I recently saw this kinescope at the Museum of TV and Radio in NYC. This was a live TV remake of the 1944 MGM movie. It was charming and lively and you would never know it was not a movie, the actors were all perfect with their lines and singing and dancing. Myrna Loy and Walter Pidgeon were the parents, they could practically have been in the original as they were both MGM stars at the time, so it is nice they got to be in this one. THey even sing in one number, You and I. Also there is Jeanne Crain in one of her few live TV performances, very pretty still in her early thirties playing a teenager. But perhaps best of all were Jane Powell in Judy Garland's old role, singing well (Have yourself a merry little Christmas, the Trolley song, the Boy next door, danced and sang well in Skip to my loo), good acting. A special treat is also Patty Duke in the Margaret O'Brian role; she was possibly the best of an excellent bunch, very bratty and cute. All in all a great show, a two hour special from the golden age of television. Too bad it is not available on videotape! Update in 2016. The other reviewer on this TV special indicated that I was incorrect in my review and stated that it was not live and it was videotaped. In reality it was live, it was not videotaped. If you look at Jeanne Crain's TV shows at the time promoting this, on I've Got a Secret and What's My Line, she says that it will be a live special and they were rehearsing it for a month and how much she loves live television. Also in Tab Hunter and Patty Duke's autobiographies they discuss this special and that it was live. In Myrna Loy's autobiography she spends about 2 pages discussing the rehearsals for it, where she ate lunch with Ed Wynn on their lunch breaks, and how upset producer David Susskind was that it would be one of the last live TV specials. She then discusses the production itself and how it was live, how the Christmas tree almost fell on Jeanne Crain while it was live, all the cables and how complicated it was, and how great she felt after it was done, how she felt the feeling should be bottled and sold as it was the best of theatre in that it was live but that since it was on TV at the same time they also had the camera there. So yes, it was live!
Review of Meet Me in St. Louis
