# History - Arthur Freed Orchid Company



## Sirius (Jun 30, 2011)

I am piecing this together from various sources, so some of this may be incorrect. If you have something to add or correct, please share with us.







Arthur Freed was a musician who had his first big break singing with, and writing material for, the Marx brothers on vaudeville stages. He was hired by MGM studios to write songs for the movies, and eventually worked his way up to management. He produced dozens of hit movies including The Wizard of OZ, Show Boat, Meet Me In St. Louis, An American In Paris, Gigi and Singin' In The Rain. His movies won two oscars. Not only did he produce these movies, he also co-wrote many songs including Singing' In The Rain, Make 'Em Laugh and Beautiful Girl.

[YOUTUBE]i3xksap-x2Q[/YOUTUBE]

(On a side note, the gentleman holding the microphone in the clip above is named Sterling Holloway, and he was the original voice actor for the Disney cartoon versions of Winnie the Pooh, the Cheshire Cat, Kaa the snake from the Jungle Book and many others.)

In 1946, Arthur Freed and his brother Hugo started an orchid nursery in Malibu, California. Hugo was a renowned Phalaenopsis breeder, and founding member of the Malibu orchid society. Around 1954, they made contact with a lab director named Hans Gubler, who would help them produce their own hybrid seedlings. Hans Gubler would later start his own nursery, Gubler Orchids, which today houses over 155,000 square feet of orchid greenhouses in California.

At some point in the early 1970's, an employee of the Arthur Freed Orchid Company named Amado Vazquez left the company and started another nursery called Zuma Canyon Orchids. Arthur died in 1973, and his brother Hugo sold the Arthur Freed Orchid Company to Amado Vazquez in 1978. In October of that same year, there was a tragic wild fire that destroyed 25,000 acres and 162 homes, including the greenhouses of the Arthur Freed Orchid Company. Amado lost three years worth of seedlings that were still in flasks that he had not had a chance to move into his Zuma Canyon greenhouses.

All of this information just kind of appeared to me, while I was searching for information about one of my orchids. Dtps. Freed's Beautiful Girl is named for the song written by Arthur Freed, and registered by Hugo in 1975. That same year, he also registered another cross named Doridirea Memoria Arthur Freed. It is a cross between Doritis pulcherrima and Sedirea japonica.

I made my first orchid cross a few weeks ago. I had absolutely no knowledge of the above information when I crossed Dtps. Freed's Beautiful Girl with Sedirea japonica. I would love to see a photo of a Doridirea Memoria Arthur Freed, because my cross will probably be very similar. There is so much great history behind these plants we love, don't you agree?


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## SlipperKing (Jun 30, 2011)

Nicely put together, you story teller you!


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## Shiva (Jun 30, 2011)

Great story! Good luck with your hybridizing project.


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## Marc (Jun 30, 2011)

Nice story


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## Justin (Jun 30, 2011)

great info--i find this kind of history fascinating. thanks.


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## Sirius (Jun 30, 2011)

At one time I was considering starting another orchid website with a history archive of orchid growers. I may have to revisit that idea, because I love finding out all of these historical connections between orchid growers. We are losing this history every time someone passes away.

Hugo Freed has other ties to the orchid breeding of today. Frank Smith of Krull-Smith was gifted a Phal. bellina plant from Hugo with his order of some candy striped Phalaenopsis back in the day. That bellina plant bloomed out to become 'Ponkan' AM/AOS, which was stem propped and given to other breeders like H.P. Norton for their breeding programs. And of course, a lot of the Zuma Canyon Phalaenopsis breeding is directly descendant from Freed Orchids.

Hugo wrote at least two books, Orchids and Serendipity and New Horizons in Orchid Breeding. I have also found some of his AOS Bulletin articles on Phalaenopsis. 

I am sure there are numerous other stories and connections between the Freed's and the orchid world.


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## paphreek (Jun 30, 2011)

Thank you for the history lesson! I look forward to hearing what others can add.


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## Lanmark (Jun 30, 2011)

Nice historical research and compilation! Thank you!

Now you've got me intrigued about the results of your Doridireopsis *((*  *))* love connection and what they will be like. Will they be fragrant? How often will they bloom? Will the spikes be upright or pendant? What colors and patterns will prevail? :drool: My enquiring mind wants to know. :wink:
Arthur Freed wrote the lyrics to this song...

[YOUTUBE]m2Yoir-2Bms[/YOUTUBE]


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## NYEric (Jun 30, 2011)

Very interesting. A book of histories like that (plus some photos of orchids) might be worth publishing. Thanks for the info.


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## Sirius (Jun 30, 2011)

Lanmark said:


> Nice historical research and compilation! Thank you!
> 
> Now you've got me intrigued about the results of your Doridireopsis *((*  *))* love connection and what they will be like. Will they be fragrant? How often will they bloom? Will the spikes be upright or pendant? What colors and patterns will prevail? :drool: My enquiring mind wants to know. :wink:
> Arthur Freed wrote the lyrics to this song...
> ...



It's working now. You had the www.youtube.com address in your link, and it's not necessary. All you need is the video number, m2Yoir-2Bms, in between the brackets.

And apparently a cross between Sedirea and Doritaenopsis is called Sediritinopsis.


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## Sirius (Jun 30, 2011)

NYEric said:


> Very interesting. A book of histories like that (plus some photos of orchids) might be worth publishing. Thanks for the info.



Eric,

The book A History of the Orchid by Merle Reinikka has several biographies of the early orchid hunters, but not so much information about the modern day hybridizers and personalities.

I just registered a .com to start my new orchid history site, by the way.


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## NYEric (Jun 30, 2011)

Good idea. Dr, Tanaka's site has some biographies, right?


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## Sirius (Jun 30, 2011)

NYEric said:


> Good idea. Dr, Yamata's site has some biographies, right?



I don't know, but I will add it to my list of sites to check out. I guess I need to make a new thread soon so I can request information.


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## goldenrose (Jun 30, 2011)

Nice story! 
Potentially nice, nice cross!
Good idea, I'm sure there will be contributors from our members!


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## nikv (Jun 30, 2011)

Early on in my orchid growing days, I had an Ascda Mem Arthur Freed, which is Vanda cristata x Asdca Yip Sum Wah. I purchased it at one of the annual open houses at McLellan's back in the 80's. I managed to lose it, unfortunately. Sounds like a great cross. If I ever see it offered again, I'll be bsure to buy it. A quick browse of the RHS hybrid registry shows lots of orchids named Mem. Arthur Freed, by the way.


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## Heather (Jun 30, 2011)

Cool post, I like the history of these. In fact there was a book discussed on NPR this morning about the demise of animals on islands that had evolved certain characteristics due to the lack of predators on the islands which were decimated when things like rats and cats came over on boats with the explorers. Fascinating stuff, but I digress…

Knew I recognized that name but wow, not in this context! Thanks J.


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## bigleaf (Jun 30, 2011)

Great post.


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## Lanmark (Jun 30, 2011)

Sirius said:


> It's working now. You had the www.youtube.com address in your link, and it's not necessary. All you need is the video number, m2Yoir-2Bms, in between the brackets.



Aha, ok I shall try my best to remember the correct way to insert YouTube clips from here forward. Thanks for explaining it. 



Sirius said:


> And apparently a cross between Sedirea and Doritaenopsis is called Sediritinopsis.



Gosh, I almost like my cobbled version (Doridireopsis) better! :rollhappy:


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## Sirius (Jun 30, 2011)

Lanmark said:


> Aha, ok I shall try my best to remember the correct way to insert YouTube clips from here forward. Thanks for explaining it.
> 
> 
> 
> Gosh, I almost like my cobbled version (Doridireopsis) better! :rollhappy:



I was hoping it was Doritaenopsirea. I am not sure that any of them are good choices. I guess it's better than some of those Ascocenda intergenerics like Ascosupercalifragilisticexpialidocious.


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## SlipperFan (Jun 30, 2011)

:rollhappy:

Actually, I'm excited this can all be place on your new website, John! You can do things with the internet that cannot be done in book form -- like the movies included in this thread, links to information, photos, etc. Great idea!!!


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## tim (Jun 30, 2011)

do you have both books? they are both fun reads...pretty light and rather funny. - bookfinder.com...


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## Sirius (Jun 30, 2011)

I will have them pretty soon.


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## Shiva (Jul 1, 2011)

If you are interested in writing historical articles on orchids, please do remember that there has been more then english explorers or orchid houses. in the world.
Many other nationalities are usually forgotten, the French in particular.

For instance, in writing his book, Lycaste Orchids, A. E. W. Alcorn a great Lycaste grower and expert wondered where the name Lycaste came from, since Lindley never explained his choice. Certainly not one of the beautiful daughters of King Priam of Troy he assured. Though he fathered hundreds, if not thousands of children, King Priam had no daughter called Lycaste. (Considering the time since, we're probably all related in some ways to King Priam in the Western world). So he went on to look for other origins and enumerated some latin and greek writers. But he never considered the possibility that the name could come from a French novel very popular at the time: "Artamène ou le _Grand_ Cyrus"which extended more than 13,000 pages. For a couple hundred years or so, every noble in Europe, whether German, Russian, Austrian and others spoke French and had probably read that novel. Today we consider English as the ''Lingua Franca'' of the world. But back then, the Lingua Franca was French. It's possible that at the time, everybody who spoke and who could read French knew that Lycaste was a beautiful woman though already passed her prime, to loosely quote her description. Lindley would not have needed to explain his choice at the time. 

Another tidbit of interest is about Bougainville's voyage around the world (1766). Commerson was the naturalist on the ship and he had a secretary called Jean Barré. I read long ago in a rare book (since stolen from me) that Jean Barré was in fact Jeanne Barré, which would have most likely made her the first ever woman to circle the world. 

Don't you love History? :rollhappy:


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## NYEric (Jul 1, 2011)

Interesting. Do you have any of the Dunsterville's books.


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## Shiva (Jul 1, 2011)

NYEric said:


> Interesting. Do you have any of the Dunsterville's books.



Checked my library and found none. My orchid society must have some or many of them in its extensive library. I'll check it out in the fall. Maybe the book that was stolen from me was one of his as I remember it was about south and central american orchids.


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## NYEric (Jul 1, 2011)

The tales of their explorations are extreme.


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## Justin (Jul 1, 2011)

tim said:


> do you have both books? they are both fun reads...pretty light and rather funny. - bookfinder.com...



Tim I was hoping you would show up...


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## JeanLux (Jul 2, 2011)

Not to forget the biographic book about the luxembourgish belgian *Jean-Jules Linden*, available in French and in English!!!! Dr. Braem participated to this book for the description of the orchids!!!! Jean

==> http://www.mercatorfonds.be/#/en/cultural-history/jean-linden-explorer-master-of-the-orchids/


and here very pricy  !!!

==> http://www.buchhandlung-walther-koe.../nicole_ceulemans/pid_170000000000761774.aspx


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## NYEric (Jul 2, 2011)

Was that 19.95 Euro!?! or that price it would be worth getting in German!


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## JeanLux (Jul 3, 2011)

NYEric said:


> Was that 19.95 Euro!?! or that price it would be worth getting in German!



Euros, yes, and it is from a german book shop, but its the book's english version!!! Jean


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## mormodes (Sep 29, 2012)

Bump.

There was a retrospective of Arthur Freed's life and musicals on TCM - Turner Classic Movies last night, yet another eye opener. For example, I had no idea who Vincent Minnelli was other than Judy Garland's husband and Liza's father. And it even showed a picture of Arthur with a Phal (white with red lip). If they repeat it y'all should try to catch it.


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## LWP (Jan 24, 2013)

*Aurthor Freed ... the book is Orchids and Serendipity*

You can find this on Ebay ... excellent reading for orchid people.


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