Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments I am eternally grateful for the help, support, and advice of the following contributors, who made the writing of Busby Berkeley’s life story a pleasurable experience: Joe Franklin, for his witty Buzz Berkeley anecdotes and for putting me in touch with Hollywood personages he’s known. Sybil Jason, for her personal recollections of working with Buzz. His story is balanced and fair thanks in part to Miss Jason’s first-person account. Carol Jones, Program Director of the Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens, for my personal tour of the magnificent Beaux-Arts mansion once owned by Buzz. Miles Kreuger, President of the Institute of the American Musical, for his erudition, advice, and passionate adherence to truth. Michael Kutza, founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival, for relaying humorous anecdotes of Berkeley and Ruby Keeler when they were feted at the festival. Sandra Joy Lee, Curator, Warner Bros. Archives, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, and Jonathon Auxier, Curator, Warner Bros. Archives, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, for providing me access to the hundreds of files in the Berkeley archive. Patrick McGilligan, the best mentor a biographer could ever ask for. Susan Murray, my editor, whose suggestions and improvements were invaluable. Teresa Neff, whose great-great-aunt was Nellie Gertrude Berkeley, for supplying me with the Berkeley family tree. Dr. Shirley Radlove, for her cheerleading and heartfelt encouragement. Debbie Reynolds, for clarifying some dim memories of Buzz and singing to me the little ditty quoted in chapter 13. x Acknowledgments Jonathan Rosenbaum, for setting the record straight about a Busby Berkeley rumor I heard. Donald Saddler, for his memories of a sad, somewhat dejected Buzz during No, No Nanette. Leila Salisbury, for her support of and excitement about a Busby Berkeley biography during its earliest stages. Rosalie Spivak, always there for me, always. The staff at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for graciously aiding me in my research. The staff at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, for their help in obtaining rare Berkeley items. The staff at the UCLA archives, for arranging screenings of rarely seen Berkeley interviews. The staff at the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee, Illinois, for their tremendous help with the hundreds of interlibrary loans I always needed at a moment’s notice. John Russell Taylor, for his amusing Berkeley anecdotes. Joel and Carol Walner, for their long-standing friendship and kindness. Marc Wanamaker, for providing Buzz’s memoirs. Anne Dean Watkins, acquisitions editor at the University Press of Kentucky, and her staff, for their belief that Busby Berkeley’s life story needed to be told. Frank and Dale Zirbel, for their never-flagging support and without whom this book would not have been written. ...