaginable was a visit to the St. Louis Exposition, right there in one's own home-town.
The four Smith sisters are the focal points of the picture: Rose (Bremer) just wants to get married and have as good and happy life as her father (Ames) and mother (Astor). Ester (Garland) has developed more than a crush on the boy next door (Drake). "Tootie" (O'Brien) lives in the fantasy world of childhood, and encourages her dolls to die so she can have funerals in the backyard.

More than any musical before or sice, Meet Me in St. Louis touched deep emothional welsprings in its audiences. It is a period, and a place, and a way of living captured forever ... an enduring and endearing American classic.