b. William Berkeley Enos, 29 November 1895, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 14 March 1976, Palm Springs, California, USA. A legendary choreographer and director, renowned for his innovative work on the ‘Depression Era’ musical films of the 30s. Stories abound about him building a monorail along which the camera travelled at the most unusual angles, and his habit of cutting a hole in the studio roof just so that he could get that one special shot. Although Berkeley’s mother was an actress and he appeared in a number of minor stage productions as a youngster, he had no formal theatrical training and attended the Mohegan Lake Military Academy near New York before working in a shoe factory for three years. After a brief spell in the US Army in 1917, Berkeley took small roles in a number of plays and musicals before taking up directing in the early 20s. For most of the decade he served primarily as a dance director on Broadway shows such as Holka Polka, A Connecticut Yankee, Present Arms, Good Boy, Street Singer and The International Review (1930). Samuel Goldwyn is credited with taking Berkeley to Hollywood in 1930 to stage the production numbers for the Eddie Cantor vehicle Whoopee! His work on that film, which introduced his trademark ‘top shots’ and close-ups of the chorus girls, was further developed in the other United Artists films for which he staged the dances, Palmy Days, The Kid From Spain, and Roman Scandals. However, it was not until 1933 and 42nd Street, the first of Berkeley’s films for Warner Brothers, that the dance director’s elaborate musical numbers, with the girls arranged in a series of complicated kaleidoscopic patterns that were continually moving in different directions, began to be fully appreciated. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler were the stars of this slight backstage story, and they were in some of the other films to which he brought his highly individual flair and imagination. These included Gold Diggers Of 1933, Footlight Parade, Dames, Go Into Your Dance, Gold Diggers Of 1937, and Gold Diggers In Paris (1938). Berkeley left Warner Brothers in 1939 to continue to ‘create and stage the dances and ensembles’ for MGM and other studios for musicals such as Broadway Serenade, Ziegfeld Girl, Lady Be Good, Born To Sing, Girl Crazy, Two Weeks With Love, Call Me Mister, Two Tickets To Broadway, Million Dollar Mermaid, Small Town Girl, Easy To Love, and Rose Marie (1954). By then, he and his style of elaborate production numbers were out of fashion, but he returned in 1962 to stage the dance numbers for his last screen project, Billy Rose’s Jumbo. From Gold Diggers Of 1935 onwards, Berkeley was overall director of a number of films. The musicals among them included Bright Lights, Babes In Arms, Strike Up The Band, Babes On Broadway, For Me And My Gal, The Gang’s All Here, and Take Me Out To The Ball Game. In the mid-60s Berkeley benefited from a general upsurge of interest in the films of the 30s, and there were several retrospective seasons of his work in the USA and other countries around the world. In 1971 he was the production supervisor for a Broadway revival of the musical No, No, Nanette, which starred Ruby Keeler and ran for 861 performances. Looking back on his career, he said: ‘What I mostly remember is stress and strain and exhaustion.’ His brilliant achievements were contrasted by a shambolic private life - he was married at least five times - and in 1946 he attempted suicide after his mother died. It is also reported that in 1935 he was charged with second-degree murder after driving into another car, killing the three occupants. After two trials ended with hung juries, he was finally acquitted.