Busby Berkeley

Busby Berkeley, born Berkeley William Enos (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976)

Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's works used large numbers of showgirls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. His earliest film work was in Samuel Goldwyn's Eddie Cantor musicals, where he began developing such techniques as a "parade of faces" (individualizing each chorus girl with a loving close-up), and moving his dancers all over the stage (and often beyond) in as many kaleidoscopic patterns as possible. Berkeley's top shot technique (the kaleidoscope again, this time shot from overhead) appeared seminally in the Cantor films, and also the 1932 Universal drama film Night World. Berkeley's popularity with an entertainment-hungry Great Depression audience was secured when he choreographed four musicals back-to-back for Warner Bros.: 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933 and Fashions of 1934, as well as In Caliente and Wonder Bar with Dolores del Río. As the grand musicals became passe, Berkeley went to straight directing. The result was 1939's They Made Me a Criminal, one of John Garfield's best films. His next stop was at 20th Century-Fox for 1943's The Gang's All Here, in which Berkeley choreographed Carmen Miranda's "Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat" number. Berkeley's final film as choreographer was MGM's Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962). Berkeley died on March 14, 1976 in Palm Springs, California at the age of 80 from natural causes. He is buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, CA.