Adapted from a series of short stories by Sally Benson originally published in The New Yorker as "The Kensington Stories" and later in novel form as Meet Me Tn St. Louis, this 1944 musical film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in the spring of 1904. Garland debuted the standards "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", all written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.