Composer, Director, Producer

Nacio Herb Brown left New Mexico, where his father was sheriff, to attend the LA High School of Musical Arts and UCLA. Music was secondary to his successful real estate career until he met lyricist Arthur Freed. Together they scored the Academy Award winning Broadway Melody of 1929 and throughout the ‘30s wrote a series of hits for Broadway musicals and films, including “Should I” (1930), “Temptation” (1933), and “All I Do Is Dream of You” (1934).

When Freed turned movie producer Brown found other collaborations. He wrote “You Stepped Out of a Dream” with Gus Kahn for Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and the rousing “Love Is Where You Find It” with Earl K. Brent for The Kissing Bandit (1948). He partnered again with Freed to score a movie, which took its title from a song they had written in 1928 for a Hollywood revue. Singin’ in the Rain (1952), which was nominated for Best Original Score, is considered by many the quintessential Hollywood musical.

-- Sandra Burlingame

Courtesy of JazzStandards.com