Freed (Originally Grossman), Arthur
FREED (originally Grossman), ARTHUR
FREED (originally Grossman ), ARTHUR (1894–1973), U.S. popular lyricist and producer of motion picture musicals. Freed was born in Charleston, s.c., and grew up in Seattle, Wash. He was a piano player for the music publishers Waterman, Berlin, and Snyder (see Irving *Berlin), toured the Chicago area with the *Marx brothers for several months, and later with Gus Edwards' vaudeville circuit for a year and a half. After army service in 1917–19, Freed wrote his first popular song hit, "I Cried for You, Now It's Your Turn to Cry over Me," with music by his partner, Nacio Herb Brown. He and Brown produced revues at the Orange Grove Theater using their own songs. Freed's work in motion pictures began when he and Brown wrote the songs for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's and Hollywood's first musical, Broadway Melody of 1929. In 1939 Freed produced, for MGM, Babes in Arms, the first of about 50 musicals, including Strike Up the Band (1940), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), On the Town (1949), American in Paris (1951), and Singin' in the Rain (1952), the title of the last being a Freed song originally performed in mgm's second musical, Hollywood Revue.