Carmen Miranda, Reconsidered

Carmen Miranda: 1909-1955

In an earlier post about some of my favorite Brazilian music, I made a somewhat dismissive comment that there's more to it than a woman wearing fruit on her head. I also included a photo of Carmen Miranda, the singer to whom I was referring, whose trademark was indeed headgear resembling a fruit basket and other elaborate creations.  

When I captioned the photo, I wanted to include the years of her birth and death, and was surprised to discover that she died relatively young at the age of 46.  This got me curious, so I started to do some basic web research on Ms. Miranda.  

She was born in Portugal in 1909, but the family emigrated to Rio de Janeiro when she was 10 months old.  She never gave up her Portuguese citizenship and never became a Brazilian citizen, a fact that annoyed some Brazilians when she became perhaps the most famous Brazilian of her era.

She enjoyed dancing and singing from a very young age, but had to go to work in a store selling ties when she was 14.  She later worked in a shop where she learned to make hats, and then went on to open her own hat shop. She continued to pursue this interest during her singing career, designing her own hats and costumes.  

Her first record was produced in 1929, when she was only 20 years old, and her fame in Brazil grew quickly in the 1930s.  She sang on the radio, and appeared in Brazilian films.  Here's a clip from the 1939 film "Banana de Terra":

By 1939, she had already signed a contract with RCA records, as well as a film contract in Hollywood.  She appeared in a series of American films, dressed in elaborate costumes and singing what we might consider to be "novelty songs," such as "Mamãe Eu Quero":

With her voice, the hat, the costume, and the jewelry, she put on quite a show, and the American public loved it. She was a real Hollywood success story. She was presented to President Franklin Roosevelt at the White House, and to quote Wikipedia: "By 1946 she was Hollywood's highest-paid entertainer and top female tax payer in the United States, earning more than $200,000 that year (=$2.2 million in 2010 adjusted for inflation), according to IRS records." 

Her huge income really got my attention, because it meant she made more money than her contemporaries, such as Ingrid Bergman, Betty Grable, and Judy Garland.  

She even appeared in a film with Groucho Marx, who seemed to appreciate her talents:

She also recorded several singles with the Andrews Sisters, one of which, "Cuanto La Gusta," was a big hit.  

In 1940, on a return trip to Brazil, Ms. Miranda came under harsh criticism for selling out to Hollywood, becoming overly commercial, and being "too American."  In retaliation, she recorded a song titled "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada", or "They Say I've Come Back Americanized." She did not return to Brazil for 14 years.

She married a failed film producer in 1947, but her husband turned out to be abusive, and her family claimed that he only married her for her money. Carmen, a Roman Catholic, refused to seek a divorce.  

She was a heavy smoker and drinker, and also started using amphetamines and barbiturates, which had a negative effect on her health.  

In 1955, she had a heart attack while performing on Jimmy Durante's live TV show.  She fell, but got up, finished the show, and went home, where she had a second, fatal heart attack later that evening.  

So, after learning all of this, I have to admit that I felt rather guilty for being so  dismissive of her in my earlier post.  Not only that, I became interested in her music and have been enjoying listening to it.  Yes, the recordings are scratchy, and the songs sound old-fashioned, but she really does have a great voice and she sings with both humor and emotion.  

For a sample of some of her songs in addition to the ones above, try "Alô, Alô," "Camisa Listada," "O Cachorro Vira Lata," "Diz Que Tem," "Adeus Batucada," and "Deixa Falar."  They are all available in a variety of compilations on iTunes and/or Amazon.  Most have not been remastered, but they all have catchy tunes, so be warned that in spite of your best intentions, they may get stuck in your head after just a few listenings.  

One of the things you'll notice right away is that Carmen Miranda's Portuguese does not sound like the Brazilian Portuguese that we're accustomed to hearing. The most noticeable difference is her very strongly trilled "r," both at the beginning of words and for "rr", where we would expect to hear some sort of an "h" sound.  With Carmen, these are clearly articulated Spanish-sounding "r's".  However, she does pronounce "s" at the end of a word or syllable as "sh".  She does not seem to palatalize either "d" or "t" where we might expect to hear it.  Since she grew up in Rio de Janeiro, and was only 10 months old when her family left Portugal, it's hard to know exactly what influenced her pronunciation, but it doesn't seem to fit neatly into any one regional dialect. 

Today, Carmen Miranda has become something of a cult figure, and she has also been a favorite for generations of drag queens.  

I wrote this post as a tribute to the memory of Carmen Miranda, to whom I should have given more respect in my original post about Brazilian music, and as a suggestion that you sample her music if you haven't already.  

Whatever you may think of her as a singer, she represented the face of Brazil to millions of Americans in the 1940s and early 1950s.  Rest in peace, Carmen.