Judy Garland’s ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ dress will be at Missouri History Museum
The iconic red velvet dress that Judy Garland wore while singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in "Meet Me in St. Louis" is returning to the Missouri History Museum — and this time, it is being paired with the white coat she wore over it.
"It's really exciting. It's even more exciting because we'll be reuniting the dress with the coat for I believe the first time since the movie," said Sam Moore, the museum's managing director of public history.
The coat is already part of the museum's ongoing and recently revitalized 1904 World's Fair exhibit. The dress will join it beginning Tuesday and will remain a part of the exhibit through Jan. 5.
That the dress will be on display throughout the holidays is no coincidence. Though it takes place over an entire year, "Meet Me in St. Louis" is considered a holiday movie largely because of that song and the scene that precedes it, a Christmas Eve ball. Garland wears the dress in that scene, too.
The film came out in November 1944, just as the tide in World War II was beginning to turn.
"People were dreaming of a simpler and safer past," Moore said. The film's presentation of the fair is "wrapped up in nostalgia. It occupies a special place in our cultural memory."
It was particularly important to St. Louisans, he said. When the movie first opened here, 5,000 residents were lined up to get tickets. Some began lining up the afternoon before it opened.
The dress is on loan from local collector Mary Strauss. The coat is on loan from "Get Happy! — the Judy Garland Exhibit."
Moore said that people like to see costumes from their favorite movies because they feel a personal connection to those films, and that costumes and props help to solidify that connection.
But costumes can also unintentionally provide information about the people who wear them, such as Garland.
"She was a smaller person. It's going to be a little bit smaller than you'd expect," Moore said.
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