Carmen Miranda

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• published: 10 May 2016
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Carmen Miranda, was born on February 9, 1909. Miranda's films came under harsh scrutiny by Latin American audiences for characterizing Central and South America in a culturally homogenous way. Her film, Down Argentine Way (1940), was banned in Argentina, for "wrongfully portraying life in Buenos Aires. Similar sentiments arose in Cuba after the debut of the film, Weekend in Havana (1941). Cuban audiences were offended by Miranda's portrayal of a Cuban female. Reviewers asserted that an import from Rio could not possibly portray a woman from Havana. In the film Miranda does not dance anything Cuban. Miranda's performances were merely hybridizations of Brazilian culture. On 24 March 1941, Carmen Miranda became one of the first Latinas to leave her hand and footprints in the sidewalk of Grauman's Chinese Theater. In its release week, the film Weekend in Havana went to the top of the box office and topped the now-classic Citizen Kane, which was in its second week of release. In 1942, 20th Century-Fox paid sixty thousand dollars to Lee Shubert to end her contract with Miranda. She finished her Sons o' Fun tour and began filming Springtime in the Rockies with Fox. It grossed about $2 million mark, staying among the ten most successful films at the box office in 1942. The film reviewed by the Chicago Tribune as “senseless, but eye intriguing… The basic plot is splashed over with songs and dances and the mouthings and eye and hand work of Carmen Miranda, who sure would be up a tree if she ever had to sing in the dark.” By 1945, she had become Hollywood's highest-paid entertainer and top female taxpayer in the United States, earning more than $200,000 that year ($2.6 million in 2016 adjusted for inflation). When Carmen's contract with 20th Century Fox expired on January 1, 1946, she made the decision to pursue her acting career free of the constraints of the studios. Her ambition was to play a genuinely leading role and to show off her comic skills, which she sets out to do in the independent production for United Artists, Copacabana (1947) alongside Groucho Marx.[70] While the films were modest hits, film critics and the American public did not accept Miranda's new image. In 1947, to achieve more creative freedom in a film she was making, Carmen decided to produce her own film. It was called Copacabana and she played opposite Groucho Marx. The budget was divided into around ten sponsors' quotas. A Texan investor, who held one of the quotas, sent his brother David Sebastian to keep an eye on Carmen and look after his interests on the film set. His position allowed him to get close to Carmen and they started to date. On 17 March 1947, Miranda married Sebastian. In 1948 she became pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage after a show. The marriage lasted only a few months, but Carmen, who was Catholic, would not accept getting a divorce. In September 1949, the couple announced their separation, but they later reconciled. Before leaving for the United States and before meeting her husband, Carmen had a relationship with the young Mario Cunha and bon vivant Carlos da Rocha Faria, son of a traditional family of Rio de Janeiro, and also the musician Aloysio de Oliveira, one of the "Bando da Lua" members. In the US, she maintained relationships with the Mexican Arturo de Córdova, Dana Andrews, Harold Young and John Wayne, and the Brazilian Carlos Niemeyer. In her later years, in addition to her already heavy smoking and alcohol consumption, Miranda began taking amphetamines and barbiturates, all of which took a toll on her health. In April 1955, Carmen performed at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, and in July, in Cuba. Thereafter, she returned to Los Angeles to recuperate from a recurring bronchial ailment. On August 4, 1955, Miranda was shooting a segment for the filmed NBC variety series The Jimmy Durante Show. According to Durante, Miranda had complained of feeling unwell before filming. Durante offered to get Miranda a replacement but she declined. After completing a song and dance number, "Jackson, Miranda, and Gomez", with Durante, she fell to one knee. Durante later said of the incident, "I thought she had slipped. She got up and said she was out of breath. I told her I'll take her lines. But she goes ahead with them. We finished work about 11 o'clock and she seemed happy." At around 4 a.m. on August 5, 1955, Miranda suffered a fatal heart attack at her home in Beverly Hills. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography 2006, "Her death was officially reported as a heart attack, but it was later revealed that the 46-year-old star was pregnant, and died of pre-eclampsia -- a pregnancy-related condition characterized by high blood pressure and kidney malfunction.