Neon tubed violin from Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

The Warner Bros. musicals of the early 1930s were the perfect antidote to the depression in the United States. In films such as 42nd Street, Footlight Parade and Gold Diggers of 1933 (all 1933), choreographer Busby Berkeley was responsible for a series of pulsating, abstract forms created by formations of chorus girls. Berkeley had been an army officer in the First World War and brought a military precision to his routines, which depended less on real dancing than on mass movement of chorus lines rigidly cut to music. Berkeley worked closely with Orry-Kelly, principal costume designer at Warner Bros., to create a costume which incorporated a neon-tubed violin, which was played by a chorus of violinists and simultaneously glowed in the dark.

The British Film Institute (BFI) acquired its costume collection for display at the Museum of the Moving Image, which existed on the South Bank in London between 1988 and 1999. The collection is made up of British, European, American and Japanese films and covers the period from the silent film era to the mid-1990s. It contains a wealth of historic and significant film costumes worn by major performers and designed by some of the 20th century’s most important film costume designers. The collection was transferred to the V&A in 2015.