First
in Hollywood, he wasn't satisfied with the possibilities of his
job - in this time the dance directors trained the dances, staged
them and the director chose the position for the cameras and
the editor chose which of the takes were shown to the audience.
Berkeley wanted to direct the dances himself and convinced the
producer Samuel Goldwyn to let him. One of the first decisions
he made, was to use only one camera -he
never used more in his films - and to show close-ups of the chorus
girls. Asked about this he explained: "Well, we've got all these
beautiful girls in the picture, why not let the public see them?".
But with the decline of musicals in 1931 and 1932 he was thinking
of returning to Broadway, when Darryl F. Zanuck chief producer
of Warner Brothers called him in to direct the musicals numbers
of their newest project, the backstage drama "42nd
Street". Busby Berkeley accepted, and directed those great
numbers like "Shuffle Off To Buffalo", "Young and Healthy" and
the grandiose story of urban life, the final "42nd Street". "42nd
Street" was a smash hit, and Warner Brothers knew who made it
to such an extraordinary success. Busby Berkeley, as well as,
the composer Harry Warren and the lyricist Al Dubin were given
a seven years contract.
Berkeley created musical numbers for almost every great musical Warner
Brothers produced from 1933 to 1937. His overhead shots forced him to drill
holes in the studio roofs, and he used more dancers from picture to picture,
e.g. in "Lullaby
of Broadway", his masterpiece, and in "Gold Diggers of
1935" he used about 150 dancers tapping there hearts out.
But
with the second decline of the musical picture in 1938, he
had nothing to do as a choreographer. He directed two non
musical pictures for Warner Brothers, then he went to MGM,
where he choreographed the final number from "Broadway Serenade" with
Jeanette MacDonald. As a director and choreographer, he worked
on four pictures with the teenage stars Judy Garland and
Mickey Rooney. He also choreographed the Fascinatin' Rhythm
finale for MGM's reigning tapping star, Eleanor
Powell in "Lady Be Good".
He
directed Gene Kelly in his first picture, in "For Me and
My Gal". Kelly, who choreographed his own numbers, learned
a lot from Busby Berkeley. He also worked for other studios
in the 40s, e.g. for 20th Century - Fox in "The Gang's All
Here" with its surrealistic number "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti
Hat".
 At
the end of the Forties he directed his last picture, "Take
Me Out To the Ball Game", but this time the choreography
was by Gene Kelly. He did a few numbers in the early Fifties,
but at the end of the Fifties he was forgotten. A revival
of his films in the late Sixties, brought him back to the
memory and he was asked to return to Broadway and supervise
the dance direction in the Revival of Vincent Youmans musical
comedy from 1925. One of the actresses in this production
was Ruby Keeler, one of his Leading Ladies from the Warner
musicals. (When the production started to Tour in 1972, one
of the members was Eleanor Powell). The production was a
smash hit, too, and when he entered the stage after the first
evening, the house exploded with applause. A strange fact
in his career was, that Busby Berkeley never had a dancing
lesson, and in his early days, he was very afraid of people
finding out. He often drove his producers almost crazy, when
he gave orders to build a set and then sitting in front of
it for a few days, thinking the numbers over.
Berkeley
was dedicated to his mother and she lived with him always. He
was married three times, unsuccessfully.
Three
of his wives were:
|
- Merna
Kennedy
- Esther
Muir
- 'Etta
Judd'
|
 |
|
Berkeley drank a lot. Often times he would sit in his daily
bath and drink martinis. His drinking lead to a real tragedy.
He was driving late one night and hit another car, killed two
people. He went on trial, and after three trials was acquitted,
(largely because he was his mother's sole support). He never
got over this and it darkened his life from then on. He also
attempted suicide after his mother's death and when his career
began to slow by slitting his wrists and taking an overdoes
of sleeping pills. He was taken to the hospital and kept there
for many days and the experience almost drove him completely
mad.
Date
of death 14 March 1976, Palm Springs, California, USA
contributions
to this biography were made by Stephan
Eichenberg
|
William
Berkeley Enos was one of the greatest choreographers of the movie
musical who came from a family devoted to 
entertainment.He
was born on November 29, 1895, in Los Angeles, California, USA and
both his parents were actors.Unfortunately, his father died when
he was a small boy creating a truly strong bond between he and his
mother.He started his career in the US Army in 1918, when he was Lieutenant
in the artillery conducting and directing parades. After the cease
fire he was ordered to stage camp shows for the soldiers. Back in the
US he became a stage actor and assistant director in smaller acting
troops.After being forced to take over the direction of the musical "Holka-Polka" he
discovered his talent for staging extravagant dance routines, and became
one
of the top Broadway dance directors. Producer Florence Ziegfeld
called him to direct the dance routines for his production "A
Connecticut Yankee on King Arthur's Court". 
Eddie Cantor, who
starred in the long running Ziegfeld production "Whoopee!" suggested
him for creating the dance routine's in its film version, and Ziegfeld
agreed. Berkeley was hired for the film, too.
