Busby Berkeley
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Image:Footlight.jpg Busby Berkeley (November 29, 1895–March 14, 1976), born William Berkeley Enos in Los Angeles, California, was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer.
Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berkeley's quintessential works used legions of showgirls and props as fantastic elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. He started up as a theatrical director, just as many other movie directors. Unlike many of them at that time, he felt that a camera should be allowed mobility, and he framed shots carefully from unusual angles to allow movie audiences to see things from perspectives that the theatrical stage never could provide. This is why he played an enormous role in establishing the movie musical as a category in its own right.
Berkeley's drive for perfection led to a number of well-publicised run-ins with MGM stars such as Judy Garland. In 1943, he was removed as director of Girl Crazy because of disagreements with Garland, although the lavish musical number "I Got Rhythm", which he directed, remained in the picture. (Hugh Fordin, The World of Entertainment: The Freed Unit at MGM, 1975)
Berkeley died in Palm Springs, California at the age of 80 from natural causes.
Selected works
- A Connecticut Yankee (1927) (Broadway)
- Whoopee! (1930) (choreographer)
- Kiki (1931) (choreographer)
- Palmy Days (1931) (choreographer)
- Flying High (1931) (choreographer)
- The Kid from Spain (1932) (choreographer)
- 42nd Street (1933) (choreographer)
- Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) (choreographer)
- Footlight Parade (1933) (choreographer)
- Roman Scandals (1933) (choreographer)
- Fashions of 1934 (1934) (director/choreographer of musical numbers)
- Wonder Bar (1934) (designer of musical numbers)
- Dames (1934) (director/choreographer of musical numbers)
- Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) (also director)
- In Caliente (1935) (director/choreographer of musical numbers)
- Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936) (director/choreographer of musical numbers)
- Stage Struck (1936) (director)
- The Singing Marine (1937) (director/choreographer of musical numbers)
- Hollywood Hotel (1937) (director)
- Gold Diggers in Paris (1938) (director/choreographer of musical numbers)
- They Made Me a Criminal (1939) (director)
- Broadway Serenade (1939) (director of finale)
- Babes in Arms (1939) (director)
- Strike Up the Band (1940) (director)
- Forty Little Mothers (1940) (director)
- Ziegfeld Girl (1941) (director of musical numbers)
- Babes on Broadway (1941) (director)
- Lady Be Good (1941) (director of musical numbers)
- Cabin in the Sky (1943) (director of "Shine" sequence)
- Girl Crazy (1943) (director of "I Got Rhythm" sequence)
- The Gang's All Here (1943) (director)
- Cinderella Jones (1946) (director)
- Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) (director)
- Romance on the High Seas (1948) (choreographer)
- Two Weeks with Love (1950) (choreographer)
- Call Me Mister (1951) (choreographer)
- Two Tickets to Broadway (1951) (choreographer)
- Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) (choreographer)
- Small Town Girl (1953) (choreographer)
- Easy to Love (1953) (choreographer)
- Rose Marie (1954) (choreographer)
- Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962) (choreographer)
- No, No, Nanette (1971) (production supervisor) (Broadway)