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Busby Berkeley

Highest Rated: 100% For Me and My Gal (1942)

Lowest Rated: 81% Cabin in the Sky (1943)

Birthday: Nov 29, 1895

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA

An innovative choreographer who freed dance in the cinema from the constraints of theatrical space, Busby Berkeley directed musical numbers that removed the confining proscenium of the stage to incorporate the fluid frame of the motion picture image. His geometrically unique dances were choreographed for that ideal. After a successful career on Broadway, Berkeley helped revolutionize the musical at a time when the genre first took off, thanks to the advent of sound. He choreographed "42nd Street" (1933) and made his debut as a solo director with "Gold Diggers of 1933" (1933), while earning Oscar nominations for his dance direction for "Gold Diggers of 1937" (1936) and "Varsity Show" (1937). He eventually directed a few movies starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, including "Babe in Arms" (1939), "Strike Up the Band" (1940) and "Babes on Broadway" (1941), only to have a falling out with the troubled actress on "Girl Crazy" (1943) which led to him being fired. Berkeley achieved camp infamy with "The Gang's All Here" (1943), which famously featured Carmen Miranda performing "The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat." After directing his last movie, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949), Berkeley was exclusively a choreographer until leaving Hollywood altogether following "Billy Rose's Jumbo" (1962). Berkeley was a pioneering musical director whose influence stretched across generations.

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Highest-Rated Movies

100% 83% For Me and My Gal
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100% 72% Gold Diggers of 1935
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100% 69% The Gang's All Here
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100% 67% Annie Get Your Gun
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100% 75% Girl Crazy
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95% 71% Take Me Out to the Ball Game
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90% 69% Babes in Arms
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81% 80% Cabin in the Sky
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Men Are Such Fools
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She Had to Say Yes
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Filmography

Movies TV Shows
Busby Berkeley - The Busby Berkeley Disc 1970 Director Annie Get Your Gun 100% 67% 1950 Director Take Me Out to the Ball Game 95% 71% 1949 Director Cinderella Jones 1946 Director Girl Crazy 100% 75% 1943 Director The Gang's All Here 100% 69% 1943 Director Cabin in the Sky 81% 80% 1943 Director For Me and My Gal 100% 83% 1942 Director We Must Have Music 1942 Self Babes on Broadway 68% 1941 Director Blonde Inspiration 1941 Director Strike Up the Band 79% 1940 Director Forty Little Mothers 1940 Director Fast and Furious 83% 1939 Director Babes in Arms 90% 69% 1939 Director They Made Me a Criminal 60% 1939 Director Men Are Such Fools 1938 Director Comet Over Broadway 1938 Director Garden of the Moon 1938 Director Hollywood Hotel 40% 1937 Director The Go-Getter 1937 Director Stage Struck 1936 Director Gold Diggers of 1935 100% 72% 1935 Director Bright Lights 71% 1935 Director I Live for Love 91% 1935 Director
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