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Description
Busby Berkeley was the premier dance director of motion pictures. His originality and sharply defined style brought him professional acclaim and financial reward. He saved a studio from bankruptcy and a doomed genre from senescence. He wasn't a choreographer. According to “Buzz”, choreographers were defined with artists such as Agnes de Mille. He defined “dance directing”. Busby Berkeley was a specialist in the best and limiting sense of the word. For musical pictures, he had no stylistic equal, yet he films he directed outside his purview were often middling and anonymous, lacking the imprimatur that defined his finest work. The existing literature analysing the life and works of this man is scarce and limited. The details concerning his volatile existence are often contradictory and inaccurate. This book uses colleague reminiscences, newspaper stories, legal documents, court records, studio memoranda, and never-before-published accounts from Berkeley's memoirs to create a vivid picture of this man.
Publication Date
2010
Publisher
The University Press of Kentucky
Place of Publication
Lexington, KY
ISBN
978-0-8131-2643-2
eISBN
978-0-8131-2644-9 (pdf version)
eISBN
978-0-8131-4008-7 (epub version)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813126432.001.0001
Keywords
Busby Berkeley, Buzz, Dance director, Motion pictures, Choreography, Dance directing, Films
Disciplines
American Film Studies | Film and Media Studies | Mass Communication | Theatre and Performance Studies
Recommended Citation
Spivak, Jeffrey, "Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley" (2010). Film and Media Studies. 38.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_film_and_media_studies/38
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