> If you've ever gotten caught in the rain and began to hum the opening bars to "Singin' in the Rain," or dreamed of going "Over the Rainbow," you can thank producer and songwriter Arthur Freed. His career in Hollywood began with the advent of sound, when he joined MGM, along with his composing partner Nacio Herb Brown, as a lyricist. During his early years at the studio, he would compose some of his biggest hits, including "Singin' in the Rain," and "The Broadway Melody." (In fact, many of his and Brown's songs would later be featured in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain.) Not content with just being a songwriter or musical supervisor, Freed moved into production in 1939 as an (uncredited) associate producer on The Wizard of Oz. After initial previews on the film, everyone was set to cut "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" but Freed was adamant that the song stay: "The song stays--or I go! It's as simple as that," his biographer, Hugh Fordin, quotes him as saying. That same year he received his first producer credit on the film Babes in Arms starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland which would begin the cycle of backyard musicals starring both.

> Following Oz and Babes in Arms, Freed was promoted to heading up his own production unit at MGM responsible mainly for the studio's musicals. At this time in Hollywood, many studios operated under a factory like system, with producers being in charge of a stable or unit of writers, directors and stars. During his time as producer, Freed would work with such talents as Vincente Minnelli, June Allyson, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams and Fred Astaire, and produce such films as On the Town, Singin' in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Gigi (1958). Freed left MGM in 1970, but by that time he had won two best picture Oscars®, and received 2 honorary Academy Awards.