Unsung Auteur : Roger Edens of The Freed Unit at MGM

The Freed Unit was a select group of talented individuals, the best in their field, who worked at MetroGoldwynMayer in the 1940's and 1950's, for a man named Arthur Freed. Freed was a producer of {mostly} musicals at MGM, an association that started back in 1929 when Freed and his partner, the lyricist Nacio Herb Brown, wrote songs for the Oscar winning Broadway Melody of 1929. By the late 30's Freed, who by this time had ingratiated himself with studio chief Louis B.Mayer, had ambitions to produce. Freed was instrumental in signing Judy Garland to a long term contract in 1935 and was a key player in the making of The Wizard of Oz, on which he was an associate producer { albeit uncredited }. His first solo producer credit was later that year with the first Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland {"hey kids, let's build ourselves a barn and put on our own show!"} musical, Babes in Arms. The tremendous success of Babes led to a series of Mickey/Judy musicals: 1940's Strike Up The Band; 1941's Babes on Broadway and 1943's Girl Crazy, all made by Freed and all very popular with the vast { weekly cinema attendance in 1940 : 80 million. Average price of ticket : $.25 cents } movie going public.

The start of something big: Freed on the left, Garland and Edens, sometime in the late 30's

From the start, Roger Edens was an integral part of 'The Unit', or as Hugh Fordin states in his magnificent book on the Freed Unit, Edens was "the cornerstone". Born in Hillsboro, Texas in 1905, Edens, a tall lanky gent with a slow, southern drawl, went east to New York City in the 1920's. By 1930 Edens was playing piano in the pit for the Gershwin's musical comedy show Girl Crazy, along with some other rising musicians like Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, the Dorseys, Glenn Miller and Red Nichols. Also in the show was Ethel Merman and Girl Crazy made her a star of the first magnitude along the 'Great White Way'. When movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn signed Merman to a contract, her first picture for him being 1934's Kid Millions opposite Eddie Cantor, Merman brought Edens, by this time her friend and protege, along as her uncredited music and vocal arranger. Being an independent, Goldwyn didn't make a lot of movies per year and he made even fewer that were musicals. Edens, exiting the Goldwyn studios, was free-lancing for awhile until, thanks to Freed, he soon had a job at the biggest studio of them all, MetroGoldwynMayer. His first assignment was as musical supervisor on the Jean Harlow film, Reckless.  Other films followed, usually as musical supervisor or vocal arranger : Broadway Melody of 1936, Rosalie, Born to Dance, Love Finds Andy Hardy, Honolulu, and others. Edens was also responsible for the 'Dear Mr. Gable' segment of Broadway Melody of 1938, in which a star struck, teenaged Judy Garland sings about her devotion to her favorite movie star. Edens was there with Freed right from the beginning, and after Babes in Arms, he was the first major player of the Freed Unit.

Rehearsing with the young Judy. Roger Edens was both friend and musical mentor to her, all her life.

Or the "Fairy Unit" as some called it, due to the high amount of gay talent the Freed Unit attracted. Edens was married to a woman named Martha LaPrelle before he came to Hollywood, but the marriage didn't last long. His good friend and birthday buddy { both were born on November 9 } Kay Thompson claims to have met Martha only once. By the time he met Garland and was working at MGM, Edens was living the life of a gay man. Whatever the case - either straight or gay, married or not - Edens was very comfortable in California as many of his New York friends also found themselves out west; names like Claudette Colbert, Margaret Sullivan, Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart, to drop just a few, were all young, talented and starting off on marvelous careers. Edens seems to have been everyone's friend. "Just peaches and cream", is the way Thompson described him. Leonard Gershe who would write Edens best known credit as a producer, 1957's Funny Face, says "Roger was responsible for the 'class' of the Freed Unit, and the Freed Unit was the Rolls-Royce of Hollywood". Why Edens rarely received the credit that was coming to him may have something to do with doing too much, but doing it well, for as Gershe also said,"No one was ever quite sure what Roger did, but whatever he did was crucial to the picture". It also appears that Edens was the only one who intimidated Freed. According to director Stanley Donen, "All Roger had to do was raise an eyebrow over an element in a scene that Arthur was trying to put in, and it would disappear". By 1946 with the release of The Harvey Girls, Edens was finally getting some credit on the silver screen for his contributions and had an associate producer credit for the first time on that film. Other associate producer credits would follow, as the Freed Unit and the Hollywood musical went into it's 'Golden Age' : Good News in 1947, The Barkleys of Broadway and On The Town both in 1949  and The Band Wagon from 1953. As Adolph Green said of him, "Roger was indispensable to Arthur. He worked on the scripts, the music, he coached Garland, wrote for her - Roger did it all".  One of his best contributions, and one he did get credit for along with Kay Thompson, was Judy Garland's number, "A Great Lady Has An Interview" from Ziegfeld Follies of 1946, a lively, witty send-up of a Greer Garson diva-type movie star who takes her own reputation far too seriously.                                                             

Edens with best pal  Kay Thompson, in the mid-40's, in a picture they presented to Arthur Freed.

                            

Roger also liked to have fun. "Southern, polite, adored what he was doing, and loved to play and drink", says Kay Thompson." Roger was my best friend". Their annual birthday bashes for each other were legendary. Garland would perform, Lena Horne too. Ann Southern, Ray Bolger, Danny Kaye, Charles Walters, Cole Porter, all the best and brightest would be there.  For one such party songwriter Ralph Blane composed something called, "Roger de Coverly" and Garland and Peter Lawford performed it, after rehearsing in private for weeks. Roger just sat there, listening. And crying.

Edens supervising a recording session with Betty Hutton and Howard Keel for Annie Get Your Gun, 1950

Edens was nominated for 8 Academy Awards from 1939 to 1950 and went on to win 3 for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture { a category long since gone } on Easter Parade in 1948, On The Town in 1949 and Annie Get Your Gun  in 1950. Roger was also a guiding force behind the 1951 version of Showboat, and discovered William Warfield after reading a rave review of a song recital Warfield gave in New York. Edens also supervised the cutting of the "Ol' Man River" sequence, in what is a highlight of the picture.

By 1954, Freed wanted Edens to produce his own film. It was time. Deep in My Heart from 1954, was that film. The movie, directed by Stanley Donen { "Roger was my biggest promoter" }, is biopic of operetta songwriter Sigmund Romberg, played by Jose Ferrer. It started under the Freed Unit but Arthur turned it over to Edens. Donen has said, "I would have run from that picture like crazy except for Roger. I told him I would direct anything for him". Hard to sit through, in it's day the film was popular enough and turned a small profit. However, the Hollywood musical, or specifically the original Hollywood musical, was a dying breed and studio execs didn't want to take a chance on anything unless it was a proven hit, like Broadway's West Side Story, Damn Yankees, Silk Stockings, and so on. On occasion, Roger would do side jobs for friends. In 1954, Garland, having been fired from MGM after 15 years and millions of box office dollars, set up an independent company with new hubby Sid Luft at Warner Brothers to bring a musical version of A Star is Born to the screen as Judy's big comeback and her first celluloid effort in 4 years. Edens, always at the ready, came up with the "Born in a Trunk" sequence for the film, which was added after director George Cukor had left the production to go to India and start Bhowani Junction. It's the big production number in the film, and to some it unnecessarily slows down an already long movie {it runs three hours}. However, most Garland fans love it, as Judy really shines in this sequence. Due to Edens contractual obligation to MGM, however, he could not take credit for his contribution. Also uncredited around this time was Edens work on some of the decade's biggest, best musicals; 1951's Best Picture winner An American in Paris, and all-time favorite, 1952's Singin' in the Rain. By 1955, 'The Unit' was running down, and Edens last for Freed would be the underrated It's Always Fair Weather which also marked the last collaboration between Donen, Freed and Gene Kelly. A flop in it's day, Fair Weather has been rediscovered and is considered a neglected gem and a bittersweet farewell to the original musical genre.

1957's Funny Face is a Roger Edens production all the way, from concept to execution. Completely captivating, with songs from the Gershwins' catalog of classics, it started life as an MGM production called Wedding Day. Edens wanted Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire to star in it from the outset, but at the time they were both under contract to rival Paramount studios, and that studio refused to loan the two stars to MGM. So in a bit of maneuvering, MGM { no doubt with the influence of Freed } decided to sell the entire package to Paramount. Call it 'The Freed Unit' on Marathon Street or the only MGM movie not made in Culver City, MGM's home. In Funny Face, Audrey does her own singing { helped more than slightly by Kay Thompson's vocal coaching } not dubbed like in 1964's My Fair Lady, and though her vocal range is limited, she can carry tune and has great charm and a wistful quality to her voice, especially in the 'How Long Has This Been Going On' number. Astaire is Astaire which, as always, means perfection. Despite the fact that Fred is 30 years Audrey's senior, it really doesn't matter, for as director Donen states, "Fred Astaire has no age". And in Funny Face, Fred and Audrey have a great chemistry and age vanishes before one's eyes. Set in the world of high fashion, Fred plays photographer Dick Avery, Hepburn is a mousey Greenwich Village book store employee named Jo Stockton and all but stealing the picture is Kay Thompson, as fashion magazine editor Maggie Prescott, who sets the whole plot in motion by needing a new face for her magazine, Quality. The film's visual consultant was photographer Richard Avedon, the photos in the opening of the film are his and the plot, a Pygmalion-type scenario, is loosely based on his marriage to Doe Avedon who became a fashion model at her husband's urging.

Released in the spring of 1957, critically acclaimed, though something of a disappointment at the box office, Funny Face did garner 4 Oscar noms, one for Best Writing for Leonard Gershe, Best Costumes for Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy, Best Color Cinematography for Ray June and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. It won none of these, but it has quite a following among lovers of Astaire, Audrey, fashion, musicals, and remains stylish filmmaking, the likes of which we will probably never see again. Most of the credit for this belongs to Edens who recognized the casting of Fred and Audrey was just perfect, helped guide Gershe through his rewrites of the script, and knew that Donen was the right man to get the story on film. It would be Edens last as sole producer. 

 His last film credits as associate producer would be on 1962's Billy Rose's Jumbo with Doris Day, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a 1964 adaptation of the Broadway hit, and 1969's  Hello, Dolly!, which was directed by Freed associate and musical icon, Gene Kelly. A chain smoker nearly all his life, Roger Edens would die on July 13, 1970 of cancer, only 64 years old, and pretty much unknown by movie goers. Yet for anyone who has ever been touched by the Smith family in St. Louis, trotted down a rain-drenched Hollywood street with Don Lockwood or gone on the town with Chip, Gabey and Ozzie, to name just a few, Edens massive contributions to the film musical should never be forgotten.

Sources : Dancing on the Ceiling : Stanley Donen and his films by Stephen M.Silverman, The World of Entertainment : The Freed Unit at MGM By Hugh Fordin,  Judy Garland : The Secret Life of an American Legend by David Shipman
    Video :   Musicals Great Musicals : The Freed Unit at MGM
    Internet : Wikipedia page on Roger Edens
                  IMDB page on Roger Edens