Christmas Tales of Alabama (2 page)

She was referring to the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” written by Martin, a Birmingham native who was already a successful Broadway composer and playwright when he went to Hollywood. Despite its title, the song was melancholy because it was sung during a scene in which Judy's character, teenage Esther Smith, was trying to comfort her little sister, Tootie, who was sad about the prospect of moving from St. Louis to New York weeks before the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Judy, however, thought the song was too maudlin. Just five years after her huge success as Dorothy in the
Wizard of Oz
, the twenty-two-year-old actress didn't want to be remembered as the girl who made little Tootie cry.

The original lyrics were:

Although Hugh liked and respected Judy, he initially reacted with as much obstinance as the megastar Garland. The lyrics fit the scene, he argued. Before the battle reached a stalemate, actor Tom Drake, who played “the boy next door,” John Truett, stepped in and reasoned with Hugh, telling his old friend that refusing to change the song could ruin his life.

“He convinced Hugh he was being stubborn,” said Gordon Martin, Hugh's brother. The lyrics were changed to a more upbeat:

In his nineties, Hugh would laugh about the incident, calling his initial lyrics “lugubrious.” Ironically, the original sad lyrics were written at a cozy location that was close to Hugh's heart, the Birmingham cottage that had been designed by Hugh's father, architect Hugh Martin Sr., as a honeymoon cottage for Hugh's mother, Ellie.

The home, located on the south side of Birmingham, is where Hugh Jr., Gordon and their sister, Ellen, were reared. It was a happy home, filled with music and love, the one to which all the children in the neighborhood would come. It is now a historic site.

“Mother was very much into Christmas,” Gordon said in an interview after his brother's death. “She would go out and buy a tree on Christmas Eve, and we would sing around the piano.” Mrs. Martin used her creativity to make the trees into works of art that awed the children. It was their mother's love of music and theater that fueled young Hugh's dream of being a songwriter. “She was into all the new shows on Broadway, and she would go out and buy the sheet music and play it.” Hugh, also an accomplished pianist, was chosen to play the graduation piece for Phillips High School in Birmingham. He played “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin.

Hugh Martin wrote “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” for Judy Garland to perform in the film
Meet Me in St. Louis. Photograph courtesy of the Martin family
.

By the time little Gordon turned ten, big brother Hugh had left home, first to attend Birmingham Southern College and then to move to New York to compose music and write songs and plays. Mrs. Martin, with her love of theater, would travel to New York as often as possible to see her son's plays.

“Mother loved New York,” Gordon said. “She had to have her New York fix.” After performing in the play
Hooray for What!
, Hugh began an unusual partnership with Ralph Blane: both men wrote music and lyrics, and when assigned a song, they would each write a version on their own, then combine the best of them. Blane is credited on “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but Hugh has said in numerous interviews that he wrote the song alone and also did the requested rewrites.

Then, in 1941, MGM Studios bought the rights to the Martin-Blane play
Best Foot Forward
, and Hugh went to Hollywood.

Soon the duo was hired to write the music for
Meet Me in St. Louis
. In his memoir,
Hugh Martin: The Boy Next Door
, Martin recalls how “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” came to be. He had begun a tune for another song but then abandoned it. Blane, who had heard the tune and liked it, asked why. Hugh said he couldn't make the lyrics work, but Blane wouldn't let his partner discard the song. He asked Hugh to try again because he had “a funny feeling about that little tune.”

Hugh agreed and turned to the back of the
Meet Me in St. Louis
script until he reached the Christmas scenes. Blane had described the song as “madrigal,” which gave Hugh an idea. He worked for another hour and called in his partner to hear the new lyrics. Satisfied with the song, the duo took it to the film's producers the next day.

Their reaction? They laughed, which cut Hugh to the quick.

Roger Edens said he loved the melody, but the lyrics were too depressing.

“It's OK for it to be bittersweet and nostalgic, but it shouldn't be a dirge,” Roger said. Producers asked Martin and Blane to keep working on the lyrics. Then, after the song was played for Judy, Edens gave Hugh the news: she hated the sad lyrics.

In
Boy Next Door
, Hugh wrote that Tom Drake talked sense into him, saying, “Hugh, this is potentially a very great and important song. I feel that in my guts. Now listen to me. Don't be a stubborn idiot. Write a lyric for that beautiful melody that Judy will sing. You'll thank me.” Martin saw the light and would later write, “Tom got through to me over a cup of coffee where the big executives had failed. That was sixty-five years ago, but Tom, I do thank you from my heart!”

The new version—at once bittersweet and hopeful—was the perfect tune for women waiting at home for their men to return from World War II. At the time, popular Christmas tunes typically took a backseat to standard carols, so it was “The Trolley Song” that became the star of
Meet Me in St. Louis
.

The catchy lyrics of “The Trolley Song” were hit upon accidentally. Martin and Blane were reportedly having some trouble coming up with lyrics for Garland to sing while on the trolley until Hugh saw a photo of a trolley in a book on the history of St. Louis. The caption read: “Clang! Clang! Clang! went the jolly little trolley.” A song was born.

According to legend, Garland recorded “The Trolley Song” in one take. In 1945, “The Trolley Song” was nominated for an Oscar for best original song. “Swinging on a Star” from
Going My Way
took the statue. After he had completed songs for
Meet Me in St. Louis
, Hugh Martin enlisted in the army. He was assigned to the European theater, where he was asked to use his talents and current popularity to entertain soldiers.

Gordon Martin, who would also serve in the army, had a furlough from training as filming was wrapping on
Meet Me in St. Louis
. Hugh invited his little brother to visit Hollywood.

“I rode the train out,” Gordon recalls. “When I arrived in California, I saw orange trees and palm trees for the first time. I felt just like Dorothy in the
Wizard of Oz
.” Hugh took Gordon to the MGM lot, where movie stars were strolling between scenes. The brothers stopped for a long chat with Mickey Rooney, who was at the height of his career, and then Gordon was invited to Judy Garland's birthday party.

Until her death at age forty-nine, Hugh's sister Ellen, a dancer, would sometimes have parts in his productions or serve as choreographer. Hugh and Ralph continued making hits for many more decades, but surprisingly, it was “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that became one of Hugh's biggest contributions to American culture.

It didn't hurt that
Meet Me in St Louis
was MGM's most profitable film in two decades—with the exception of
Gone with the Wind
—and that little Margaret O'Brien received a special juvenile Oscar for her role. Then, in 1957, a cover of the song by another famous singer, Frank Sinatra, helped seal its place in history. When Sinatra was preparing an album called
A Jolly Christmas
, he asked Hugh to rewrite the lyrics once more. The line with the words “We'll have to muddle through somehow” was changed to “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.”

Since 1944, the song has become a Christmas classic. Both versions have been recorded dozens of times by a wide variety of artists, including Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Christina Aguilera, Garth Brooks, Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, the Jackson Five, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Lou Rawls and even the heavy metal group Twisted Sister. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, who sang the song on 1989's
A Very Special Christmas
charity album, said she was sad and near tears when she recorded the song and is surprised at the version's popularity.

James Taylor used Martin's original sad lyrics on
James Taylor at Christmas
, released in 2001, just a few months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, when Americans were disconsolate. Martin, a Christian, later changed the song once more, calling it “Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas,” a version that has been recorded by numerous gospel artists.

In 2004, the American Film Institute ranked the 100 Greatest Songs in American Films. “The Trolley Song” was ranked number twenty-six, and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was ranked number seventy-two.

For the last twenty-five years of his life, Hugh Martin lived with friends Elaine and Fred Harrison in California. A minibiography used for publicity stated, “Mr. Martin wants to thank Elaine Harrison for putting his music and his life back on track when both were in serious jeopardy, and for saving his life over and over and over again.” Hugh Martin died on March 11, 2011, at the age of ninety-six, leaving behind an incredible legacy in song and in the hearts of Alabamians.

H
ELEN
K
ELLER
'
S
F
IRST
T
RUE
C
HRISTMAS

The first Christmas the little girl could remember was the one in 1887. It would shine in her memory until adulthood. She was awestruck the first time she realized that trees “grew” in parlors each December, their limbs laden with fruits and treats, waiting for children to pick them.

On Christmas Eve, the girl went to a party with other children in town and was overwhelmed by the feeling of excitement brought on by chaos and lights. The other children made a game of forming symbols in the girl's hand, and she was happy they wanted to play with her. She had recently learned that Christmas was about giving, a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The understanding that shone in her eyes evoked the emotions of her parents. Her mother wept and gave thanks. Her father, a stoic man, was left speechless, the emotion obvious on his face.

For six previous Christmases, the girl had been unaware that there was a special day set aside to enjoy giving to others. December 25 had been like every other day in her life: dark, silent days in which the only goal was to fulfill her wants and needs for food, shelter, comfort and sleep. She knew nothing else.

In the summer of her seventh year, a door suddenly opened and let light into the lonely world of little Helen Keller. The light came in the form of a woman named Anne Sullivan, the woman who taught Helen words and showed her that people can communicate, even those who are deaf and blind.

It was a breakthrough Captain Arthur Keller and Mrs. Kate Keller had scarcely dared hope would come. Until Anne came to their home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen had been like a wild animal. Unable to communicate, she roamed from room to room, grunting and pointing, and taking whatever she wanted. Helen's world did not exist outside of Helen's desires.

She was born on June 27, 1880, at the simple and picturesque family home Ivy Green built in 1820 by her grandfather, David Keller. Nineteen months later, the baby contracted an illness accompanied by a high fever. When the fever broke, Mrs. Keller discovered that her beautiful baby girl no longer reacted to audio or visual stimuli. Helen was deaf and blind. Because she could not hear, she also was unable to learn to speak.