Wedding Of The Painted Doll

Music, Nacio Herb Brown (1896–1964); words, Arthur Freed (1894–1973)

As far as I’m concerned, this is the strangest song I’ve chosen for the 100. The song consists of four parts instead of the standard two, and the melody is one of the most runique I’ve ever heard. I thought it was from a decade––or even two or three decades earlier––than it proved to be. And the words are a good old-fashioned mix of cutesy, creepy, and WTF/OMG. It’s from Broadway Melody Of 1929, that year’s Oscar winner, the first all-talking musical, the first musical with a color sequence––hell, the first MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) musical! Nacio Herb Brown also wrote a number of tunes I’ve always liked: “Singin’ In The Rain”, “You Are My Lucky Star”, “You Were Meant For Me”, “Should I? (Reveal Exactly How I Feel)”, “Good Morning”, “You Stepped Out Of A Dream”, “Paradise” and “Pagan Love Song” (that’s a title I love). His only tune that sounds even remotely like “Wedding Of The Painted Doll” is a charming and delightful instrumental called “Doll Dance”. Check it out on YouTube! Unlike other composers I’ve mentioned, Brown is a westerner: born in New Mexico and moving to Los Angeles at the age of five. He became a successful realtor while young, but after selling his first song in 1920, he never looked back. In his later years, Brown, along with L. Wolf Gilbert, composed the music for the early television kiddie hit, Hopalong Cassidy.

Arthur Freed, who co-wrote five of the Brown songs I mentioned above, is better know as a producer. After working as an assistant producer on The Wizard Of Oz, he became a bonafide producer, doing Babes In Arms in 1939––the first Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney-let’s-put-on-a-show picture. Unlike most producers, who often tend to be ham-handed control freaks, Freed gave the people he worked with a free hand, resulting in innovations such as the long dance sequence at the end of An American In Paris, for which he won an Oscar. He also produced and won an Oscar for Gigi, after having given Lerner and Loewe––their first musical since My Fair Lady––the chance to go with their own ideas.

Freed is the first person in these notes who became involved in what was once referred to as “a scandal”. Shirley Temple Black said that when she was being interviewed by Freed at the age of 12, he pulled his dick out of his pants––not her exact words––giving her a personal world premier of male anatomy. She giggled. He threw her out of his office. That’s pretty fucked up.