Americana & the U.S.

I never met Hollywood film director, choreographer Busby Berkeley, but I met two men who had come in contact with him in Los Angeles. One man was the former head waiter at the Biltmore Hotel in LA during the earliest Academy Awards ceremonies. This is where Oliver Silver befriended his Hollywood idol Busby Berkeley, by at (alcoholic) Berkeley’s secret request slipping him during awards ceremonies a Biltmore silver teapot full of martinis. I copied his photo of Ninth Annual Academey Awards at Biltmore in 1937, on which he’d circled in red himself in white in background, and Berkeley in foreground.

He also gave to me the very silver Biltmore teapot he’d served Berkeley martinis in, which he took with him as a keepsake when he was fired for this uncovered secret conspiracy with Berkeley! The second man I met in same year 1973 in Hollywood who had come in contact with Busby Berkeley was retired ambulance attendant for Los Angeles county hospital: “In September of 1935 I was attending two victims of a head-on car crash on Roosevelt Highway in back of ambulance, when passenger from one car mumbles “Busby Berkeley” and driver of other car repeats “Busby Berkeley!”

The delirious, injured passenger from the one car suddenly spoke loudly. “We missing his movie?… gold diggers…Berkeley.” The driver of the other car seems to respond to him: “Busby movie.” The passenger mumbles “We’ve missed the movie!” Then he starts sofly singing the tune “Lullaby of Broadway” and mysteriously the driver of the other car joins in their singing softly the movie tune “Lullaby of Broadway”! They sang until both passed out.

Once we’d delivered the two male victims of the car crash to the emergency room, I related my story of the strange interaction between my two victims to nurses. One nurse had informed me the passenger was in a car on the way to a Busby Berkeley movie. The nurse said she believed the “Lullaby of Broadway” they were singing together was from a film directed by Busby Berkeley. The other nurse hearing the name acted shocked. “What was the name of that film director?” “Busby Berkeley.” The nurse responded. “Oh my God! That’s the name of the drunken driver you had in your ambulance who caused the crash!”