Carmen Miranda

Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha 9 February 1909 near Porto Portugal in the town of Marco de Canavezes Shortly after her birth her family moved to Brazil where her father was involved in the produce business The family settled in the then capital city of Rio de Janeiro After leaving school Carmen got a job at a local store often began singing on the job Before long she was discovered and got a singing job on a local radio station She ultimately got a recording contract with RCA By 1928 she was a genuine superstar in Brazil As with other popular singers of the era she eventually made her way into the film world She made her debut in the Brazilian documentary A Voz do Carnaval 1933 Two years later she appeared in her first feature film Alô Alô Brasil 1935 However it was Estudantes 1935 that seemed to solidify Carmen in the minds of the Brazilian movie audiences Now they realized she could act as well as sing Although there was three years between Alo Alo Carnaval and BananadaTerra 1939 Carmen continued to churn out musical hits in Brazil The latter film would be the last in her home country In late 1939 Carmen arrived with much fanfare in the press in New York City She was now ready to capture Americans hearts with her talent She appeared in some musical revues on Broadway and just as everyone thought was a huge hit In 1940 Carmen was signed to appear in the 20th CenturyFox production Down Argentine Way 1940 with Betty Grable and Don Ameche The only complaint that critics had was the fact that Carmen was not on the screen enough In 1941 she was again teamed with Ameche in addition to Alice Faye in That Night in Rio 1941 The film was extremely popular with the theater patrons Her unique songs went a long way in making her popular It was after WeekEnd in Havana 1941 that American cartoon artists began to cash in on Carmens evergrowing popularity In the 1930s and 1940s cartoons were sometimes shown as a prelude to whatever feature film was showing Sure enough the cartoon version of Carmen came wriggling across the screen complete with her trademark fruit hat and wide toothy grin In 1942 Carmen starred in Springtime in the Rockies 1942 with Betty Grable and Cesar Romero both of whom she had worked with before It was shortly after this that America began adopting her style of dress as the latest fad 1944 saw her in three films Something for the Boys 1944 Four Jills in a Jeep 1944 and Greenwich Village 1944 The first two did well at the boxoffice but the last one left a lot to be desired It was her last busy year in film Carmen made one film each year 1945 through 1948 After that she didnt make a film for two years until Nancy Goes to Rio 1950 a production for MGM Once again didnt make a film for several years returning with Scared Stiff 1953 She did stay busy singing on the nightclub circuit and appearing on the relatively new medium of television Scared Stiff was her final movie performance On 4 August 1955 she unknowingly suffered a heart attack during a live broadcast of The Jimmy Durante Show She went home to Beverly Hills after attending a party she neither drank nor smoked On 5 August Carmen suffered a fatal heart attack She was just 46 years old