It’s a good story. But, at the risk of undermining the expertise of “Cinema Classics” host Reese De’What, the truthfulness of this anecdote has been called into question by Margaret O’Brien herself. In 2019 she told the Los Angeles Times that her mother never would have allowed such a thing to happen, and offered another explanation for her ability to cry on cue:
“I’ll tell you how they got me to cry. I was in a contest with June Allyson [on the MGM lot] of who was the best crier, because June cried in a lot of her movies. I wanted to win the contest … I thought, I’m not letting her win the contest. I started crying.”
The dog story may have simply been a fabrication, either of Minnelli’s or of biographer Hector Arce, who is co-credited as the author of “I Remember It Well.” The little dog was real, though, and O’Brien told The A/V Club that she has the dog to thank for her start in show business. Her mother was a famous dancer, and on one day when she couldn’t find a babysitter, she brought O’Brien and the dog along for a photo shoot.
“The photographer came out and said, ‘That’s the face I’m looking for. That’s exactly the face I am looking for.’ And my mother thought it was her, but it was the dog. He said, ‘That’s the dog I’ve been looking for to be on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.’ And he said, ‘Well, the baby’s not so bad either. Do you mind if I put the baby in the picture with the dog?'”
Good dog.
“Saturday Night Live” returns on January 20, 2024, with guest host Jacob Elordi and musical guest Renée Rap.