When it comes to the American musical, the man who would stake his claim to being responsible for the biggest production numbers in the history of its phenomenon was none other than Busby Berkeley who was born William Berkeley Enos in 1895. And with his peacock exhibits of feminine pulchritude there was nothing too lavish, extravagant or over-the-top when it came to the Berkeley signature which is unarguably one of the most recognizable of the form, his compositional techniques - shallow focus and high key - in concert with geometrically situated dancers would create a seemingly illusory effect as if to be the cheekier cast of characters of a Van Beuren cartoon as directed by MC Escher.
From Berkeleys's early films like Footlight Parade and 42nd Street, which were both released in the year 1933 and through to the surrealistic The Gang's All Here (1943), his choreographic style was the definitive reflection of the shifting moods of the movie-going public.
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| A bouquet of bonnies from Ziegfeld Girl (1941) |
Perhaps Berkeley's most significant musical of the aforementioned era was Gold Diggers of 1933; the story of a backstage show foreclosed by the bank. In the space of one number with the title Remember My Forgotten Man - Berkeley has his singers and dancers describe the progress of young American men from the trenches of The Great War to the dole queues of the Thirties.