September 3, 1900 - 114 years-ago today Sally Smith was born in St. Louis. She wrote a series of autobiographical short stories in The New Yorker under the title “5135 Kensington” beginning in the June 14, 1941 issue. Benson later added additional stories & compiled them into a book. In 1944, those stories about the Smith Family became the basis for the movie Meet Me in St. Louis. The chapters were labeled by month from June 1903 to May 1904, plus the new ones, added in 1942. Northwest of Kingshighway & Delmar, 5135 Kensington was the real life home of Mr. & Mrs. Alonzo Smith, & their children, Rose, Lon, Esther, Agnes & Sally. But unlike the movie, it was not like the Victorian mansion depicted on the screen. And Ben Truitt, the boy next-door, was in reality Stanley Blewett Wagoner, a Yale University pole-vaulter, who went on to become a St. Louis building contractor. The movie took five months to shoot, from December, 1943 to April, 1944, & was done on the back lot at MGM, known as Lot 3, consisting of 80 acres of Victorian homes & a lake. The Smiths movie home also appeared in several other films; Good News (1947) with June Allyson & Peter Lawford, In the Good Old Summertime (1949) starring Judy Garland & Van Johnson, & Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) with Clifton Webb & Myrna Loy. This movie lot was sold in 1970, all the buildings were demolished, & the land auctioned off. The area is now condominiums. Sally became a bank clerk, married Columbia University administrator Reynolds Benson (from whom she was later divorced) and had daughter, Barbara. In 1930, after a stint as newspaper reporter and movie reviewer, she wrote her first short story - and it launched her new career. She would go on to write or collaborate on film scripts for National Velvet, Little Women, The Farmer Takes a Wife, Bus Stop and Anna and the King of Siam. Sally Benson, who was depicted as Tootie in the movie, had her childhood home torn down in December 1994. Many of the bricks were sold for $20 a piece to memorabilia collectors. 5135 Kensington remains a vacant lot. Living in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, Sally Benson died on July 19, 1972. (Left) A photo of the Smith home at 5135 Kensington, shortly before demolition (Right) The home depicted in the movie
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 05:02:06 +0000
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