SKY ROOM TALKS
WE’RE IN THE MONEY: BUSBY BERKELEY
AND THE HOLLYWOOD MUSCIAL
Monday, December 19 at 7:30 pm | Members $10 | Public $15
Film Historian Philip Harwood takes you back to a time, where one could escape the dark days of the Depression, and enter a world of musical fantasy, with this insightful look at the life and works of the great Busby Berkeley.
Film Director and musical choreographer Busby Berkeley created elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns, with large numbers of chorus girls and props as fantasy elements in kaleidoscopic on-screen performances. With musical numbers mostly by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, in early Warner Brothers musicals such as 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, and others, Berkeley not only created sensational musical numbers (We’re In The Money, By A Waterfall, Lullaby Of Broadway), but he also helped revive a struggling genre. We will also look at Berkeley’s later work at 20th Century Fox and MGM.
Film Historian Philip Harwood continues to teach film and media studies in the Hutton House Lectures, at LIU Post, as well as 92nd Street Y, the JCC In Manhattan , and the United Federation of Teachers Retiree Program. He was also Coordinator of Lifelong Learning at Queens College. Philip is also a published author.
