Freed, Arthur (Sept. 9, 1894 - Apr. 12, 1973), motion-picture producer and lyricist, was born in Charleston, S.C., one of eight children of Max Freed, an art dealer, and Rosa Grossman. Freed attended public schools in Seattle, Wash., and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, in Exeter, N.H., in 1914. He went to work in Tin Pan Alley and also performed in vaudeville. Freed joined the army and staged military shows during World War I. He then returned to vaudeville and wrote songs for nightclub revues. He married Renee Klein on Mar. 14, 1923, and the couple had one child.

In 1921, Freed began collaborating with composer Ignacio ("Nacio") Herb Brown. Their first recording, "When Buddha Smiles," sold more than one million copies. In 1927, Freed and Brown wrote "Singin' in the Rain" for a stage musical that Freed was producing in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Music Box Revue. Freed later recalled that he wrote the song in about an hour and a half, but it would eventually become the pair's best-known number.

Freed and Brown joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1929 as lyricist and composer, respectively, for MGM's first all-sound musical, The Broadway Melody. Hollywood Revue (1929) featured the motion-picture debut of "Singin' in the Rain." The song was later sung by Judy Garland in Little Nellie Kelly (1940) and was the title song for what many critics regard as the best movie musical of all time, Singin' in the Rain (1952). Freed and Brown wrote songs for more than two dozen other MGM films and many became popular standards, including "Temptation," "All I Do Is Dream of You," and "You Were Meant for Me."

In 1938, Freed persuaded MGM president Louis B. Mayer to acquire film rights to L. Frank Baum's novel The Wizard of Oz and asked to be the film's producer. Mayer instead offered Freed the opportunity to try out as the film's assistant producer. The role of Dorothy was given to newcomer Judy Garland, whom Freed had discovered and brought under contract to MGM. Before The Wizard of Oz was finished, Mayer allowed Freed to begin work as the producer of Babes in Arms. Freed selected Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland as the leads, and it became one of the studio's biggest-grossing films in 1939. Freed produced several other "backstage musicals" featuring Rooney and Garland, including Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), and Girl Crazy (1943).

Freed led the movie musical into a new era when he persuaded Vincente Minnelli to join his musical production unit to direct Cabin in the Sky (1943) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Thereafter, Minnelli or former choreographer Stanley Donen directed virtually all of Freed's greatest films: Easter Parade (1948); On the Town (1949); Annie Get Your Gun (1950); An American in Paris (1951), which won an Academy Award for best picture; Show Boat (1951); Singin' in the Rain (1952); The Band Wagon (1953); Silk Stockings (1957); and Gigi (1958), which also won an Academy Award for best picture. All were box-office successes as well as artistic masterpieces, and they defined "the MGM musical." They featured a much greater integration of song and dance into the story line than in previous films and a sumptuous display of color, costume, and stage design.

Freed and his assistant Roger Edens had no hesitation in reaching outside the Hollywood community to obtain the most talented writers, dancers, musicians, designers, and choreographers. The Freed Unit became a virtual ensemble company within MGM, with Freed presiding over Minnelli and Donen, writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green, dancers Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, choreographers Michael Kidd and Bob Fosse, composer André Previn, and numerous other top-notch talents.

But while the Freed Unit was perfecting the movie musical, MGM and the motion-picture industry were entering a period of turmoil and decline. Television caused movie audiences to dwindle, and MGM's profits decreased as musicals began to go out of fashion during the 1950's. MGM also began to experience frequent changes of top management, which made it difficult for Freed to produce more big-budget musicals.

As the number of Freed's projects decreased, he devoted more time to his hobby of growing orchids and to other activities more befitting an "elder statesman" of the motion-picture industry. Freed was president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1963 to 1966, and he produced several Academy Award shows. In 1968 he received a special Academy Award for superlative and distinguished service.

Freed spent much of the 1960's attempting to develop a move entitled Say It with Music, based on the life and works of Irving Berlin. He resigned from MGM in 1970, shortly after the new studio head, former television executive James T. Aubrey, Jr., canceled work on the project. Shortly thereafter, MGM ceased motion-picture production entirely and concentrated on hotels and real-estate development. Dorothy's ruby-red shoes from The Wizard of Oz, the show boat from Show Boat, and all of the studio's other costumes and props were put up for auction. The music department's library was incinerated, and the MGM sound stages and back lots were razed and turned into a housing development. Freed died in Hollywood.

In 1974, MGM released That's Entertainment, composed of more than two hours of highlights from MGM musicals. It was so successful that MGM followed it with That's Entertainment, Part II (1976).