I love the old Busby Berkeley movies of the 1930′s and just picked up a big DVD box set. Awesome way to get a good look at an era gone by…awesome music, movie making and unbelievable dancing and cinematography. I tried to make my own youtube off the disc but couldn’t figure it out, HAAA!!! Anyways, I found the one I wanted to share, and here it is…pretty darned amazing stuff. Stick with it and watch the whole thing!!! What talent on all fronts of early movie making. Hard to hold up with true human talent today with what is on the screen with this one, enjoy and happy Friday!
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Busby Berkeley sure had a knack for design…he created some visually stunning and innovative numbers!! I’m growing to appreciate the ’30s musicals more and more. I saw “Damsel in Distress” from 1937 for the first time on TCM last weekend. It was Fred Astaire, George Burns and Gracie Allen singing and dancing together! A fun romantic comedy, for sure!!
My favorite Berkeley movie was not one with his big production numbers in it; it was “For Me and My Gal,” which he directed. It was Gene Kelly’s first movie, which had him opposite Judy Garland and was set in WWI. Much more subdued musically from Berkeley’s earlier works, but he was proud of it and mentioned it often, probably because he wanted to show that he was versatile and could do straight drama and comedy. “For Me and My Gal” is a dated war bond movie from 1942, but I just love it for it’s simple musical numbers (Oh, You Beautiful Doll lets Judy shine) and triumphant romance.
Sorry for the ramble…I love old movies!
PS And I can watch these alone, if need be, because they don’t scare me (except maybe the Wizard of Oz, HAA!! – a childhood thing).
John,
I work with your wife at EMS and she just told me about your blog because I am a blogger as well. I am thoroughly impressed with your site. The photography is so well-done and the content intrigues. My husband and I enjoy photography as well and he works as a supervisor for Lockheed so I will show him your aerospace photos. I will definitely be back! JoDee
When I got on Netflix, I got Busby’s “Dames” which has the earliest recording I could find of “I only Have Eyes For You”! Good stuff, but the sensibility is almost foreign!
*Starts petition to include a Busby Berkeley number in the next Trek movie*
What? Don’t tell me it wouldn’t be awesome!
I love seeing old movies that have such a wonderful look and feel to them. Todays way isn’t exactly easy, it’s still a crap load of work and a lot of time, effort and dedcation… but the lack of resources and shortcuts then compared to now makes those old classics all the better for me.
Hey there Mr. Eaves! I was looking over the new videos that I’m subscribed to this morning, and saw YOU in one from The Propstore! I hadn’t read your blog lately this year and didn’t realize you were actually working on the restoration!
You know, there just isn’t enough of this today. I’ve seen some of these growing up but it’s been a long time. Human beings have such truly amazing talents and Busby Berkeley did a wonderful job of highlighting that in his movies!
The Gold Diggers of 1935 is on TCM right now. I just thought that was an interesting coincidence, since I’d not really been aware of it before last week.
What is your first memory?