A little Garland at Christmastime

When it comes to Christmas movies, my theory is you find a favorite and stick with it. The whole point of Christmas movies is the tradition of watching the same thing year after year so you know every scene, every line, every nuance. Sad, silly or serious — if one kind of movie appeals, it's a good bet the others won't.

For me, that means forget Jimmy Stewart. Forget Clarence.

My favorite Christmas movie is the1944 Vincent Minnelli gem, "Meet Me in St. Louis," starring Minnelli's future wife: Judy Garland. Though the movie about the Smith family of St. Louis has four segments based on the four seasons, the turning point of the story happens at Christmas. Garland's soulful rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a guaranteed tear-jerker and contributed to the song's vibrant life outside the film. That scene and that song are enough to make it the holiday classic for me.

The four "Smith sisters" with their brother at the front entrance of their house at 5135 Kensington Avenue in St. Louis (from left): Agnes (Joan Carroll), Esther (Lucille Bremer), Rose (Judy Garland), Lon (Henry H. Daniels Jr.), and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien).

The film was based on Sally Benson's book about growing up in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition — the 1904 World's Fair as it's more commonly known.

We loved the movie and the book at my house because the story centered around four sisters like our family. (OK, there is a brother in the story but he's mostly off at college). And because we lived in Buffalo, N.Y., the city that had hosted the previous World's Fair: the Pan-American Exposition of 1901.

My maternal grandmother worked at the Pan-American Expo and was a young bride by the time of the St. Louis gala. Pride of place in her home was given to the baby grand piano and the cabinet that held the piano's music cylinders. As kids in the '50s we danced to the music of the St. Louis fair on that piano — tunes that appear throughout Minelli's movie. Not the famous songs written for the film but the actual music of the era that captures the essence of the times.

Official logo of the Pan-American Exposition by Raphael Beck

The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis fair. But we in Buffalo had the unfortunate distinction that the president of the United States, William McKinley, was assassinated at our world's fair, shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz railing against imperialism.

In 2001 Buffalo acknowledged — celebrated is not quite the right word — the centennial of its fair with conferences, lectures, books and exhibits at the county historical society, which is housed in the only building remaining from the fair.

And there was much discussion of the McKinley Curse — a convenient scapegoat for residents trying to figure out how Buffalo slipped from the nation's 8th largest city to No. 47 and from the "Queen City of the Great Lakes" to a symbol of Rust Belt decay.

Architectural rending by Esenwein and Johnson of the the Temple of Music at the Exposition: the location where President McKinley was shot during a public reception.

I left Buffalo when it was still more like the place McKinley visited. And strangely enough, I can go back to that city in Minnelli's film where the streets — even though they are on a California backlot — look just like the ones where my grandparents lived. And the final scene of Minnelli's movie, where the St. Louis fair blazes into lights, looks just like the Pan American must have looked. McKinley had come to Buffalo's exposition, in fact, because it showcased the latest technology — the electric light — powered by the great falls at Niagara.

"Meet Me in St. Louis" is a holiday movie that for me is inextricably tied to growing up in Buffalo, a city where the 19th century was always interesting and alive and just around the corner. The past was always present.

And that's what Christmas movies are all about. Once we grow up they become the vehicles that take us on a trip to the past; not just any past but our own. A place that we can only visit in dreams — and movies.

Buffalo is No. 47 in the nation based on population as of Oct. 10, 2008, according to an article by G. Scott Thomas which appeared on that date in Business First of Buffalo .

This column previously appeared in The Capital Times under my byline.

Comments

[pve design]

nice little garland and bit-o-history too.

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Thanks for stopping by. That was a very nice group of ideas you posted — along with your lovely illustrations — on Easy and Elegant Life's Gift Guide.