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Busby Berkeley

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Berkeley William Enos, (November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976)<ref name=PSCemDis>Palm Springs Cemetery District, "Interments of Interest"</ref> known professionally as Busby Berkeley, was an American film director and musical choreographer. 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.

Early lifeEdit

Berkeley was born in Los Angeles, California, to Francis Enos (who died when Busby was eight) and stage actress Gertrude Berkeley (1864–1946). Among Gertrude's friends, and a performer in Tim Frawly's Stock company run by Busby Berkeley's father, were actress Amy Busby from whom Berkeley gained the appellation "Buzz" or "Busby"<ref name="Clarke">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Amy Busby portrait gallery; New York Public Library Retrieved April 28, 2015</ref> and actor William Gillette, then only four years away from playing Sherlock Holmes. Whether he was christened Busby Berkeley William Enos,<ref name="Spivak">Spivak, Jeffrey, Buzz, The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley (University Press of Kentucky, 2010), pp. 6–7.</ref> or Berkeley William Enos, with Busby's being a nickname, is unknown<ref name="Clarke" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> – the "Child's names" entry on his birth certificate is blank.<ref name="Spivak" />

In addition to her stage work, Gertrude played mother roles in silent films while Berkeley was still a child. Berkeley made his stage début at five, acting in the company of his performing family.

In 1917, he lived in Athol, Massachusetts, working as an advertising and sales manager.<ref>U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 for Busby Berkeley Enos</ref> During World War I, Berkeley served in the U.S. Army as a field artillery lieutenant, drilling 1,200 soldiers in complex choreography.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

CareerEdit

Early yearsEdit

During the 1920s, Berkeley was a dance director for nearly two dozen Broadway musicals, including hits such as A Connecticut Yankee. As a choreographer, Berkeley was less concerned with the dancing skills of his chorus girls as he was with their ability to form themselves into attractive geometric patterns. His musical numbers were among the larger and better-regimented on Broadway.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Berkeley's top shot technique (the kaleidoscope again, this time shot from overhead) appeared seminally in the Cantor films, and also the 1932 Universal film Night World (where he choreographed the number "Who's Your Little Who-Zis?").

Groundbreaking choreographerEdit

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File:Footlight Parade Waterfall.jpg
The "By a Waterfall" production number from Footlight Parade (1933) made use of one of the largest soundstages ever built, specially constructed by Warner Bros. to film Berkeley's creations.

Berkeley's numbers were known for starting in the realm of the stage, but quickly exceeding this space by moving into a time and place that could only be cinematic, to return to shots of an applauding audience and the fall of a curtain. He used one camera to achieve this, instead of the usual four, to retain control over his vision so no director could edit the film.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> As choreographer, Berkeley was allowed a certain degree of independence in his direction of musical numbers, and they were often markedly distinct from (and sometimes in contrast to) the narrative sections of the films. He often didn't even see the other sections of the picture.<ref name=":0" /> The numbers he choreographed were mostly upbeat and focused on decoration as opposed to substance, some costing around $10,000 per minute more than the picture they were in.<ref name=":0" /> One dramatic exception was "Remember My Forgotten Man" from Gold Diggers of 1933, which dealt with the mistreatment of World War I veterans during the Great Depression.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Berkeley's popularity with an entertainment-hungry Depression audience was secured when he choreographed five musicals back-to-back for Warner Bros.: 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, the aforementioned Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, and Fashions of 1934, as well as In Caliente and Wonder Bar with Dolores del Río. Berkeley always denied any deep significance to his work, arguing that his main professional goals were to top himself and never repeat his past accomplishments.

As the outsized musicals in which Berkeley specialized became passé, he turned to straight directing. The result was 1939's They Made Me a Criminal, starring John Garfield. Although a success at the box office, it was the only non-musical film Berkeley directed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Berkeley had several well-publicized run-ins with MGM stars such as Judy Garland. In 1943, he was removed as director of Girl Crazy because of disagreements with Garland, but the lavish musical number "I Got Rhythm", which he directed, remained in the picture.<ref>Hugh Fordin, The World of Entertainment: The Freed Unit at MGM, 1975</ref>

File:Carmen Miranda in The Gang's All Here (1943).jpg
Carmen Miranda in The Gang's All Here (1943)

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. The film made money, but Berkeley and the Fox brass disagreed over budget matters.<ref name=":1" /> Berkeley returned to MGM in the late 1940s, where he conceived the Technicolor finales for the studio's Esther Williams films. Berkeley's final film as choreographer was MGM's Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962).

Later yearsEdit

In the late 1960s, the camp craze brought the Berkeley musicals back to the forefront, and he toured the college and lecture circuit giving talks about his career. The 75-year-old Berkeley returned to Broadway to direct a successful revival of No No Nanette, starring his old Warner Brothers colleague and 42nd Street star Ruby Keeler; both played cameos in the 1970 film The Phynx the same year.

Personal lifeEdit

File:Busby Berkeley being carried into his manslaughter trial on a stretcher.jpg
Berkeley being carried into his trial on a stretcher, September 1935

In 1937, Berkley purchased the Guasti Villa, located at 3500 W. Adams Boulevard, in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. <ref name=Guasti >{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Built in 1910, Berkley owned the home until 1944.<ref name=Guasti /> Because of the association with Berkley, the home is now Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 478.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Berkeley was married six times.<ref name="nytimes obit">Hanley, Robert (1976). "Busby Berkeley, the Dance Director, Dies", in the New York Times, March 15, 1976, p. 33</ref> His wives included actresses Merna Kennedy, Esther Muir, the starlet Claire James, and Etta Dunn, who survived him. He was involved in an alienation of affections lawsuit in 1938 involving Carole Landis, and he was engaged to Lorraine Stein.<ref name="Fleming 49">Fleming, E.J. (2005). Carole Landis: A Tragic Life in Hollywood. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co. Template:ISBN, p. 49</ref>

Berkeley drank heavily, often having martinis in his daily bath.

In September 1935, Berkeley was responsible for an automobile crash in which two people were killed and five seriously injured.<ref name="time">People, Sep. 30, 1935, from Time magazine</ref> Badly cut and bruised, he was brought to court on a stretcher,<ref>Choreographer and film director Busby Berkeley being carried into his manslaughter trial on a stretcher, a Los Angeles Times photo from the website of the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library</ref> where Time magazine reported he heard testimony that made him wince:

'Witnesses testified that motorist Berkeley sped down Roosevelt Highway in Los Angeles County one night, changed lanes, crashing headlong into one car, sideswiped another. Some witnesses said they smelled liquor on him'.<ref name="time" />

The first two trials for second degree murder ended with hung juries; he was acquitted in a third.

After his mother died and his career began to slow, he attempted suicide, slitting his wrists and taking an overdose of sleeping pills in July 1946.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was admitted to a hospital for an extended stay, an experience which severely affected his mental state.<ref>Spivak, Jeffrey, Buzz, The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley (University Press of Kentucky, 2010), p. 221.</ref>

Berkeley died from natural causes on March 14, 1976, in Palm Springs, California at the age of 80.<ref>Johns, Howard, (2004). Palm Springs Confidential: Playground of the Stars. Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books. Template:ISBN</ref> He is buried in the Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.<ref name=PSCemDis /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

LegacyEdit

Berkeley was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1988.

Broadway creditsEdit

FilmographyEdit

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See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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