Carmen Miranda
b. Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, 9 February 1909, near Lisbon, Portugal, d. 5 August 1955, California, USA. A flamboyant singer, dancer and actress with an animated style and a penchant for exotic, colourful costumes, 10 inch-heeled shoes, and turbans decorated with significant amounts of artificial fruit. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro and began her career there on local radio. Later she made several films and appeared in nightclubs and theatres throughout South America. Lee Shubert, the oldest of the famous trio of producer brothers, took Miranda to the USA in 1939 where she introduced Al Dubin and Jimmy McHugh's catchy South American Way in the Broadway musical The Streets Of Paris. She sang it again (her peculiar accent turned it into Souse American Way) when she made her spectacular film debut with Betty Grable and Don Ameche in Down Argentine Way (1940). A year later she joined the comedy team of Olsen and Jolsen in another Broadway show, Sons O' Fun. However, her real impact was made in a series of film musicals in the '40s when she became known as the ‘Brazilian Bombshell’. These included That Night In Rio, Weekend In Havana, Springtime In The Rockies, The Gang's All Here, Four Jills In A Jeep, Greenwich Village, Doll Face, If I'm Lucky, Copacabana, and A Date With Judy. By then her star had faded, and she made only two more pictures, Nancy Goes To Rio (1950) and Scared Stiff (1953), although in the late '40s and early '50s she continued to perform in theatres and nightclubs. She died suddenly of a heart attack in 1955 shortly after appearing with Jimmy Durante on his television show. A dynamic, much impersonated entertainer—Mickey Rooney's wickedly accurate takeoff in Babes On Broadway immediately comes to mind—Carmen Miranda was indelibly associated with several lively and diverting songs, including The Lady With The Tutti Frutti Hat, I Yi Yi Yi Yi (I Like You Very Much), Chica Boom Chic, When I Love, I Love, Cuanto La Gusta, Mama, Eu Quero (I Want My Mama), and The Wedding Samba (the last two with the Andrews Sisters).