Busby Berkeley Babes

[jondee56]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busby_Berkeley

As a follow on from my MGM Girls thread, This one will hopefully include a lot more pictures and clips from Busbys pre "Hays Code" days with Warner Brothers, and as I would like to grow my collection further, I look forward to other members contributions.

You would recognise a Busby Berkeley choreographed piece almost instantly. The placement and movement of both camera and dancer together in harmony and instead of filming from fixed positions, his cameras were often mounted on custom built booms and rails, zooming in for great close-ups on his beautiful girls faces, then back out again to reveal stunningly intricate geometrical patterns, formed by the "impossible to count" numbers of bodies taking part in what was often "quite erotic for their day" routines. Such was his passion to get the perfect shot he was even known to cut through studio rooves to get it. The cost to stage such spectacles must have also gone through the roof, but the studios reaped the rewards when the films were released. . . . "42nd Street" reputedly cost upwards of $500k to produce, but grossed millions on its release, and all this during the Great Depression! . . . . . One thing is for sure, I still marvel at the spectacle that is a Busby Berkeley piece to this day and I hope you enjoy the following posts.

Dames (1934) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025028/

Starring: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell & Ruby Keeler.

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As Always, Clip Info Is In The Thumbnails

[jondee56]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footlight_Parade

This is a scene from the pre-code era movie "Footlight Parade". It's were Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell are "By A Waterfall", Dicks singing can only be described as BAD, but then he nods off, Ruby strips down to a one piece swimsuit and dives into the waterfall only to be joined by dozens of girls. This is a lavish, standalone showpiece of the movie. Oh, and I swear Rubys swimsuit has a slight see thru moment as she first surfaces (check out the first screen cap)



My apologies for this being such a big file, but I've ripped this clip in it's 10 minute plus entirety.


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[jondee56]

2nd clip from "Footlight Parade". Just a small "edited for the best bit" scene this time




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[berigan]

Here is a very sexy number from the 1935 film, In Caliente. This cracks me up, I was going to start a thread for non Busby Berkeley clips, look up some info on imdb , and find out Berkley did this and another number from the film! No wonder it's so sexy! Too sexy one would think for a post code film! Not complaining mind you! You see Winifred Shaw sing (In the long, not too sexy dress) then at the end of the clip, Judy Canova in what is probably the first, and only time(on film) you could call her sexy!
All the girls in the semi see thru dresses seem pretty sexy to me, the whole scene just drips with sensuality.

I also have clips of Delores Del Rio in this film up as well.



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[zwaik]

[zwaik]

The girl in the 1st image is Avis Adair

--- VIDEO

[zwaik]

The name of this beauty is Lorraine Marshall in "Shanghai Lil" number.



In the hierarchy of the studio system chorines there were the dancers, who usually, once the musical film came to maturity , could perform any kind of dance required. Then there were the “Follies Girls”. These ladies were taller and had the background of being a model and often had little dance ability, but they could move well and wear clothes beautifully, or often, not wear hardly any clothes at all. Lorraine Marshall fell into the “Follies Girl” category, and she decorated the Busby Berkeley musical numbers during his tenure at Warner Brothers. The very salacious “Shanghai Lil” production number was set in a brothel and opium den, and, though it was made acceptable by the inclusion of Ruby Keeper as a coquette, and a patriotic finale honoring FDR’s “new deal,” the number made no bones about depicting the seamy side of the subject matter. Costumed by Milo Anderson, with her breasts nearly exposed, there is no doubt that Lorraine is portraying a glamorous version of a prostitute. These are unusually sexy pre-Code images.

(images in good resolution 1018x1287 and 1200x1500 pixels)

[zwaik]

In the first image Ruby Keeler in “Sittin’ on a backyard fence” number
and in the second 3 delicious chorus girls in the same dance number ...

--- YouTube video

With her warbley voice, heavy footed tapping (the technique at the time was “buck and wing” for which her shoes were fitted with wood at the toes), Ruby Keeler became the beloved darling of the Busby Berkeley musicals. Often playing the naive ingénue , she was believable even if her acting was not strong. She just had some kind of charisma that the camera and audiences then and now fall in love with. In this image, she is caught in a moment of the charming production number “Sittin’ on a backyard fence” which in the pre-code days alluded to all sorts of mischief , though boys and girls in cat costumes such as this thinly veiled the subject at hand .

[zwaik]

Dancer Eleanore Bailey posing for the “By A Waterfall.” musical number


Eleanore Bailey (who would also be billed as Eleanor Bayley) was one of Busby Berkeley's main dancing girls. She would be featured in close-up in all of the musical numbers she appeared (which was nearly every musical number in the films he made). Born in Kansas in 1916, she would become a part of Berkeley’s troupe at MGM when he moved over there in 1939 for the Mickey and Judy musicals. Like the other dancers and chorus girls of the time, she would until 1942 bounce back and forth from one studio to another, appearing in musical numbers with every major musical star. In 1942, the dancers at MGM insisted on being placed under contract with the Arthur Freed unit. He agreed, and they became the first group of dancers to ever receive contracts. She would
appear in every major MGM musical through World War II, capping her career as a singing, dancing waitress in "The Harwey Girls" (1946). For this portrait, she poses in her costume for what is one of the most avant-garde and extravagant musical numbers ever committed to film, “By A Waterfall” The costume, a flesh colored leotard with attached pieces which formed a very early bikini, was about as far as even pre-code production would allow.

[zwaik]

The beautiful Loretta Andrews in the musical film "42nd Street" (1933)



Loretta ( or Lorena ) Andrews (April 27, 1911 - July 23, 2004) was one of
Busby Berkeley's dancing girls. She worked, often uncredited, in the Busby's
productions and many other musical films from 1931 into 1936 ...

1936 Slippery Silks - 1936 Gold Diggers of 1937 - 1936 A Pain in the Pullman
1935 George White's 1935 Scandals - 1934 Dames - 1934 Good Morning, Eve!
1934 Fog Over Frisco - 1934 Wonder Bar - 1934 Fashions of 1934 - 1933 Plane Nuts
1933 Footlight Parade - 1933 She Had to Say Yes - 1933 Gold Diggers of 1933
1933 The Little Giant - 1933 42nd Street - 1932 The Kid from Spain
1931 Flying High - 1931 Palmy Days