Carmen Miranda

Carmen Miranda

For more information on Carmen Miranda, visit Britannica.com.

At the peak of her career, Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda (1909 - 1955) was the highest paid woman in Hollywood. Known for her colorful outfits and fruit-bedecked headgear, Miranda was one of the first ambassadors of Latin American popular culture. She appeared in more than a dozen movies, often along-side the era's top stars, but was usually typecast as the exotic songstress in the plots. "Many of her compatriots never forgave her for the pastiche of mischief and malaprops that became not only Miranda's trademark Hollywood act but also synonymous with Latin America itself," Mac Margolis wrote in "Newsweek International".

Miranda was born in Portugal in February of 1909, and christened Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha. Her parents, Jose and Maria, left the town of Marco de Canaveses, near Oporto, when she was still an infant; they settled in Brazil, home to many Portuguese immigrants. They lived in central Rio de Janeiro and her father worked as a salesperson and a barber. The nick-name "Carmen" dated to Miranda's childhood, when her family reportedly dubbed her that after the Georges Bizet opera by that name.

Sang for Co-Workers

Miranda was raised in a strict Roman Catholic household. Nuns schooled her at the Santa Teresinha convent academy for girls, but her education ended at age 14, when she had to take a job to help support her family. She worked in a Rio department store as a model and millinery sales-woman, and during her breaks she often performed popular Brazilian hit songs to entertain co-workers. When a guitarist overheard one of her impromptu performances, he invited her to sing with him on a local radio show. Soon Miranda was offered a nightclub singing job, but her conservative father strongly opposed the opportunity at first. Reportedly, he changed his mind when he learned of the generous offer and agreed to let her perform, provided he serve as her manager and she not be billed under her family name. Thus, she became "Carmen Miranda."

Miranda recorded a few albums with composer and violinist Josue de Barros, but these failed to catch on with Brazilian listeners. Her breakthrough came in 1930, when she made "Prá Você Gostar de Mim," a traditional Brazilian marcha tune by composer Joubert de Carvalho. The record was a massive hit, propelling Miranda to a string of top-sellers that turned her into one of her country's biggest stars of the 1930s. While not a particularly gifted vocalist, her style was appealing, and she was sometimes billed as "The Singer With The 'It' On Her Voice."

The movie A voz do carnaval, a musical comedy made in Brazil and released in 1933, marked Miranda's big-screen debut. She made several more films, in between a heavy touring schedule that took her across South America several times. She was usually backed by her own five-man band, called Banda da Luna (Band of the Moon). During one of her shows at a casino in the Rio district of Urca, well-known American theater manager Lee Shubert spotted her and offered her a role on Broadway.

Succeeded on Broadway

Miranda arrived in New York in 1939 to perform one song in The Streets of Paris, a musical review at the Broadhurst Theater that ran from June of 1939 until the following February. She sang it in Portuguese, and spoke very little English when she came to New York, but she was game enough to give an interview to promote the show. Her limited vocabulary became a long-running joke in that and subsequent stories in the press about her. She enthusiastically repeated a few words, including "yes," "no," "money," and "hot dog." Though her treatment in the press seemed to reinforce stereotypes about Latin Americans, Miranda's Streets of Paris number was a hit with audiences, and led to an engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. She also made her first film for a Hollywood studio, the musical romance Down Argentine Way, starring Don Ameche and Betty Grable. Miranda was cast as herself in the 1940 release, which was one of the first musicals filmed entirely on location, in both Buenos Aires and New York, due to her still appearing nightly in The Streets of Paris.

Miranda returned to Brazil after the Broadway show closed, but found she was viewed as a traitor. Brazilians asserted she had turned their beloved culture into a joke, and she was ridiculed in the press for selling out. Riots erupted when Down Argentine Way was released in Buenos Aires for its depiction of Argentine customs. Her response was the song "Disseram Que Eu Voltei Americanizada" (They Say I've Become Americanized), which did little to help her land new performances. Hoping to continue her career, she returned to the United States when the Hollywood powerhouse studio 20th Century Fox offered her an exclusive contract.

Miranda was promoted as the "Brazilian Bombshell" by 20th Century Fox and she began appearing in its films as a featured performer. Some were set in South America, and sometimes representatives from the film division of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, a government agency that worked to promote U.S. foreign policy initiatives, offered suggestions on the script or other aspects. The interference was linked to the "Good Neighbor Policy," which had been in effect since the mid-1930s. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to forge better diplomatic relations with Brazil and other South American nations, and pledged to refrain from further military intervention, which had sometimes been done to protect U.S. business interests in industries such as mining or agriculture. Hollywood was asked to help out with the Good Neighbor Policy, and both Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox participated. Miranda was considered the goodwill ambassador and promoter of intercontinental culture.

Inspired Fashion Trends

Miranda became a household name in the United States, thanks to her films and singing engagements. She sang in Portuguese, often accompanied by frenzied gesturing that was widely caricatured as a hallmark of the exotic Latina songstress. She had brought from Brazil her trademark look, which was known as bahiana in her country. The term was taken from Bahia, Brazil, home to many African-Brazilians, and was characterized by many layers of bright fabrics, often with ruffles or rick-rack, along with a turban-style hat. Miranda's look usually featured a long skirt, midriff-baring halter, lots of jewelry, and headgear topped by flowers or fruit. The elaborate banana headdress became her Hollywood trademark, and soon more subdued styles of hats embellished with fake fruit were turning up in millinery collections in department stores. The singer also received credit for starting a trend for platform shoes, which she wore because she was just five feet, three inches tall.

In 1943, Miranda appeared in an extravaganza from noted director Busby Berkeley called The Gang's All Here. Berkeley's musicals were known for their lavish production, and Miranda's role as Dorita featured her number "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat." An optical trick from the set behind her made the fruit-bedecked hat she was wearing appear even larger than humanly possible. By then, Miranda seemed to be locked into such roles as the exotic songstress, and her studio contract even forced her to appear at events in her trademark film costumes, which grew even more outlandish. One song she recorded, "Bananas Is My Business" seemed to pay somewhat ironic tribute to her typecasting.

Miranda became the highest-paid female performer in the United States during World War II. She sang regularly at New York's Copacabana nightclub, where her turban even became part of its logo. She led a subdued personal life, befitting her conservative Roman Catholic background, and did not marry until age 38. Her marriage to David Sebastian, a minor Hollywood producer, was said to have been problematic. Some reports hint that Sebastian was physically abusive, and conspired with the studios to check any ambitions of hers to move beyond her "Brazilian Bombshell" persona. Only once was she ever cast as the romantic lead in a movie, which came in 1947 with Copacabana. She played opposite comedian Groucho Marx, and had a dual role as a spicy Latina performer and blonde French cabaret singer.

Fondly Remembered

Miranda's final film appearance came in 1953 with Scared Stiff, which starred the comedy duo Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Her stage persona had deteriorated by then, with Lewis grotesquely mimicking her style in one scene in the film. By this time, she was a frequent guest on variety shows that were broadcast on a new medium, television. Her last performance came on one early series, The Jimmy Durante Show, in August of 1955. After she finished her song, the show's host came out to applaud her, and Miranda appeared to come close to fainting, but Durante quickly moved to catch her. She smiled, waved, and exited the soundstage, but she died the following day at her home in Beverly Hills, California. Her death was officially reported as a heart attack, but it was later revealed that the 44-year-old star was pregnant, and died of pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy-related condition characterized by high blood pressure and kidney malfunction.

The Brazilian government sent a plane to California to retrieve Miranda's coffin, and a crowd estimated at well above half a million lined the streets of Rio de Janeiro when her funeral cortege made its way to São João Batista cemetery. For a later generation, Miranda was viewed as a contemptible example of Hispanic stereotyping in American popular culture. The subject was explored in a 1995 documentary Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business, made by Brazilian filmmaker Helena Solberg. A decade later, Miranda's posthumous reputation seemed to have under-gone rehabilitation, with several events taking place in 2005 that marked the fiftieth anniversary of her death. These included a film and costume retrospective, "Carmen Miranda Forever," at Rio's Museum of Modern Art, and a serious biography written by Ruy Castro, author of several books on Brazilian culture. Brazilians "tend to forget," Castro told Margolis in Newsweek International, that "no Brazilian woman has ever been as popular as Carmen Miranda - in Brazil or anywhere."

Books

Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 5: 1951 - 1955, American Council of Learned Societies, 1977.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 3: Actors and Actresses, 4th edition, St. James Press, 2000.

Periodicals

Americas, January-February 1996.

Newsweek International, January 23, 2006.

Online

"Brazilian Bombshell," Palma Louca, http://palmalouca.com/0,,0,33,00.html (January 20, 2006).

• Born: February 09, 1909, Lisbon, Portugal
• Died: August 05, 1955, Beverly Hills, CA
• Active: '30s, '40s, '50s
• Genres: Vocal Music
• Instrument: Vocals
• Representative Albums: "Anthology", "Brazilian Recordings", "Carmen Miranda (1930-1945)"
• Representative Songs: "South American Way", "Cuanto le Gusta", "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)"

Biography

The first Brazilian performer to attain international stardom, singer and actress Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha on February 9, 1909 in Marco de Canavezes, Portugal, but she was raised in Rio de Janeiro from infancy onward. After quitting school she began working at an area shop, where her habit of singing on the job brought her to the attention of a local radio station. Seemingly overnight, Miranda emerged as one of the top attractions on the Rio club circuit, and upon signing to RCA in 1928 she became a massive star throughout Brazil. She made her film debut in 1933's A Voz do Carnaval, solidifying her fame two years later with Estudantes. While performing at Rio's Casino da Urca in 1939, Miranda was spotted by Broadway impresario Lee Shubert, who immediately arranged to bring her to America; she soon made her New York debut in his show The Streets of Paris before settling in Hollywood the following year.

In the years which followed, Miranda virtually embodied Hollywood's narrow and condescending concept of Latin American culture -- from her first starring role in 1940's Down Argentine Way onward, her enduring public image remained that of the feisty Brazilian bombshell, invariably clad in some sort of enormous fruit-basket headdress while singing and dancing. It was an image she proved unable to shake during her film career; worse, during her first visit back to Brazil, Miranda was accused of becoming too "Americanized." (The experience later resulted in her song "Disseram Que Eu Voltei Americanizada" -- "They Said I Came Back Americanized.") As World War II drew to an end, however, the market for the light, campy musicals on which Miranda's fame rested began to dry up, and in 1953 she made her final screen appearance in the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis vehicle Scared Stiff.

Undaunted, Miranda focused increasingly on her nightclub appearances, also becoming a fixture on television variety shows -- indeed, for all the stereotyping she faced throughout her career, her performances made huge strides in popularizing Brazilian music, at the same time paving the way for the increasing awareness of all Latin culture. Still, she suffered from severe depression throughout the final years of her life, returning to Brazil for the final time in 1954; while taping a strenuous song-and-dance number for an episode of television's The Jimmy Durante Show on August 4, 1955, Miranda suffered a heart attack, and after returning to her Beverly Hills home, she died the following morning at the age of just 46. Her body was flown back to Brazil, where her passing was met by a period of national mourning. A museum was later constructed in Rio De Janeiro in her honor, and in 1995 she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Samba Buy this CD	Sambas: 1936-1937 Buy this CD	1939-1950 Buy this CD	Extraordinary Girl Buy this CD	Carmen Miranda (1930-1945) Buy this CD
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• Born: Feb 09, 1909 in Marco de Canavezes, Lisbon, Portugal
• Died: Aug 05, 1955
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '40s-'50s, '80s-'90s
• Major Genres: Musical, Comedy
• Career Highlights: The Gang's All Here, Down Argentine Way, Something for the Boys
• First Major Screen Credit: Allo, Allo, Carnaval (1936)

Biography

Moviedom's "Brazilian Bombshell" was actually born in Portugal, but as a child Carmen Miranda moved with her large and prosperous family to Rio de Janeiro. That she became a popular musical comedy star is all the more remarkable when one realizes that Miranda was born with deformed feet and had to wear special "lifts" for her performances. Miranda was a well-established and much beloved Brazilian radio, stage, and film personality when, at age 30, she was brought to America by the Schubert Brothers to appear in the 1939 Broadway revue The Streets of Paris (which also served as the "legit" debut of former burlesque comics Abbott and Costello). She was signed to a long-term 20th Century-Fox contract in 1940, which proved a wise move when World War II dried up the European movie market, leaving South America as practically the only foreign outlet for Hollywood films. A flamboyant exponent of the "good neighbor" policy, Miranda sang and danced her way through a series of garish Fox musicals, the most outrageous of which was The Gang's All Here (1943), in which she sang "The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat" while adorned with a seemingly gargantuan piece of fruit-laden headgear. When the demand for South-of-the-Border musicals petered out during the postwar era, Miranda began limiting her screen performances, spending more of her professional time with successful nightclub engagements. Off-screen, Miranda was a talented sketch artist and costume designer; she was also very active in charitable work, seeing to it that a generous percentage of her earnings were sent to the destitute in South America. After completing a strenuous dance number for a 1955 episode of TV's The Jimmy Durante Show, Miranda suffered a fatal heart attack; her death touched off widespread mourning throughout all of Latin America. The actress' memory is kept alive by the Carmen Miranda Museum in Rio De Janeiro. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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