CARMEN MIRANDA- Singer

Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born Brazilian, samba singer and actress famous in the 1940s and 1950s. Miranda was a Broadway star. Her iconic visual identity is a fruit hat based on costumes she wore in The Gang's All Here.

She pursued a career as a samba singer for ten years before she was invited to New York City to perform in a show on Broadway. By 1928, she was a superstar in Brazil. As with other popular singers of the time, Miranda made her way into the films. She made her debut in the Brazilian documentary A Voz Do Carnaval (1933). Two years later, Miranda appeared in her first feature film entitled Alo, Alo Brasil. But it was the 1935 film Estudantes that made her famous. Miranda arrived in the United States in 1939 with her band, the Bando da Lua. She was encouraged by President Roosevelt and his Good Neighbor Policy, to strengthen the links with Latin America and Europe. It was believed that in delivering content like hers, the policy would be better received by the Americans. She was the country's highest-paid entertainer in the 1940s, and in 1945, was the highest paid woman in the United States. She married in March 17, 1947 to failed American movie producer David Sebastian. He thought of himself to be her manager and was responsible for her bad business deals.
Miranda made 14 Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953 and was known as "The Brazilian Bombshell". Her Hollywood image was, Latin, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico as well as samba, tango and habanera. It was carefully stylized and outlandishly flamboyant. She was often wearing platform sandals and towering headdresses made of fruit, becoming famous as "the lady in the tutti-frutti hat."However there were times that Miranda performed barefoot on stage.
THE MOVIE: DOLLFACE(1945).

FUN FACTS:

The intersection of Hollywood Bl. and Orange Drive, was named Carmen Miranda Square in September 1998.

Carmen Miranda, was a hat maker before she became famous as a singer.

Carmen Miranda films:
Beloved Infidel (1959)
Scared Stiff (1953)
Nancy Goes to Rio(1950)
A Date with Judy (1948)
Copacabana (1947)
Doll Face (1945)
Something for the Boys
Greenwich Village(1944)
Four Jills in a Jeep
The Gang's All Here
Springtime in the Rockies (1942)
Babes on Broadway (1941)
Week-End in Havana (1941)
That Night in Rio (1941)
Down Argentine Way(1940)
Laranja-da-China (1940)
Banana-da-Terra (1939)
Alô Alô Carnaval (1936)
Estudantes (1935)
Alô, Alô, Brasil (1935)
If I'm Lucky (1946)