Vinton Freedley A. Aarons with whom he formed a long term producing partnership. Their first major hit was "Lady Be Good!" (1924) with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and featuring Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire. Over the next ten years the pair produced some of the most important works in the Broadway musical canon, featuring some of the most famous songs ever to emerge from the tin pan alley era, part of what is commonly referred to as "The Great American Songbook." The shows that followed included "Tip-Toes" (1925), "Oh, Kay!" (1926), and "Funny Face" (1927), again starring the
Funny Face opening title sequence, which was designed by Avedon, during the "Funny Face" musical number which takes place in a darkroom, and when Dick (Astaire) presents it to Maggie (Thompson). The film is jokingly regarded as the first (and only) "MGM" musical made at Paramount Studios since Roger Edens was the producer, Stanley Donen was the director, and quite a few of the staff members under the Arthur Freed Unit at "Metro" (including Adolph Deutsch, Conrad Salinger, and Skip Martin), along with Astaire and Kay Thompson, were brought over to Paramount to make this film. On initial release, "Funny Face" was