(The following is a letter I wrote, today, to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on behalf of Busby Berkeley)
“Good morning! I have been out of the country until today. I notice that submissions were due May 31, 2013 for 2014 consideration. I respectfully ask that you consider my request to allow me to submit a form today on behalf of the legendary director, dance director and innovator – Busby Berkeley – who literally invented the Hollywood musical art form for both Warner Brothers and MGM. Throughout his 54 films – serving in many capacities – Buzz was a trailblazer in he musical form while at the same reinventing the way the camera moved creating shots and scenes in ways never before attempted.
Busby provided Depression era movie goers with a break from the abject pain of that time with musical confections that gave men, women and children a much needed respite from the realities that awaited them every minute of every day.
He was a towering genius – more famous and a bigger draw than many of his stars. He passed some 40 years ago. It is high time that the man who gave us “42nd Street”, “Dames”, Gold Diggers of 1933, 1935 and 1937″, Million Dollar Mermaid”, “The Gangs All Here”, “For Me and My Gal”, “Strike Up The Band” and dozens more be celebrated with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
There is a musical number with James Cagney and Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell entitled “My Forgotten Man” – a powerful look in to the way society forgets American soldiers returning by the hundreds of thousands from WWI. Busby Berkeley has become that Forgotten Man”. Please consider. this request on the death of Esther Williams this day. Thank you. John Bernardoni
(Facebook post today – June 7, 2013)
Today, Esther Williams – an iconic movie star of “Million Dollar Mermaid” and other water spectaculars” passed. That movie – and others – was directed by the legendary Busby Berkeley – the man who conjured up and invented the Hollywood musical art form in the 1930′s – the progenitor of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse and others choreographers of renown. And yet, Busby does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame some 40 years after his passing.
Today, I submitted an application for their 2014 induction. However, I am a week late on the deadline. I have asked for consideration due to the legacy of this cinematic genius who did things with the camera never done before. There is another hitch and it’s a big one. It costs $30,000 to get someone a star!!! First things first.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame – owned and controlled by the Chamber of Commerce – does not allow write in campaigns. I can only hope they will embrace Busby as a trailblazer in the motion picture legacy – without whom Depression era audiences would have languished in the start and painful realities of those times.
