Busby Berkeley and the Women of His Production Numbers

Hollywood choreographer Busby Berkeley will always be remembered for his over-the-top production numbers that were filmed from overhead. Dozens of dancers assembled perfect geometric forms that resembled a moving kaleidoscope on the silver screen in the 1930s. You might be surprised to learn that Berkeley wasn't a dancer himself, and never even took one dance lesson in his life. His geometric sequences were born from the military. Berkeley spent World War I arranging military parades and spectacles, and took the idea of precision synchronization to Hollywood. 

The chorus girls who auditioned for Berkeley's movies were dancers, but it didn't matter whether they were any good. They were selected if the length of their legs matched his needs, and if they were willing to follow Berkeley's orders. That could mean holding a pose in a cold swimming pool for hours. And none could stand out. But it was a job during the Great Depression. Audiences loved the overhead shots, and Berkeley had all the work he wanted for a few glorious years. But he also had a dark side, from the night he drove away from a party drunk and killed two women to the movies he was fired from. Read about the rise and fall of Busby Berkeley at Utterly Interesting.