A Peek at Matthew's Goodies | Come see these beautiful Dames

The Great Depression imposed a budgetary limit on creative productions. Yet musicals with expensive, elaborate dance sequences, which flout such confines, flourished during this era. Hollywood choreographer Busby Berkeley created many musicals filled with such sequences.

"He choreographs mass spectacle with an overwhelming number of women and an overwhelming number of large props, so that the stage—the studio—is crowded with multitudes of harps or bathtubs or giant coins or giant violins," explained Professor of Film Sarah Kozloff, who teaches the Department's course on musicals. One of Berkeley's 1934 musicals, Dames, attests to that.

In keeping with Berkeley's love of large numbers—why have one dancer when you can have 100?—the Library's Reserve Desk houses copies of Dames in three different media: DVD, VHS and Laser Disc.

The movie is about the trials and tribulations of putting on a Broadway play. One of the play-within-a-movie's songs, "I Only Have Eyes for You" involves multiple large sets intercut with a dream-like dance number. It's so convoluted that it could not occur in an actual theatrical production. Although the credits mention Ray Enright as the sole director, Berkeley directed the musical numbers and deserves sole credit for their innovative nature.

"I think you can put Dames up against Moulin Rouge!" Kozloff posited. "It does not come out badly in terms of the level of skill and sophistication."

A particularly enjoyable number called "The Girl at the Ironing Board" features female launderers dancing with trousers. It's "too, too divine," as its lyrics attest.

"I think it's incredibly campy, but I think with Berkeley, there's a real unsolvable question about whether it's what Susan Sontag calls naïve camp or deliberate camp," Kozloff said. "I don't know whether Berkeley means it to be as funny as it is. Sometimes I think he does: with the swans and with the long underwear hugging her. But does he mean the beginning of the song when they just begin singing? Does he realize how sexist and ridiculous it is to have washer women falling in love with men's underclothes?"

Kozloff recollected her students' awestruck initial responses. "They see Berkeley, and it's so spectacular and also so ambiguous and so pushing at the bounds of good taste that there's something very modern—if not postmodern—about it," she said. "The students respond to it very well."

As the current financial setback continues to set in—threatening to turn into the next Great Depression or at least a Great Recession—it may prove helpful to look back at how some of the greats aided the collective spirit while dealing with the given limit.