How an 80-year-old Judy Garland song became a Pride anthem

Judy Garland’s performance of “The Trolley Song,” a second-act standout from the 1944 movie musical “Meet Me in St. Louis,” has found new life online nearly 80 years later as an unlikely anthem for LGBTQ Pride.

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.