Ann Miller was born 100 years ago today. Originally Johnnie Lucille Collier from Chireno, Texas, Miller made her mark in classic Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s. In the 1979, she enjoyed a Broadway hit in the neo-burlesque “Sugar Babies,” with Mickey Rooney. Her final film was David Lynch’s “Mullholland Drive,” of all things, in 2004.
Late in life, she claimed to have invented pantyhose in the 1940s, as a more efficient solution than having to remove briefs for new stockings to be sewn on whenever there was a tear during production numbers.
In the 1990s, she was frequently parodied on “Saturday Night Live” by Molly Shannon, opposite Cheri Oteri’s Debbie Reynolds, in a recurring segment, “Leg Up.”
Here she is in “Small Town Girl” (1953), tapping her way through a Cocteauvian, “Beauty and the Beast”-style, partially submerged dance band!
Classic movie buffs remember choreographer and director Busby Berkeley primarily for his opulent dance numbers, in which the intricate movements of garishly-appointed showgirls create mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic patterns, frequently documented from on high. His influence was enormous, and his “style” is still being referenced in popular culture and the visual arts all the time.
But for a visionary and highly successful filmmaker, who provided amusement and escape for millions during the Great Depression and World War II, Berkeley struggled with his own personal demons. He was married six times, drank like a merman (and I don’t mean Ethel), and even attempted suicide.
In 1935, at the peak of his fame, he was in an automobile accident in which two people were killed and five were seriously injured, when his vehicle swerved into oncoming traffic and plowed headlong into one car and sideswiped another. He had to be carried into the courtroom on a stretcher. Witnesses at the scene testified that he smelled of alcohol. The first two trials, for second degree murder, ended with hung juries. He was acquitted in a third.
Somehow, through the grace of God, maybe, Berkeley managed to make it to 80 years-old. He died of natural causes in Palm Springs, California on March 14, 1976.
Despite his catastrophic personal life, as a creative artist, he was innovative and audacious. With good cause, TCM has been highlighting his films throughout the month of May. I had never seen this one, “Small Town Girl” (1953), with Ann Miller tapping her way through a Cocteauvian, “Beauty and the Beast”-style, partially submerged dance band!
“42nd Street” (1933)
Shadow Waltz from “Gold Diggers of 1933”
Human Waterfall from “Footlight Parade” (1933)
Cagney (also “Footlight Parade”)
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in “Girl Crazy” (1943)
Carmen Miranda as “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat” (1943)
Esther Williams in “Million Dollar Mermaid” (1952)
