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December 29, 1895

December 29, 1895 is the birth date of Busby Berkeley. Berkeley was a choreographer whose inventive camera angles, among other innovations, secured him a chapter in cinema history. You have seen his chorus lines and splashy dance numbers in movies from the 30s and 40s. I am still trying to figure out though, exactly how he managed the cats in "Ziegfield Girls," a 1941 movie. At a climactic point all the beautiful dancers emerge sitting from giant clamshells. They are all holding white cats. Brave, creative, choreographer Bushby Berkely. I gotta assume the cats were declawed, maybe drugged. But I don't know that. How did he choreograph those cats?

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