Busby Berkeley's most important theatrical training came from his years as a field artillery lieutenant during World War I, which taught him how to drill the multitude of bodies needed for the over-the-top dance sequences that would become his trademark.

Born Nov. 29, 1895, in Los Angeles, Berkeley served as dance director on dozens of Broadway musicals before talkies lured him to Hollywood. In 1933, he cemented his big-screen reputation with three musical extravaganzas -- 42nd Street, Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933 -- all of which featured gaggles of gorgeous girls arranged in geometric patterns and shot from above.

Although this type of musical would eventually go out of vogue, Berkeley continued to work, making the John Garfield drama They Made Me a Criminal in 1939 and conceiving the aquatic finales for the late-1940s films of Esther Williams. Berkeley died in 1976.