Tom Drake and Judy Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944). IMDb photo

I know, it’s old, really old, but so am I, and so are you who stop me in the market and tell me so.

MOVIE INFO

“MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS”
Classic Musical, Holiday Comedy, Drama, Family, Holiday, Musical, Romance
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Length: 113 minutes
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Writers: Irving Brecher, Fred F. Finklehoffe, Sally Benson
Stars: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor

“Meet me in St. Louis” opened big in St. Louis in 1944. I was just getting over measles, and my sister Eileen and her boyfriend took me to see it at the Ambassador Theatre.

You don’t forget having measles and hearing Judy Garland sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” a song that still works for lovers.

You may not remember measles, but I’m sure you remember “Meet Me,” it runs every month somewhere. The best part of it, a part I remember vividly, was the “last Christmas” section when the family father gathered every member of the Smith family (Grandfather Harry Davenport, mother Mary Astor, and the four daughters (Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Joan Carroll and Lucille Bremer) and the family expert on making catsup, the never forgotten Marjorie Main).

The father (Leon Ames), already a bank president, announced that he was selling the family home and taking them all to a big new job in New York City.

This took some research, but just as I remember, the Christmas part was when Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien, the darling little girl who stole every scene she was in (and that’s hard to do with Judy next to you), had their scene. Judy at the time was in love with the director, Vincente Minnelli. The movie is set in 1903 in St. Louis, from spring to Halloween to the famous conclusion where Judy sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” after Margaret takes a stick and knocks down all the Christmas snowmen she had made.

The story, we are told, was taken from short stories by Sally Benson printed in the New Yorker. It was no big 1944 musical, but it was full of set pieces featuring Judy singing “The Boy Next Door” and the heartbreaking “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” You can see I’m pasting this together from memory.

That one song was played over and over in all the battle zones of World War II and in department stores and record shops for decades ever after.

Even today, you can hear it in Starbucks everywhere.

St. Louis was my hometown. I grew up in the Irish section on the South Side, but the Smith house was on the gated West Side we Irish never saw.

It’s not the happiest December ever, but there’s snow and lovers walking in it still.

I’m reviewing this classic for old timers who fondly remember that part where Judy and that “old standby actor” Tom Drake came together and to build a dream that promises another Christmas where they can all say “Meet Me in St. Louis” to Santa.

“Meet Me in St. Louis” is streaming on Max and available free with ads on Tubi.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.