Carmen Miranda

• Born: February 9, 1909
• Birthplace: Marco de Canaveses, Portugal
• Died: August 5, 1955
• Place of death: Beverly Hills, California

Portuguese-born actor and singer

An adopter and adapter of lower-class Afro-Brazilian samba musical styles, Miranda became an American film sensation during World War II, embodying a caricature of the South American woman as colorful, fiery, kinetic, and often comical, with flamboyant headgear usually containing fruit as part of her signature apparel.

Areas of achievement: Entertainment; acting; music

Early Life

Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha—better known as Carmen Miranda (mih-RAN-duh)—was born on February 9, 1909, in Marco de Canaveses in the north of Portugal. She was the second daughter born to José Maria Pinto Cunha and his wife, Maria Emilia Miranda. Her father soon relocated his family to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he sought work as a barber. He loved comic opera and music, sentiments he passed on to Miranda, who decided early that she desired the life of an entertainer. Her father did not approve, however. He once beat her mother for allowing Miranda to audition for a radio performance.

Four younger siblings joined the family, and when Miranda’s older sister, Olinda, was sent back to Portugal for medical reasons, fourteen-year-old Miranda was required to work to help provide for the family. She started in a tie shop, progressed to a hat boutique, and eventually started her own small business making hats. Meanwhile, she continued singing at parties and festivals, and her persistence paid off when, at the age of twenty, she was discovered by composer Josué de Barros. He recognized her potential and talent and guided her first to Brunswick, a German recording company, and then to the more influential Victor Records.

Miranda’s appropriation of the samba musical stylings and vivid fashions of working-class women of color in Bahia quickly made her a star in Brazil. She became a radio and recording celebrity, acquiring a rare two-year contract in 1933 with Rádio Mayrink Veiga. That same year, Miranda made her film debut in A voz do Carnaval. She spent most of the 1930’s as a musical entertainer in Brazil, with a highly successful 1934 appearance in Buenos Aires, Argentina, broadening her international appeal. Miranda made five more films in Portuguese before Broadway theatrical producer Lee Schubert recognized her talent and box office potential and took her to New York City. Schubert arranged for Miranda to be showcased in his 1939 production of The Streets of Paris. At Miranda’s request, her backup band, Bando da Lua, came with her.

Life’s Work

The diminutive (only 5 feet tall) and dynamic Miranda won many fans in her Broadway run from June, 1939, through February, 1940, among them the film studio heads at Twentieth Century-Fox. Miranda took offense when she returned to Brazil in 1940 and critics there accused her of having become Americanized; this reception made her Hollywood opportunities all the more attractive.

Miranda became one of the major film stars of World War II, and in 1946, she was Hollywood’s highest paid entertainer, garnering a salary of over $200,000. In her first American film, Down Argentine Way (1940), she played herself; in this and her subsequent American film roles, she would regularly convey, along with vivacious Latin rhythms, an omnipresent underlying sensuality, exotic beauty (which offered an excellent opportunity to promote Technicolor advancements), and playfulness. Although she often was relegated to playing quirky and amusing secondary characters, Miranda stole scenes with her flamboyance and energy. She made a total of fourteen feature films in Hollywood from 1940 through 1953, and as the first three film titles indicate—Down Argentine Way was followed by 1941’s That Night in Rio and Week-End in Havana—for American audiences she came to personify not only the women of Brazil but also, more generally, those of all nations south of the United States. Similarly, her performance numbers incorporated a range of different Latin traditions from South America and the Caribbean.

Miranda’s hats and jewelry inspired some American fashion fads during the war years, and she often was parodied in 1940’s cartoons, indicating her swift and significant rise to iconic status. In 1947, Miranda married Dave Sebastian, an assistant to the producer on Copacabana (1947), a film she made with comedy legend Groucho Marx that offered her the opportunity to satirize the stereotypes of the day for female singers from Latin America. She joined bandleader Xavier Cugat for some lavish Latin music performances in A Date with Judy (1948), an MGM production to promote the beauty of adolescent Elizabeth Taylor, and after that only appeared in two more films: Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), another MGM musical featuring Jane Powell, and Scared Stiff (1953), a comedy starring the popular team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Nevertheless, Miranda remained busy in this period, regularly performing in nightclubs and appearing as a guest on television variety shows.

Following her marriage Miranda became increasingly depressed. Her husband’s abusive behavior and her use of alcohol and drugs accentuated her problems. After she suffered a physical breakdown in 1954, on doctor’s orders she returned to Rio de Janeiro for a rest. After some months, she returned to the United States and began anew her strenuous schedule. In August, 1955, while performing a musical number live on The Jimmy Durante Show, Miranda suffered a heart attack, stumbled, and fell. Durante stepped in to help and replace her, but she waved him away, got back up, and finished the number. Later that night at home, she had a second heart attack and died at the age of forty-six. Her body was returned to Rio de Janeiro for burial; a national day of mourning was declared there, and more than a half-million Brazilians turned out to walk in her funeral procession.

Significance

Through radio and recordings, Miranda popularized the samba music of lower-class people of color. The Hollywood film personas she created in the 1940’s made her a dominant symbol of Latin American culture for filmgoers in the United States. Her roles reflect contemporary stereotypes and perceptions of Latinos: She played women who were exotic, beautiful, passionate, and fiery—but also often bumbling with English, a bit silly, headstrong, and childlike. Miranda blazed a trail for a generation of Latina actors in the United States, such as Rita Moreno, who often found themselves relegated to secondary roles as hot-tempered women; her cultural influence also extends to drag queens, many of whom identified with Miranda’s strength, resiliency, flamboyance, and inherent sensuality.

Bibliography

Freire-Medeiros, Briana. “Hollywood Musicals and the Invention of Rio de Janeiro, 1933-53.” Cinema Journal 41, no. 4 (Summer, 2002): 52-67. Discusses Hollywood representations of the city and Brazilian culture.

Gil-Montero, Martha. Brazilian Bombshell. New York: Dutton, 1989. An English-language biography sympathetic to Miranda notes how her American success stereotyped her, causing both personal trauma and resentment in Brazil.

Mandrell, James. “Carmen Miranda Betwixt and Between, or Neither Here nor There.” Latin American Literary Review 29, no. 57 (2001): 26-39. Deconstructs Miranda as a representative of Latin American culture.