"By a Waterfall" is a 1933 song with music by
Sammy Fain and lyrics by
Irving Kahal. It was featured in an extravagant choreographic arrangement in the film Footlight Parade by
Busby Berkeley that features his trademark human
waterfall, with vocal performances by
Dick Powell and
Ruby Keeler. It features a
water ballet of
chorus girls diving and swimming into the water in elaborate geometric and floral patterns.[1]
The lyrics of the song use the phrase "I'm calling you - oo-oo-oo" in much the same way as the Indian Love Call from the operetta Rose-Marie.
Berkeley realized that screen choreography involved the placement and movement of the camera as well as the dancers. Instead of filming numbers from fixed angles, he set his cameras into motion on custom built booms and monorails and if necessary, cut through the studio roof to get the right shot.
Berkeley used a 40 x 80 foot (12.2 x 24.4 meter) swimming pool that filled an entire soundstage. Its walls and floor were glass, and before shooting started 100 chorus girls took two weeks to practice their routines in it. The actual filming lasted six days and required 20,000 gallons (75,708 liters) of water a minute to be pumped across the set.[2]
Welcome Back, Kotter: On a season one episode, Horshack gets up in front of the class and sings this song. Barbarino and Washington also join in.[citation needed]
The song could be heard accompanying a recreation of the waterfall sequence of Footlight Parade in
Disney'sThe Great Movie Ride before its closure in 2017.[citation needed]
In the novel The Swimming-Pool Library by
Alan Hollinghurst, protagonist Will describes how a 'hard-on might pass from one end of the room to the other with the foolish perfection of a Busby Berkeley routine', evoking this choreography.[citation needed]