Berkeley’s 42nd Street Revolutionizes Film Musicals

Article abstract: With film studios near bankruptcy at the height of the Depression, Busby Berkeley revitalized film musicals with new camera and staging techniques.

Summary of Event

In the late 1920’s, when sound films began to replace silent films, Hollywood studios produced a flood of musicals. Early sound cameras were almost immobilized, since any motion created noise that was magnified on the sound track; most early musicals were therefore photographed as if the camera were a member of the audience. Studio directors also apparently did not realize...

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