By Scottie Andrew and Sydney Bishop | CNN
It was 1944 when the trolley first started to clang.
“The Trolley Song,” a second-act standout from the 1944 movie musical “Meet Me in St. Louis,” was sung by Judy Garland in striking Technicolor. It was released back when gay was more commonly understood to mean “happy,” a rainbow was just a weather phenomenon and a trolley was just another mode of transportation.
And yet it has found new life online nearly 80 years later as an unlikely anthem for LGBTQ Pride.
“The Trolley Song” has been making the rounds again this year among young queer people who can’t resist the brassy gift of Garland’s vocal performance, its campy, heightened atmosphere and its timeless fun.
“Happy pride month (sic) to Judy Garland in the trolley song. And also to the trolley,” one person wrote on X. “There’s no pride month without the trolley song,” said another.
Some hope “The Trolley Song” will be a featured lip-sync on the next season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” while others believe the song deserves to be released as several club-ready remixes. At least one person called it Garland’s version of Sabrina Carpenter’s summer smash “Espresso,” a frothy single about a fling that’s a staple on many Pride playlists.
“The Trolley Song” is not the most obvious candidate for a Pride playlist. It lacks the overt LGBTQ imagery of “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz,” perhaps Garland’s most famous song, or the appeal of Garland’s live performances toward the end of her life, which were heavily attended by her gay fans. But a closer read reveals why it resonates with LGBTQ fans today.
“The tempo, the lyrics, the onomatopoeia –– it’s all super gay,” said Dave Karger, a Turner Classic Movies host who frequently presents movie musicals, including “Meet Me in St. Louis,” on the channel. (CNN and TCM share parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Patrick Kelleher, a social justice organizer in Ireland who’s written about his relationship with Garland and “Meet Me in St. Louis,” has noticed it popping up more frequently in his online circles, even declaring it “this year’s Pride anthem.” It’s thrilling, he said, that the song that’s brightened his life for so many years is now bringing other young LGBTQ people the same joy.
“As someone who has been obsessing over this song for more than a decade, I’m so glad it’s getting all this renewed attention,” Kelleher said. “And honestly, if ‘The Trolley Song’ came on at a Pride event, I think the crowd would go absolutely wild.”
It’s a campy crowd-pleaser
Though “The Trolley Song” is a rollicking crowd-pleaser, the scene in which it takes place starts out with Garland in a huff.
Her character, Esther Smith, is a lovestruck teenager in Missouri, months before the 1904 World’s Fair. She begins the song somberly traipsing around the trolley, wondering why her love interest has not boarded with her. When she finally spots him running to catch the caboose, the …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
