The NBC color television music variety special - "Arthur Freed's Hollywood Melody" - was a rare salute to Arthur Freed and for all of his MGM film musicals he had produced during the decades he had been associated with the "Golden Age" of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's studio feature film musicals. Producer and director Alan Handley developed the concept salute for the NBC Color Network's one hour in length Television Special. The television tribute program, featured as host - the extremely talented MGM actor-dancer-comedienne Donald O'Connor. Guest cast performers supporting and appearing with host Donald O'Connor were Richard Chamberlain, Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Howard Keel, Yvette Mimieux, and dancer Juliet Prowse, who had been Fred Astair's last dance partner. Additional credits included the following: writing dialogue for the special: Sheldon Keller and Stanley Roberts; the special's Executive Producer was Arthur Freed; Associate Producer was Lillie Messenger.
Arthur Freed was born in Charleston, South Carolina into a musical family (09/09/1894-04/12/1973). He grew up in Seattle, Washington and attended the Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. It was here that he began to write poetry. Arthur was a lyricist with his family long before he ever went to Hollywood. His father was a tenor, brother Walter was an organist, brothers Sydney and Clarence went into the recording business in Hollywood and brother Ralph was a songwriter as well. His only sister Ruth also composed songs. The only brother NOT to go into some sort of music profession was brother Hugo - who became an accountant. In New York City, Freed played piano plugging songs and in the vaudeville circuit, working with the Marx Brothers. An ambitious man, Freed began at MGM as a songwriter when the movies first learned to talk. At that time, song-writers were just that, "song-writers" and they were treated as anything much higher that what they were: The people who used to sit on the sets of the silent films playing the piano for "mood music". Freed, along with composer Nachio Herb Brown, penned such classic as "Singin In The Rain," "The Wedding Of The Painted Doll," "Would You," and numerous other hit melodies. But what Freed really wanted to do was produce. Freed was known around the MGM lot as not only ambitious, but also for "kissing the butt" to studio head Louis B. Mayer. The years of begging and pleading finally paid off around 1938 when Mayer decided to give Freed the job of "Associate Producer" (uncredited) on "The Wizard of Oz." The film was officially being produced by Melvyn LeRoy, Mayer's new protege brought in from Warner Brothers to hopefully replace the "boy wonder" Irving Thalberg, who had died a few years earlier. Controversy has surrounded just whose idea it was to purchase "The Wizard Of Oz" from Samuel Goldwyn. Freed would later claim that he suggested to Mayer that it would make a great musical, and Mayer responded by stating that it was too big of a project for a novice producer. Melvyn LeRoy claimed that when he came to MGM he told Mayer the first film he wanted to make was a fantasy film of "The Wizard Of Oz." Probably, the actual facts favor Freed who first suggested the film musical project. Freed had the musical background, he hired the brilliant Roger Edens as vocal arranger, and he was firmly behind the budding career of the young Judy Galand, whom the MGM studio had signed in 1935 but hadn't done much with her talent. Freed and Edens recognized her potential from the start. The important issue is that Arthur Freed DID get to work as Associate Producer, and LeRoy wisely left all of the musical matters to Freed and Edens. Once it was clear "The Wizard Of Oz" would be a smash box office hit, Mayer gave the green light to Freed to produce "Babes In Arms" - beginning the cycle of the now famous "Let's Put On A Show" musicals with Garland and Mickey Rooney. "Babes In Arms" and it's follow up "Stike Up The Band" were enormously popular, relative inexpensive to make, and turned quite a profit for the studio. Freed also intensely promoted the career of Judy Garland - some would say to her detriment - by having her work almost non-stop during this time on the musicals with Rooney, as well as the Andy Hardy films (not produced by Freed) and separate musicals such as "Little Nelly Kelly" and "Ziegfeld Girl" (produced by Pandro S. Belrhnham). The rise of Judy's star also helped Freed's career rise. But Freed had other things in mind aside from just Garland's career. Not content to just adapt films from the New York Broadway stage, as he had done with "Little Nelly Kelly," "Panama Hattie," and "Babes In Arms," Freed wanted to move the movie musical in a new direction. Away from the backstage story-lines and into more natural settings. But he knew he would need the help of the savvy talent working in New York City. Freed went to New York to seek out talent from the Broadway Theatre scene. He signed to the studio scores of talent, ranging from future directors like Vincente Minnelli and Chuck Walters - to musical talents such as Kay Thompson and Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. He envisioned "My own little Camelot" and that's exactly what he got. With his films currently so popular, both critically and financially, and each one advancing the film musical in various ways, Freed was practically left alone to do pretty much what he wanted. In 1942, at the request of Garland, Freed brought in Gene Kelly to play opposite her in "For Me And My Gal." The film was a huge success and it jump-started the faltering career of Kelly. Freed bought out Kelly's contract with David O. Selznick and so began the career of Gene Kelly. The following year, with "Girl Crazy," the finality of his shift to more modern fare came to a head. Busby Berkeley had done a great job of directing "Me And My Girl" - staying away from all the kaleidoscopic routines and endless musical extravaganza that were his hallmark. But on "Girl Crazy" all hell broke loose. Busby Berkeley was set to direct, and spent days on what would eventually be the finale "I Got Rhythm." He worked everyone to a frazzle - even to the extent, in hindsight, of pushing Garland into the abyss of addiction that she would never quite recover. The endless lines of chorus girls and the military style routines were in direct opposition to what Freed and Edens were trying to accomplish. Berkeley was fired and Norman Taurog was brought in as his replacement. The film became the best of the Garland/Rooney musicals and the best film adaptation of a Gershwin show thanks largely to Edens and the new talent Freed had brought in from New York. Now everything was in place. Freed had had enough of the "kids" musicals and Broadway adaptations. He wanted to do original musicals. With Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" a huge success on Broadway, and having lost out on the film rights to "Life With Father" and "My Sister Eileen," Freed turned to the quaint stories appearing in the magazine "New Yorker" by Sally Benson. Freed had MGM studio purchase Sally Benson's "New Yorker" magazine article "Meet Me In Saint Louis" - which took some doing to get produced, even with Freed's track record. But Freed convinced the studio to give the film project the green light, and after initial resistance from Garland, the film was ready - with newcomer Vincente Minnelli as director. "Meet Me In St. Louis" was the first masterpiece to emerge out of the newly formed Freed Unit. And rightly so. The film was eons away from any other film musical at that time. Seamlessly blending the music and songs into the plot-scenario, the film took the strides originally made by Rouben Mammoulion with his "Love Me Tonight" film and furthered the concept of songs advancing the plot and being used for character development. This was first done by Freed with "The Wizard of Oz" and was furthered with some of the Garland/Rooney films as well as the very underrated "Cabin In The Sky." But "Meet Me in St. Louis" wasn't a children's fantasy, nor was it a kids "Let's Put On A Show" opus, and it wasn't like "Cabin In The Sky" where most of the action takes place in a dream sequence (also like "Oz"). "Meet Me In St. Louis" was about real people in a real town in a real time experiencing real situations. The film was idealized, but only in a positive way. Minnelli's use of color and movement and composition to further enhance the characters and plot development were rare of a film of that time and even more rare for a musical. The film was a resounding success and would become MGM's biggest grosser aside from "Gone With The Wind" at that time (1939-1941). From this point on (1944), even though the Freed Unit would do adaptations of Broadway shows, the emphasis was on originality, innovation, and with each successive film and heavy emphasis on dance. Throughout the late 1940's and 1950's, MGM became the king of the movie musical. And this was largely due to the "Freed Unit." Freed's productions became so popular that the studio could afford to have a SECOND unit for musicals under the direction of Joe Pasternak. Those musicals were different than the Freed films, with less dancing and more emphasis on simple stories and characters. A friendly rivalry emerged which helped to generate even more productive energy. After "Meet Me In St. Louis" - Freed would be the producer of such great films as "The Harvey Girls," "The Pirate," "Easter Parade," "On The Town," "An American In Paris," "Show Boat," "Singin' In The Rain," "The Bandwagon" and so many more. Once television took hold in America's homes, sadly, the public stopped going to the movies in droves as they used to. Plus, the federal edict forcing the film studios to divulge themselves of ownership of the movie theaters across the nation forced many theaters to close. This left the studios with limited outlets for their product. The old "studio system" crumbled, and the big budget film musicals were the first to get the ax. Freed's last big musical hit was 1958's Lerner and Lowe's Broadway film adaptation - "Gigi." The film would win 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, and would symbolize the end of the Golden Age of MGM Movie Musicals.
A Monday prime-time night television event - "Arthur Freed's Hollywood Melody" - was a NBC Color Television (video taped) Special Presentation telecast on November 19th, 1966. The TV musical variety program initially was conceived to follow in the pattern of NBC's 1950's 90 minute color television anthology television event series - "Producers' Showcase" - presented once a month, every fourth Monday night. The Producers' Showcase musical video taped special "Arthur Freed's Hollywood Melody" was in the spirit of NBC's 1955 anthology "Producers' Showcase 'live telecast' series," and the 1960 remounted Producers' Showcase "live telecast presentation special," the original (repeated) Broadway musical "Peter Pan" starring Mary Martin and Cyril Richard. (The original Broadway production's sets and costumes had been in storage, the initial plan after airing in 1955, to re-stage the television showcase).
NBC network-television special concept programming was conceived as an Arthur Freed salute honoring MGM film musical composers and lyricists, their material, songs and dance; a fantasy immersion musical event (variety) featuring MGM film talent and Hollywood television personalities. The special was hosted by Donald O'Connor. Directed by Alan Handley; Choreography by Tony Charmoli; Production Designed by E. Jay Krause; Costumes designed Ray Aghayan and Bob Mackie. This was one of Bob Mackie's first on-air television credits. "Arthur Freed's Hollywood Melody" was video taped on stage 4, NBC Color Television Studios located at 3000 W. Alameda Boulevard in Burbank, California. The scenic elements, designed by E. Jay Krause, including sets, painted scrims and backings, painted studio floors, all were built and painted in the NBC Color Television Studios' technical construction shop-mill, special effects department, scenic department, graphic division and drapery department. All of the costumes designed by Ray Aghayan and Bob Mackie were constructed and completed in the NBC Burbank Wardrobe and Costume Shop under the supervision of Angie Jones. The production was rehearsed in the NBC rehearsal halls located past the studios' artist entrance, the main entrance hallway, opposite Stages 1 and 3. The production's musical special was video taped on stage 4 during a period of four tape days; with stage turn-around for new sets/scenic elements re-sets, new stage-set lighting, with stage technical crews striking video-taped sets, setting up new production number sets between video-taping segments, usually performed overnight. Only the opening segment was performed with a "live studio audience." All of the musical segments were individually set-up, rehearsed, video-taped, banked, compiled in editing to complete the full hour television-cast air material.
"The Broadway Melody" - music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed, opened the musical special, the song-material performed by Howard Keel. Actor-comedienne Nanette Fabray performed solo - "If I Had A Talking Picture of You" and "Should I." "Forty-Second Street" - music by Harry Warren, was danced by Donald O'Connor, who later performed "You Are My Lucky Star" - music by Nachio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed. "All I Do Is Dream of You" - music by Nachio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed, was performed and danced by Juliet Prowse, who had been Fred Astaire's dance partner. "How About You?" was performed by Richard Chamberlain and Shirley Jones. In solo, Shirley Jones featured "Love Walked In" - composed by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin; "Pagan Love Song" and "Alone" - composed by Nacho Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed; the finale "Singin' In The Rain" - music by Nacho Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed, was performed by the entire company cast: Shirley Jones, Donald O'Connor, Nanette Fabray, Howard Keel, Juliet Prowse, Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimieux.