Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley

Epilogue

Epilogue 296 Riverside County’s certificate of death, like so much of Busby Berkeley’s public record, was rife with errors. Etta provided what little factual information it contained. His name was not “Busby NMN Berkeley” as reported; his father was not William Enos; and his parents’ birthplaces were not unknown. Buzz was interred at Wiefels and Son Funeral Directors in Palm Springs. “Professional and Personal Services” including the casket, memorial card printing, certified copies of the death record, filing fees, and taxes came to a total of $1,283.69. On March 29, the will of Busby Berkeley (signed on March 8, 1971) was filed for probate. After revoking all wills and codicils of previous wills, Buzz stated the following (capitalized as written): “My true full name is BUSBY BERKELEY WILLIAM ENOS.” Etta was named as executor and sole beneficiary of her husband’s estate , which was valued at $100,000 even. Five local bank accounts with a cumulative total of $141,229.99 were declared in the will’s attachment to be the community property of Buzz and Etta. Eight years after Buzz’s death, he was paid tribute during the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic Games at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. Under the colonnade at the peristyle end of the Coliseum were eighty-four men seated at white baby grand pianos playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Also, every spectator held a card and when the cards were turned over en masse, the images of flags of the participating nations were revealed, the same effect Buzz had employed as far back as 42nd Street. Etta Dunn Berkeley lived on for more than two decades after her “devoted boy’s” passing, well into her nineties. Sadly, financial hardship may have been the instigating factor in her decision to auction off most of Buzz’s personal property. On October 27, 1998, at 7:30 p.m., the Epilogue 297 Los Angeles auction house Butterfields held an auction titled “Property from the Estate of Mrs. Busby Berkeley.” Buzz’s many awards, his press clippings, biographical cassette tape recordings, typed anecdotes and memoirs, the McCulley oil painting, letters to Gertrude, photographs of his childhood and the mansion at 3500 W. Adams, his driver’s license, monogrammed ashtray, and even his heartfelt handwritten anniversary cards were fodder for the gavel. The sentimentalist in Etta had deferred to reality. Although Gertrude had died some thirty years before her son, her strong-armed influence was felt long after her passing. Had it not been for Etta’s abiding love, companionship, and overshadowing of the iconic Gertrude, it’s almost certain that Buzz would have chosen to spend eternity in Ohio adjacent to his parents. In the purchasing of two sideby -side plots in Cathedral City’s Desert Memorial Park (minutes from his Peppergrass house), Buzz had at last declared his independence from Gertrude’s lifelong hold. A walk down the aisle of section A-14 first reveals Etta’s headstone. There’s a single engraved rose on the left and an interesting, accurate, self-identifying epitaph on the right. It reads: Etta Dunn Berkeley Beloved Wife of Busby 1902  1997 To the left is Buzz’s headstone, tarnished and eaten a bit by surface rust. The epitaph is also quite interesting for what it conceals: Busby Berkeley 2D LT US ARMY World War 1 1895 1976 His occupation is unmentioned. However, if one scrutinizes the words on a deeper level, a nod to his professional life is revealed. Never in his military career did he abandon his legal surname. It wasn’t until Buzz’s early days on the stage that he removed the “William” and the “Enos” to create the alliterative moniker of international renown. His headstone expresses a duality, revealing a man deeply proud of his service to his 298 Buzz country and, obliquely, his connection to the most popular art form of the twentieth century. Years after his passing, Hollywood and cable channels such as Turner Classic Movies remembered Buzz whenever a tribute to the heyday of 1930s musicals was held. A three-hour television special titled “Happy Birthday Hollywood” ran on the ABC network in May 1987. Introducing what turned out to be a ten-minute tribute to Buzz’s work, Debbie Reynolds abbreviated a quote Gene Kelly had once made. In full, he said: “Berkeley showed what could be done...