NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1. See, for example, “Carmen Miranda is Dead at 41; Movie Comedienne and Dancer,” New York Times, Aug. 6, 1955; “Carmen Miranda Dies of Heart Attack at Age 41,” Los Angeles Mirror-News, Aug. 6, 1955.

2. “Carmen Miranda Paid Final Tribute by 300,” Examiner, Aug. 9, 1955; “Requiem Mass Celebrated for Carmen Miranda,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 9, 1955.

3. See “Ainda em Hollywood o corpo de Carmen Miranda,” Correio da manhã, Aug. 9, 1955; and “Confirmado: Sexta-feira no Galeão o corpo da Carmen!” Última hora [Rio de Janeiro], Aug. 9, 1955.

4. The baiana—as will be discussed in detail in Chapter 1, refers to a woman from the Northeastern state of Bahia and who, often in traditional dress, would carry her wares in baskets and on trays balanced on a turban on her head.

5. See Augusto Frederico Schmidt, “Carmen Miranda,” O diário [Santos—Estado de São Paulo], Aug. 21, 1955.

6. “Carmen Miranda Eulogized in Rio,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 13, 1955.

7. Gazeta do rádio, Aug. 6, 1955.

8. For excellent summaries of Miranda’s films and a close reading of her Hollywood screen performances see Shaw, Carmen, 38–82.

9. For a discussion of the concept of an icon, see O’Connor and Niebylski, Latin American Icons, 1.

10. Available only in VHS format are Springtime in the Rockies (1942) and Scared Stiff (1953).

11. Contrary to Kirsten Pullen’s erroneous claim that Alô, alô, carnaval! is no longer extant (127), it was restored in 2002 and is available for viewing at the filmothèque of the MAM in Rio.

12. For a discussion of this in-betweenness see James Mandrell.

13. The Brazilian expression “taí” is a contraction for “está aí,” which can be translated as “here is” or “that’s” and is used to introduce someone or something.

14. See, for example, the article and telling title of Tinhorão’s “Carmen Miranda levou Bando da Lua aos EUA por inspiração de Getúlio” (Carmen Miranda took Bando da Lua to the United States thanks to Getúlio) that appeared in Jornal do Brasil on July 20, 1962.

15. See Eaton, Politics Beyond the Capital, 74 and 77–80.

16. See Clark, “Doing the Samba on the Sunset Boulevard,” for the Hollywoodization of Carmen Miranda’s music.

CHAPTER 1

1. A great number of the films made by the Downey-Cinédia partnership were stored at the Sonofilm location and destroyed in a fire in November 1940. The Cinédia film archive suffered a serious flood at its Jacarepaguá installation in 1996.

2. Macumba is a syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion in which the priestesses play a most important part. Here the term is used pejoratively to refer by association to the women practitioners of macumba.

3. This cultural and racial hierarchy was a widely circulated discourse among certain intellectual circles of the Northeast, deriving, as Matory discusses, not from the ethnographers themselves but from explicit claims by African-Brazilian priests and travelers (61).

4. “Pano da costa” can be literally translated as “cloth from the coast.” It featured prominently among a few prize commodities such as pepper, straw, and soap that were imported from the “costa” (the West Coast of Africa) and were still being sold in Brazil during the first decades of the twentieth century (Pierson 239). Matory indicates: “Brazilians have long called western Africa ‘the Coast’ (a Costa), pars pro toto, and identified it as the classical origin of the finest in Afro-Brazilian culture” (50). For a detailed ethno-aesthetic analysis of the pano da costa, complete with the symbolism of the colors, the choice of fabric, and the socio-religious connotations, see Lody, O que é que a baiana tem. See also the details of the baiana outfit that confirm Pierson’s description in Lody, Pencas de balangandãs, 27.

5. There are many variants of the term: berenguenden, balançançan, cambaio, and penca (Pierson, Negroes in Brazil, 246n11); barangandã, balangandã, and belenguendéns (Ribeiro, Folclore baiano, 26).

6. For a reading of the balangandãs and other jewelry that the street vendors ubiquitously wore, see Graham, Feeding the City, 43–44.

7. See Beira-mar, Mar. 7, 1936, 12; and “Onde estão as baianas?” (Where are the baianas?), A tarde, June 23, 1936 (qtd. in Pierson, Negroes in Brazil, 248n17).

8. The filhas de santo are women who are consecrated to the worship of the orishas or emissaries of the gods of the Yoruba religion. The mães de terreiro are the priestesses who officiate during the religious ceremonies.

9. Carvalho indicates that the Bahians comprised only 1.49 per cent of the city’s total population according to the 1920 census and that the term may have been used loosely (140).

10. Here I am guided by Foucault’s definition of this concept of juxtaposed spaces developed in “Of Other Spaces,” 25.

11. For a discussion of the Bahian leadership in this context, see Velloso, A cultura das ruas, 26–28 and 36–38.

12. Another commonly used term for these street vendors is quitandeira, which derives from the Kimbundu term for market, kitanda.

13. The Tenentes do Diabo (who presented for the first time in 1867), the Democráticos (created in 1867), and the Fenianos (1869) were three of the most important Carnival associations or clubs that were well liked by the public and existed until the 1940s, when these types of associations appeared antiquated in comparison to the emergence of samba schools.

14. Heitor dos Prazeres, one of the most influential composers and singers of this period, is featured in baiana-drag in Cabral, As escolas de samba, 59.

15. See J. Green, Beyond Carnival, 1.

16. See Cleto, Camp, 32.

17. James Green provides a wonderful overview of the balls of the falsas baianas during the 1950s in Beyond Carnival, “Carnival Queens and Drag Balls,” 211–19.

18. For a thorough discussion of the “Falsa baiana” see McCann, Hello, Hello Brazil, 81–82.

19. References to Carnival 1942 can be found in O cruzeiro, Feb. 14, 1942 (qtd. in Garcia, O ‘it verde e amarelo’ de Carmen Miranda, 119). Critics have repeated Martha Gil-Montero’s comments about the prominence of Miranda’s baiana in Carnival in the 1940s, but without further documental substance. See Gil-Montero, Brazilian Bombshell, 152–53.

20. The title of their parade can be loosely translated as “Hello, hello, here you have it: Carmen Miranda” merging the “Alô, alô” part from the beginning of the titles of two of her Brazilian films, Alô, alô, Brasil! and Alô, alô, carnaval!, with the title of her first commercial success, “Taí,” recorded in 1930. In the case of Império Serrano’s title, “Taí” evokes the song itself more than the meaning of the expression. The lyrics of the Império Serrano’s song also brought in another of Miranda’s most popular hits, “Cai, cai” (Fall, fall), by the composer Roberto Martins, recorded in 1939 and later performed by Miranda in That Night in Rio (1941).

21. See DaMatta, Carnivals, Rogues, and Heroes, 96 and Pinto, O negro no Rio de Janeiro, 248.

22. Manchete, Aug. 12, 1978: 46.

23. For a thorough discussion of the street vendors in Salvador, Bahia, see chapter 2, “From Streets and Doorways,” in Graham, Feeding the City, 33–53. Although Graham does not discuss the socio-economic difference between the street vendors, he provides a detailed analysis of their wares, dress, and what they used to carry their goods on their heads.

24. The original is bruxa de pano, also known as bonecra, etymologically close to the contemporary Portuguese form of doll, boneca. Bonecra is still used as a popular form in certain regions such as the Azores.

25. See Barros, Corações De Chocolat, 28–29 and Tinhorão, Música popular, 64.

26. See Barros 29; Castro, Carmen, 171; and Neyde Veneziano, “O sistema vedete,” Revista repertório Feb. 17, 2011.

27. See Gomes and Seigel, “Sabina’s Oranges,” 17 and Shaw, “What does the baiana have?,” 94–95.

28. See Hertzman, Making Samba, 124.

29. See Diário carioca, Jan. 8, 1939: 9.

30. See Afonso Arinos’s statements on the disjunction of the different regions of Brazil delivered in a conference circa 1915 in Belo Horizonte then published posthumously as A unidade da pátria in 1917.

31. See Lisa Shaw’s careful reading of this topic in “São Coisas Nossas: Samba and Identity in the Vargas Era (1930–45).”

32. The marchas or marchinhas were seasonal songs created with the celebrations of Carnival in mind and greatly popular during the 1920s and 1930s. The lyrics are often irreverent, but because of the songs’ quick tempo, the suggestion of double meanings, and the inversion of values during Carnival, the overall effect is merriment and gaiety, where all is permitted and nothing is censored. The melodies are typically simple, catchy tunes, making them favorites for Carnival and the revue theater.

33. For a very insightful reading of the 1930s vogue for live radio programs in Brazil and Miranda’s participation on the Programa Casé, the pioneering radio showcase for live performances, see McCann, Hello, Hello Brazil, 48–49.

34. For a detailed account of the genesis of “Aquarela do Brasil,” its rise to the status of unofficial national anthem, and its impact on popular music, see McCann, Hello, Hello Brazil, 70–78.

35. In the “News of the Radio” section of Beira-mar, the journalist S. G. Levy writes: “Carmen Miranda the queen of samba, has recorded another hit . . . ‘O que é que a baiana tem?’” “Radiofónicas,” Beira-mar, Apr. 1, 1939: 6.

36. For a succinct reading of the baiana-themed song lyrics, see Garcia, O ‘it verde e amarelo’ de Carmen Miranda, 123–31.

37. Manchete Aug. 12, 1978: 46.

38. See Brício de Abreu, “O ‘fenômeno’ Carmen Miranda no teatro,” Diário da noite [Rio de Janeiro], Aug. 1955.

39. See “Chanchada: alegria e dois mitos,” O globo, Aug. 5, 1973: 7.

40. For specific dates and an exhaustive list of Miranda’s performances and public appearances from 1929 to 1939 in Brazil and Argentina, see Cardoso Junior, Carmen Miranda, 18–27.

41. Ruy Castro rightly observes that pequena in the original nickname was a synonym of garota (young girl), rather than a reference to her small stature (Carmen, 97).

42. There is no mention of Carmen Miranda in Getúlio Vargas’s thirteen diaries compiled in two volumes, even though he does mention meeting female musicians and artists such as Margarida Lopes and Brazilian football players and other professional athletes. In October 1937 Vargas takes a serious mistress, whom he refers to as his “bem-amada” (beloved) and who adds adventure and, perhaps more importantly, momentary happiness to Vargas’s depressive life until her departure from Rio in June 1938. It is highly unlikely that Miranda is this mysterious lover. Ana Rita Mendonça also makes reference to these unfounded rumors (Carmen Miranda, 56).

43. Pranove, May 1939: 20.

44. See Marshall’s definition of the celebrity as a unique identity (Celebrity and Power, 43).

45. Female performers and singers such as Araci Cortes, Dircinha Batista, or Aracy de Almeida seemed to draw from Miranda’s style in their own performances, often singing the same songs and performing at similar venues around Rio. For a discussion of the differences and overlap between Cortes and Miranda in particular, see Castro, Carmen, 50.

46. This is quoted in Jota Efegê, Figuras e coisas, 103, originally published in Beira-mar, Nov. 10, 1929: 1.

47. “Carmen Miranda,” Cinearte, June 1, 1938: 13. Carmen Miranda was one of the first female personalities in Brazil to be associated with having “it,” a concept that had been popular in Hollywood since the late 1920s when Clara Bow became “the It Girl.” The expression “it” was first coined by the British novelist, scriptwriter, and glamor icon Elinor Glyn (1864–1943), who wrote a 1927 novel titled precisely “It” in which she defines the concept as “that strange magnetism” that attracts both sexes, and even cats (10).

48. Beira-mar of October 26, 1935, featured several photographs of the two sisters, both in the main issue and its supplement. See pages 1, 2, and 8.

49. See “Microphonemas,” Beira-mar, Feb. 22, 1936: 6.

50. See the media’s criticism of Yvone Cabral’s efforts to imitate Carmen Miranda in “Microphonemas,” Beira-mar, Feb. 2, 1935: 6; and the praise of the then upcoming singer and actress Durvalina Duarte as “the Carmen Miranda of ‘Casa do Caboclo,’” the famous theater company situated in the central Tiradentes square in Rio in “Teatro,” Beira-mar, May 4, 1935: 6. Several years later, the same publication praised the performances of actress Deonor Amar, calling her the “Carmen Miranda of Ipanema” as a point of reference, in “Radiofonices,” Beira-mar, Mar. 15, 1939: 5.

51. There are several different versions of this story. Ruy Castro claims that after the chaos of the prostitution scene, the renowned comic Palitos (and uncle of soon-to-be famous comedian Oscarito) managed to calm the audience, Carmen came on stage to sing “Taí,” and the show went on (Castro, Carmen, 59–60).

52. Lisa Shaw mentions that Miranda may have appeared in an earlier film, A esposa do solteiro (The bachelor’s wife), in 1925 but that this is not verifiable (Carmen, 11).

53. André Filho is mostly remembered nowadays for the unofficial hymn of Rio, the marcha “Cidade maravilhosa” (Marvelous city), composed for Carnival 1935 and sung by Aurora Miranda in the film Alô, alô, Brasil.

54. Cena muda, Feb. 9, 1935: 5. Qtd. in Garcia, O ‘it verde e amarelo,’ 72.

55. Beira-mar, Apr. 6, 1935: 5.

56. See Alfredo Sade, A batalha [Rio de Janeiro], Feb. 7, 1935, and “Cartas mineiras de São Paulo,” Gazeta de notícias [Rio de Janeiro], Mar. 19, 1935. Quoted in Gonzaga, 50 anos, 44–45. See also “Alô, alô, Brasil!,” Correio da noite [Rio de Janeiro], Jan. 29, 1935.

57. “Alô, alô, Brasil!,” Correio da noite [Rio de Janeiro], Jan. 29, 1935 and “Alô, alô, Brasil!,” A plateia [São Paulo], Feb. 11, 1935.

58. According to Garcia, Wallace Downey was more in tune with the realities of the market and favored releasing the popular carnivalesque films at the beginning of the year, followed in early winter by films with some relation to the June Festival (O ‘it verde e amarelo,’ 74). In Estudantes, one of Carmen Miranda’s songs, “Sonho de papel” (Paper dream), is homage to the São João Festival.

59. One reviewer qualifies Estudantes as a “film full of unpardonable defects” and places the blame on Adhemar Gonzaga. “We are no longer in a position to accept a mediocre film only because it is a national production. We need to end this patriotism, that doesn’t get us anywhere or bring any benefits to Brazilian cinema. . . . We no longer have the right to produce poor quality films. . . . We have all the technology at our disposal.” “Estudantes, estreado,” July 8, 1935. Unmarked newspaper cutting from the Cinédia Archive.

60. There is a strong trend of radio-influenced films in Hollywood, especially during the early 1930s, that included either fictive story lines about radio singers or plots as vehicles for genuine radio singers and broadcasters, along with innumerous mentions of radio broadcasting in general. See Etling, Radio in the Movies, 66–67.

61. Walter Rocha, “Filmando,” Beira-mar, Aug. 1, 1936: 6.

62. For an overview of the success of these films, due in part to the ready-made viewing public accustomed to live radio shows and talent contests, see Shaw, The Social History, 54.

63. According to its pressbook, the film grossed almost three times what it cost to make during its first year alone, a record at the time that would only later be surpassed by Bonequinha de seda (Oduvaldo Vianna, 1936) and Miranda’s last Brazilian film before her departure to Broadway, Banana da terra (Ruy Costa, 1939). Alô, alô, carnaval! Pressbook (2002): 11. Published for the restored film’s screening and generously provided by Alice Gonzaga.

64. Walter Rocha, “Alô, alô, carnaval!,” Beira-mar, Apr. 4, 1936: 6.

65. In the restored version of the film, “Cantoras do rádio” is the film’s last number. However, according to the information included in the pressbook, in the original 1936 film version, the final number was “Manhãs de sol” (Sunny mornings), sung by Francisco Alves. When Adhemar Gonzaga reassembled the frames of the film in 1974, he placed “Cantoras do rádio” last, and this is the order that the restored version follows. Alô, alô, carnaval! Pressbook (2002): 11, 13.

66. See Beira-mar, Feb. 1, 1936: 5.

67. Rebolar, literally to “twist the hips,” is a common samba female dance step where the hips sway in a circular motion while the dancer stays in her axis position. See Coelho, “Carmen Miranda,” 137.

68. Shaw, drawing from João Luiz Vieira, develops an analysis of Miranda’s performative style for this number as one that appears “very aware of the kinetic power of cinema, which she exploits to the maximum, producing a kind of hypnotic effect on the spectator” (Carmen, 32).

69. “Carnaval em Copacabana,” Beira-mar, Mar. 11, 1939: 1.

70. For a discussion of the importance of Alô, alô, carnaval! in the development of Brazilian film, see Dennison and Shaw, Popular Cinema in Brazil, 38–45.

71. Banana da terra was the first of the Sonofilms fruit-themed musical films. It was followed by Laranja da china (1939) and Abacaxi azul (1944).

72. Tinhorão provides an overview of the plot but erroneously states that Miranda, in a duet with Almirante, sings “Boneca de pixe,” which, as I discuss in Chapter 2, is pulled from the film at the last minute (Música popular, 257).

73. The Diário carioca of February 12, 1939, features a photo spread of Dircinha Batista and Carmen Miranda in their respective costumes (20).

74. “Folia cinematográfica, eis o que define bem Banana da terra,” Diário carioca, Jan. 28, 1939: 7.

75. Diário carioca, Feb. 5, 1939: 20 and Feb. 12, 1939: 3.

76. Ibid., Feb. 12, 1939: 3.

77. Ibid., Feb. 18, 1939: 7.

78. Ibid., Feb. 16, 1939: 5 and Correio da manhã, Feb. 16, 1939: 14.

79. Diário carioca, Feb. 5, 1939: 20.

80. Ibid., Feb. 8, 1939: 7.

81. Ibid., Feb. 9, 1939: 7 and Feb. 12, 1939: 3.

82. See, respectively, the announcements for “Bailes de Carnaval” at the Alhambra in Diário carioca, Feb. 18, 1939: 10 and Feb. 3, 1940: 10; children dressed in baiana costumes in Diário carioca, Feb. 26, 1939; publicity still of Deo Maia in Está tudo aí in Diário carioca, Feb. 23, 1939: 7.

83. Oito dias: Revista carioca, Feb. 24, 1940: 24–25.

CHAPTER 2

1. As Skidmore discusses, the post Second World War wave of political liberation in Asia and Africa made any ideological conviction based on a whitening ideal unsustainable (Black into White, 214).

2. As an example of this racist discourse, see Afrânio Peixoto’s Minha terra, minha gente (My land, my people), an educational text written in the mid-1910s that predicts within three centuries Brazil would be depleted of “the black blood imposed upon the nation” (220).

3. This model of integration would no longer be followed during the more significant black movement of the 1970s, which emphasized an adamant revalorization of Afro-Brazilianness and a rejection of the assimilative process. See “Notes on Racial and Political Inequality in Brazil” by Carlos Hasenbalg and Nelson do Valle Silva for a discussion of these movements set within the racial discourse of the 1930s and 1970s.

4. See Skidmore, Black into White, 180–85.

5. For an insightful discussion of Freyre at the helm of the transformation of attitudes toward miscegenation in Brazil, see Vianna, The Mystery of Samba, 53–66.

6. See Hanchard, “Culturalism,” 67 and Davis, Avoiding the Dark, 79.

7. See L. Reis, “Negro em ‘terra de branco,’” 41–42.

8. See Fernandes, The Negro in Brazilian Society, 187–88.

9. See Degler, Neither Black nor White, 139 and Skidmore, Black into White, 212.

10. See also Bastide and Fernandes, Brancos e negros em São Paulo, 301–4.

11. Although this body of research was conducted during the early 1950s, we can safely surmise that the racial discrimination was similar, and most likely worse, several decades earlier.

12. See Davis, White Face, xix.

13. For a history of Cuban blackface theater, see Robin Moore, chapter 2, “Minstrelsy in Havana. Music and Dance of the Teatro Vernáculo,” 41–62.

14. De Chocolat was the more common name of João Cândido Ferreira, who apparently was known by this nickname while in France because of his dark skin color and his namesake Chocolat (1868–1917), a famous black performer of the Parisian circus and theater. De Chocolat continued to go by this name upon returning to Brazil, adding a foreign flare to his stage name.

15. See also Skidmore, Black into White, 212.

16. I am influenced here by Serge Gruzinski’s discussion of mimicry in the colonial context, in which mimicry is a tool for integration and Westernization through “access to a market” (The Mestizo Mind, 59).

17. For a detailed discussion of this samba, see Coelho, “Carmen Miranda,” 56. The last part of the samba is as follows: In samba, whites break into pieces / In samba, a good black has a swell time / In samba, whites don’t have a chance, my good friend / For samba—blacks are born to do it (qtd. in Davis, “Racial Parity,” 194).

18. Diário da tarde [Recife], Oct. 31, 1932.

19. Here my reading is guided by hooks, Black Looks, 26.

20. On the process of cultural interaction, see Gruzinski, The Mestizo Mind, 26.

21. Roach insists on the term “circum-Atlantic” (49), as opposed to trans-Atlantic, to underscore the compelling truth of the cultural exchange built up across imperial networks, as discussed by Paul Gilroy.

22. Miranda and Almirante never recorded “Pirolito,” either together or separately, but there is a recording of this carnivalesque marcha by Nílton Paz dating from January 1939.

23. Coelho believes that Miranda and Almirante performed the song “Pirolito” with the same costumes prepared for “Boneca de pixe” and in blackface, and although there is no proof this occurred, there is also no proof to the contrary (“Carmen Miranda,” 77).

24. According to the Anuário estatístico do Brasil 1939/1940, 508,059 visitors came to the show that year, and it was open for forty-two days. If the report in the Correio da manhã is accurate, one-third of all visitors would have come to the show the day Miranda and Almirante performed.

25. Correio popular [Campinas], Jan. 31, 1939: 3. Qtd. in Cardoso, Carmen Miranda, 126.

26. Diário carioca, Feb. 25, 1939: 7.

27. “Joujoux and balangandãs” was the title of a song written by the popular composer Lamartine Babo for this revue, and it ended up giving the show its name. The film Joujoux e balangandãs included another Ari Barroso hit, “Aquarela do Brasil” (Watercolor of Brazil), and the participation of Dorival Caymmi, no longer the unknown Bahian composer, with two other songs. One of the film’s recurring themes is the baiana, also projected in the songs “Nós temos balangandãs” (We have balangandãs) and “Yayá baianinha” (Yayá the young baiana), fitting with the widespread baiana vogue of late-1930s Brazilian theater and cinema. Here a new twist is added to the theme with the juxtaposition of chic French references evoked in both the title and the inclusion of musical numbers such as “Quartier Latin” (the Latin Quarter), “La Lampe” (The lamp), and “Muguets de Paris” (Lilies of Paris).

28. The December 1938 issue of Cinearte features a page of New Year wishes from celebrities. Alongside Almirante, Carlos Galhardo, Dircinha Batista, Cesar Ladeira and many others, Miranda wishes the magazine all the happiness in the world (“um milhão de felicidades”) and signs the greeting from “Boneca de pixe, Carmen Miranda” (13).

29. The maracatu choreographed pageant (a black tradition brought from Recife to Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará, in the mid-1930s) faced the problem of representing black personages with prominently white and brown-skinned Cearenses, and the solution was to introduce blackface, referred to as falso negrume (false blackness). See Ronald Conner, “Brazilian Blackface.”

30. For a reading of blackface that takes into account both gender and sexuality, see Lori Harrison-Kahan, The White Negress, 23–57.

31. According to Mahar, most of the blackface routines confirm that the real essence of minstrelsy was burlesque (Behind the Burnt Cork Mask, 335).

32. This fits with Mahar’s claim that “minstrel performers usually avoided intellectually difficult issues, preferring instead more direct approaches to their comic material” (Behind, 346).

33. For a discussion of minstrelsy, gender roles, cross-dressing, and misogyny, see Mahar, Behind, 283; 307–11.

34. On Broadway, for the most part, it would appear that Miranda wore a light foundation, but nothing very dark. In my archival research, I only found two references to her performing with distinctively dark make-up. In an article for the New York Herald Tribune, “Gloom Alternates with Joy in the Broadway Box Office, but Twelve Going Concerns is Really not Bad for July,” Herbert Drake refers to Miranda’s “dark tan” (July 16, 1939: E1), and in an article in the Philadelphia Record, February 14, 1940, “Carmen is Good Neighbor Policy in Person,” Helen S. Albertson comments that Miranda “still looked fascinating despite a heavy copper make-up and a most fantastic mouth” (my emphasis).

CHAPTER 3

1. “Potatoe’s Miranda, Brought from Rio, Takes Broadway with an Exciting Flourish,” Houston Chronicle, July 2, 1939 and “Up from Rio,” The New Yorker, Oct. 28, 1939: 15. See also an interview with Claiborne Foster published in “Life in Rio is more Exciting than the Stage to Claiborne Foster,” New York Post, Oct. 21, 1939.

2. The cost of Miranda’s buy-out from her Shubert contract varies between $60,000 and $100,000, depending on the source. Regardless of the exact dollar amount, for the time period it was an astronomical amount of money and corroborates Miranda’s status as a megastar. See F. Hirsch, The Boys from Syracuse, 189.

3. Carmen Miranda’s contract with Select Theatres Corporation, dated March 2, 1939. Shubert Archive, clipping files.

4. Letter from Jay Rice to Lee Shubert, March 27, 1939. My emphasis. Shubert Archive, clipping files.

5. Ibid.

6. “Carmen Miranda Coming Here,” New York Herald Tribune, Apr. 22, 1939.

7. Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1939.

8. Ibid.

9. Joe Flynn, “La Miranda Away from the Footlights,” press release, n.d.

10. Hellzapoppin’ ran from September 22, 1938, to December 17, 1941. See S. Green, Broadway Musicals, 103.

11. Two examples of this trend were the very successful Irving Berlin/Moss Hart “newspaper” revue As Thousands Cheer (1933) and Harold Rome’s Pins and Needles—even more socially conscious but equally entertaining. See S. Green, Broadway Musicals, 2–3; 77.

12. The revue would be cut down to one hour and fifteen minutes when it was taken on the road to Chicago and later brought to the World’s Fair as a tabloid with four performances daily. Several of the original cast left the show at this point, including Miranda, Bobby Clark, and Luella Gear. See Cecil Smith, “The Season in Chicago,” 17.

13. Brooks Atkinson, “The Streets of Paris Moves to Broadway,” New York Times, June 20, 1939: 29.

14. In the New York Herald Tribune, July 16, 1939, and June 30, 1939, respectively.

15. Herbert Drake, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1939: 16.

16. “Streets of Paris Opens Tonight at Broadhurst—Theatrical Business Shows Upturn,” New York Times, June 19, 1939: 12; “Who’s Who in the Cast,” Playbill for The Streets of Paris. Shubert Archive, clipping file.

17. See “The Streets of Paris Corrected Script,” Feb. 10, 1940. Shubert Archive.

18. Jean Sablon, sometimes referred to as the French Bing Crosby, was extremely popular as a singer and actor, second only to Maurice Chevalier; Yvonne Bouvier was relatively unknown.

19. Lyrics from The Streets of Paris clipping file, Shubert Archive.

20. Henry F. Pringle, “Rolling up from Rio,” Colliers, Aug. 12, 1939: 23.

21. Sunday Mirror, July 23, 1939; PIC, Aug. 22, 1939: 21; “Broadway Likes Miranda’s Piquant Portuguese Songs,” LIFE, July 17, 1939: 32 and 34; and “Broadway got her from Brazil,” Tribune, June 25, 1939.

22. See, for example, Elliot Norton, “Brazilian Beauty Arrives in Hub,” Boston Post, May 29, 1939: 11.

23. New York World-Telegram, June 10, 1939. My emphasis.

24. See also the New York Herald Tribune, June 9, 1939: 18.

25. “The Aging Broadway Season Takes a New Lease on Life,” New York Herald Tribune, June 18, 1939.

26. “News of the Theater,” New York Herald Tribune, June 13, 1939: 16.

27. “A New Star in the White Lights on Broadway,” Times, July 2, 1939: RP8.

28. See Sunday Mirror [New York], July 23, 1939; Herbert Drake, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1939: 16; and “Brazilian Bombshell,” PIC, Aug. 22, 1939: 21.

29. “The ‘Sous’-American Way: Carmen Miranda is Inca Goddess of Good Luck to the Cast of ‘The Streets of Paris’—And to Herself,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 9, 1939.

30. New York Journal and American, Dec. 2, 1939. The wording of this article is identical to an undated press release by C. P. Greneker, also in the Shubert Archive clipping files.

31. Herbert Drake, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1939: 16. My emphasis.

32. Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 72.

33. C. P. Greneker, “Carmen Miranda’s nickname,” undated press release (circa August 1941).

34. Herbert Drake, “Gloom Alternates with Joy in the Broadway Box Office, but Twelve Going Concerns is Really not Bad for July,” New York Herald Tribune, July 16, 1939: E1.

35. Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 72.

36. Robert D. McFadden, “Peter Kihss, Reporter for 49 Years, is Dead at 72,” New York Times, Dec. 30, 1984: 18.

37. Peter Kihss, “Gestures Put It Over for Miranda. ‘Con Movimiento’—That’s Her Creation,” World-Telegram, July 8, 1939.

38. Ibid.

39. Herbert Drake, New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1939: 16. Irene Sharaff had been working on Broadway for over ten years when she designed the costumes for The Streets of Paris (Owen, Costume Design on Broadway, 143).

40. Women’s Wear Daily, June 22, 1939: 2.

41. Michel Mok, “Ogling New Yorkers, to Carmen Miranda, are the Best Caballeros in Pan-America,” New York Post, June 23, 1939.

42. Newark Evening News, July 14, 1939.

43. Where to Go, Dec. 9, 1939.

44. New York World Telegram, May 17, 1939.

45. Letter from Jay Rice to Lee Shubert, March 27, 1939. Shubert Archive, clipping files.

46. New York World-Telegram, May 17, 1939.

47. Joe Flynn, “La Miranda Away From the Footlights,” undated press release. Shubert Archive.

48. Boston Evening Transcript, June 3, 1939.

49. Michel Mok, “Ogling New Yorkers, to Carmen Miranda, are the Best Caballeros in Pan-America,” New York Post, June 23, 1939.

50. One such word was “air-condeeshioend,” which she apparently memorized off a “sign board.” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1939.

51. Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1939.

52. Brooks Atkinson, “‘The Streets of Paris’ Moves to Broadway,” New York Times, June 20, 1939: 29.

53. See, for example, Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1939.

54. For instance, on the “Playbill” the song “South American Way” is indicated as sung by a large group of performers along with Carmen Miranda (listed in capital letters). The “Playbill” indicates the number is: “Sung by Ramon Vinay, Margo, Kate and Evelyn Hylton, Della Lind, The Show Girls; and danced by Jo and Jeanne Readinger, Gower and Jeanne, The Dancing Girls and Boys, and CARMEN MIRANDA.” See also Colliers, Aug. 12, 1939: 23.

55. St. Louis Post, Oct. 29, 1939.

56. “Brazilian Songstress Who Can’t Speak English Giving Blase Times Square a Thrill,” Newark Evening News, July 14, 1939.

57. See Joyce Dana, “Carmen, Rio Style. This One Has a Last Name (It’s Miranda). And She’s the Good Neighbor Policy Itself,” Boston Evening Transcript, June 3, 1939; and Newark Evening News, July 14, 1939.

58. “Carmen Gets Unneeded Vocabulary,” Parade, Oct. 5, 1941.

59. “Carmen Miranda Loaves America—And Vice Versa,” Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 72.

60. Harry Evans, “Hollywood Diary,” The Family Circle, Aug. 8, 1941: 10.

61. Evening Bulletin, February 1, 1940.

62. Julian Dibbell, “Notes on Carmen,” Village Voice, Oct. 29, 1991.

63. This micro-managing by Zanuck, one of Hollywood’s towering figures for almost half a century who presided over Twentieth Century-Fox from 1935 to 1956 as vice president in charge of production, was not uncharacteristic. A key person in the creation of the Carmen Miranda film-image, Zanuck was known for his strong input regarding story construction and script detail, reading drafts of the scripts and making his own notations in pencil directly on the pages prior to a story conference. The Zanuck conference notes have been preserved along with the various drafts of the scripts, providing an insightful record of the evolution of a project and the modeling of characters and plot. Zanuck produced four of Miranda’s films, namely her first three Twentieth Century-Fox films, Down Argentine Way (1940), That Night in Rio (1941), Week-End in Havana (also 1941), and then If I’m Lucky (1946).

64. Conference with Zanuck on First Draft Continuity of September 25, 1940, dated Sept. 26 and 30, 1940. UCLA Fox Files 2088-3.

65. Marian Cooper, “English the Hard Way,” Screen Life, Dec. 1941.

66. Thomas Nord Riley, “South American Rave,” Screen Life, Oct. 1941: 35.

67. Hollywood, Sept. 1941: 20.

68. For a discussion of these terms, with an expressed preference for the “Brazilian Bombshell,” see Modern Screen, May 1944: 80.

69. Candide, “Love thy Neighbor,” Daily Mirror, May 26, 1939.

70. “Bombers of Good Will,” Time, Nov. 20, 1939: 14.

71. Joe Flynn, “La Miranda Away from the Footlights,” undated press release, Shubert Archive.

72. Joyce Dana, “Carmen, Rio Style,” Boston Evening Transcript, June 3, 1939. The subtitle to this article stresses Miranda’s incarnation of the Good Neighbor Policy: “This One Has a Last Name (It’s Miranda) and She’s the Good Neighbor Policy Itself.”

73. “Broadway got her from Brazil,” Tribune, June 25, 1939.

74. Newark Evening News, July 14, 1939.

75. C. P. Greneker, press release, Aug. 19, 1941.

76. Maurice Zolotow, “South of the Border—On Broadway,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 1940: SM6.

77. For a detailed discussion of Hollywood’s portrayal of Latin American music in the Carmen Miranda films, the incongruity of context, and the simplification and stylization of lyrics and music, see Clark, “Doing the Samba,” 266–68 and 270–72.

78. Dunn discusses Miranda’s music for export in comparison to the “cool sophistication” (7) of bossa nova of the late 1950s, drawing from Oswald de Andrade’s call for a “poetry for export,” a trope that Dunn sees particularly fit as a synecdoche for all forms of cultural production but especially popular music (Brutality Garden, 27).

79. “Don’t Wiggle,” FRIDAY, Mar. 15, 1940: 11. It is highly ironic that several years later, in the 1948 MGM film A Date with Judy, Miranda’s character (Rosita) teaches Wallace Beery (Melvin Foster) to dance the rhumba and declares how easy it is: “a little wiggle here and a little wiggle there, all you have to do is get the right wiggle at the right time!” a dialogue that translates this perception of Latin dance as nothing more than a “wiggle.”

80. Boston Herald, May 29, 1939.

81. Nona Baldwin, “The Samba Down in Rio. The Voodoo Dancers of Brazil Created a Rhythm for the Days of Carnival,” New York Times, Mar. 16, 1941: XX7.

82. Pranove, May 1939: 19–20.

83. Here Bianca Freire-Medeiros is drawing, respectively, from Mary Louise Pratt, “Arts of the Contact Zone,” 33–40 and Gilles Deleuze, “Mediators.”

84. Throughout this discussion I am indebted to Charles Ramírez Berg’s theory of stereotyping, especially the concept of homogeneity and stereotypes as uncontextualized and ahistorical creators of facile abbreviations through repetition. In Miranda’s case, her stereotype remained at the fantastical, performative level and was less believable at face value, unlike some stereotypes that tend to lead to a determined course of action (Latino Images in Film, 16–21).

85. On stereotypes as creators of facile abbreviations through repetition, see Berg, Latino Images in Film, 17–18.

86. C. P. Greneker, undated press release [approximate date November–December 1941]; New York Sun, Oct. 4, 1939.

87. All guest appearances were announced in the “Today on the Radio” column of the New York Times.

88. “Música quente para os ‘Yankees’” (Hot music for the “Yankees”), Correio da manhã, May 5, 1939: 14.

89. “Brazil pledged to participate in World’s Fair,” Long Island Daily Star, July 2, 1937. NYWF archives, box 1952, folder 4.

90. Cinearte, Dec. 1, 1938, and Cinearte, Mar. 15, 1939: 14.

91. Coelho claims that the Brazilian government paid for the whole six-member band to travel with Miranda, even though Shubert only guaranteed employment for four (“Carmen Miranda,” 111).

92. See the Official Souvenir Book, the New York World’s Fair 1939.

93. “News of the New York World’s Fair,” Beira-mar, Apr. 1, 1939: 7.

94. Original memo dated April 12, 1939, addressed to Armando Vidal, unsigned (probably from Olin Downes, Director of Music for the New York World’s Fair), submitting the first of two programs to be conducted by Burle Marx for the Brazilian Government in the World Fair’s Hall of Music, May 4, 1939. NYWF Archives, box 302, folder 3.

95. Original memo dated November 14, 1939, from the secretary of A. K. Morgan, public relations for the Fair, to a certain Miss E. Pearson, who had inquired about the Mardi Gras Queens.

96. Original Western Union Direct Wire from Décio de Moura, Secretary General of the Brazilian delegation at the Fair, to Gerald Cole, Supervisor of Import Clearance (and often serving as liaison between the delegations and the Fair commission). July 13, 1939.

97. “Radiofonices,” Beira-mar, June 10, 1939: 5.

98. A memo dated August 24, 1939, from the desk of the Special Events organizer for the Fair, Guy Robinson, to the Associated Press (via A. H. Uhl) makes specific mention of “Miss Carmen Miranda—well-known artist” as part of the talent on the Coffee Day program.

99. Original memo from Saul Richman of Select Theatres Corporation (on behalf of the Shuberts) to Mr. Schwartzman, Special Events Department for the Fair. Oct. 24, 1939.

100. Original photograph, NYWF Archives, box 2002, folder 1.

101. Cena muda, Feb. 20, 1940.

102. Box 1553, folder 8. Article: “Brazilian restaurant,” featured in Gotham Life, The Official Metropolitan Guide 32, no. 5, Aug. 25–31, 1940: 15 and 18. On the overlapping dynamic between Miranda and Houston, see Seigel, Uneven Encounters, 172–78.

103. Malcolm Johnson, “Café Life in New York. Carmen Miranda, Brazilian Singer Star, Will Entertain at Waldorf’s Sert Room,” New York Sun, Oct. 4, 1939.

104. New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 20, 1939: 21.

105. Malcolm Johnson, “Carmen Miranda Still News at the Waldorf—The Paradise Show Revised,” New York Sun, Oct. 17, 1939.

106. See, for example, Theodore Strauss, “News of Night Clubs,” New York Times, Oct. 8, 1939: 136, and a column signed RWD, “Dining and Dancing,” New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 7, 1939: 11A.

107. “To Sing in Sert Room. Carmen Miranda Appearing: Many Make Dinner Reservations,” New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 11, 1939: 27; “Dining and Dancing,” New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 4, 1939: 9.

108. “Despite Cold and the Snow it was a Hot Moving Day when Brazilian Singer Packed into Club,” Daily Mirror [New York], Jan. 19, 1940.

109. RWD, “Dining and Dancing,” New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 7, 1940.

110. These included events such as the Fresh Air Fund Benefit (August 1939), an aid benefit for refugee Jews in Palestine (November 1939), a benefit for the Alice Chapin Adoption Nursery (October 1939), the Beaux Arts Diamond Ball (January 1940), and a Help Finland Cabaret (February 1940). See, respectively, “Aid for Fresh Air Fund,” New York Herald Tribune, Aug. 14, 1939: 10; “‘Night of Stars’ Nets $90,000 for Palestine,” New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 16, 1939: 17A; New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 27, 1939: 25; “Carats for Carmen,” New York Post, Jan. 25, 1940; and “Cabaret and Ball Given to Aid Finns,” The New York Times, Feb. 8, 1940: 29.

111. New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 5, 1941. The performance also included Bill Robinson tap dancing on Adolf Hitler’s coffin, in a true spirit of celebratory victory.

112. Carlyle Burrows, “Notes and Comments on Events in Art,” New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 25, 1940: E8.

113. Exactly how much Miranda earned per performance depended on the different venues, averaging around $700 per evening. Some examples include $700 at the Waldorf, $455 at the Versailles, $753 at the Colony Club in Chicago, and $2250 per week at Chez Paris, also in Chicago, which had the reputation as the finest club in Chicago.

114. C. P. Greneker, untitled press release, Aug. 20, 1941. Shubert Archive.

115. Albert W. Wilson, “All Credit To Them For They Get The Cash. More Foreign Gal Adepts (sic) at Prying Open Uncle Sam’s Purse,” Evening Bulletin, Feb. 1, 1940.

116. “Who’s who in the Cast,” Sons O’ Fun playbill, 32.

117. The New York Times of April 30, 1943, reports that by the end of April 1943 the show had reached its six-hundredth performance, then showing at the Forty-Sixth Street Theatre. Only five musicals had played that number of performances to New York audiences. This record had only been topped by their own Hellzapoppin’ (1404 performances), Pins and Needles (1,108), Irene (670), and Student Prince (607).

118. A photograph that had wide circulation featured Miranda between Olsen and Johnson with a bird’s nest and duck on top of her turban and Johnson in a pose about to crack an egg on her head. In the show, Ella Logan, not Miranda, performs the song “Happy in Love” from this scene.

119. New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 2, 1941; Variety, Dec. 3, 1941.

120. Richard Watts Jr., “They’re in Again,” New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 2, 1941: 24.

121. Kelcey Allen, Women’s Wear Daily, Dec. 2, 1941.

122. C. P. Greneker, undated press release for Sons O’ Fun. Shubert Archive, press files.

123. See John Mason Brown, “Sons O’ Fun is Another Hellzapoppin, Only More So,” World-Telegram, Dec. 2, 1941: 18; Richard Lockridge, “‘Sons O’ Fun’ a New Olsen and Johnson, is Offered at the Winter Garden,” The Sun, Dec. 2, 1941: 26; and Wilella Waldorf, “Sons O’ Fun, a New Olsen and Johnson Show, Reaches Broadway,” New York Post, Dec. 2, 1941: 12.

124. New York Herald Tribune, Dec. 2, 1941: 24.

125. In several of the playbills, the title of the song is changed to “Quiri-Quiri-Quiri. La Pelea de Gallos” (Cock-a-doodle-doo. The cocks’ fight), but the lyrics are the same.

126. In the playbill for the Winter Garden of December 2, 1941, “Cangurú” is cut.

127. John Anderson, “Sons O’ Fun Opens at the Winter Garden,” New York Journal-American, Dec. 2, 1941: 10.

128. “Plays on Broadway,” Variety, Dec. 3, 1941.

129. C. P. Greneker, “Costumes of Sons O’ Fun,” undated press release. Shubert Archive, clipping files.

130. Brooks Atkinson, “Olsen and Johnson Hop in with Carmen Miranda and a Basket of Gags Called ‘Sons O’ Fun,’” New York Times, Dec. 2, 1941: 28.

131. Kelcey Allen, article in Women’s Wear Daily, Dec. 2, 1941.

132. According to the playbill, Rosario is the daughter of a dealer in bull-fighting trappings, and Antonio is her first cousin. They had appeared previously in the film Ziegfeld Girl and had created a sensation among the fashionable set at the Waldorf-Astoria over the previous year. They are referred to as “nimble-footed youngsters, not yet out of their teens” (36).

133. Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 76.

134. Brooks Atkinson, “Olsen and Johnson Hop in with Carmen Miranda and a Basket of Gags Called ‘Sons O’ Fun,’” New York Times, Dec. 2, 1941: 28.

135. Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 72.

136. “Miranda IS the South American Way,” New York Journal and American, Dec. 2, 1939. Shubert Archive, clipping files.

CHAPTER 4

1. Escapist allusions are clearly evoked in the following titles: Down Argentine Way (1940), That Night in Rio (with the working title “Road to Rio”) (1941), Weekend in Havana (1941), Springtime in the Rockies (1942), and later, at the tail end of the “escapist vogue,” two non-Twentieth Century-Fox films: Copacabana (1947) and Nancy Goes to Rio (1950). For discussion of the importance of attractive titles for films, see Handel, Hollywood Looks at its Audience, 36.

2. As early as the mid-teens, studios were aware of film’s role in shaping consumer habits of home-interior decoration and fashion, and explicit business tie-ins soon followed suit. See J. Allen, “The Film Viewer as Consumer” 487–88.

3. Details of the competition appeared in Screen Guide, Aug. 1947: 18, opposite a publicity page for Copacabana.

4. See Lipovetsky for a discussion of this attachment to pure images (“The Empire of Fashion,” 186).

5. Average movie-going numbers between 1935 and 1945 vary somewhere between eighty and eighty-eight million weekly, according to the source. See Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System, 82–85 and Thorp, America at the Movies, 1.

6. “Weekend in Havana is Swell Dish,” Los Angeles Herald Express, Oct. 24, 1941.

7. The pressbook was an elaborate, illustrated trade publication that was sent to exhibitors and newspapers. It was full of suggestions on how to market the film, such as ideas for commercial tie-ins, ready-made newspaper ads, and prefabricated movie reviews. See Rebello and Allen, Reel Art, 37; Kobal and Wilson, Foyer Pleasure, 9; and Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System, 69.

8. Unlike what would happen in later years, at this time the competitions specify female participants, despite the explicit gender-bending of Miranda’s portrayal.

9. Pressbook for Greenwich Village, 6

10. Eckert discusses the dominant role of women in the economy, the gender bias of film tie-ins, and the prominence of women stars and starlets in the star system (“The Carole Lombard in Macy’s Window,” 119).

11. See Rebello and Allen, Reel Art, 13–14.

12. For a detailed discussion of some of the common practices among media reviewers, see Crafton, “The Jazz Singer’s Reception,” 460–78.

13. For Ellis the narrative image of a film is “the film’s circulation outside its performances in cinemas” (“Visible Fictions,” 31).

14. Miranda’s deleted “True to the Navy” musical number can be viewed on Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults (Image Entertainment, 2002). The lighthouse headdress is still visible in one of the scenes in the character’s dressing room in the released version of the film.

15. See Robinson, “Introduction,” 3.

16. Handel discusses these challenges due to the necessity of promoting each film individually and the importance of a successful opening for the film’s entire reception (Hollywood Looks at its Audience, 75–78).

17. Screenland, Nov. 1940: 18.

18. The exposed leg was more typical of Miranda’s costar Betty Grable and was begun by one of Fox’s most prominent illustrators, Alberto Vargas (1896–1982), who began painting the leading stars of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1919 and worked at some point for Paramount, Warner Brothers, MGM, and Fox. His artwork became internationally known through his 1940s Esquire magazine covers and yearly calendar. Among his most famed Art Deco designs are the posters for Moon over Miami (1941). While it is not clear whether Vargas worked on these pictures of Miranda, the style is certainly inspired by his artwork.

19. See Edwards, The International Film Poster, 64.

20. Robert Heide and John Gilman provide examples of Miranda’s prominence in the posters for Serenata Argentina and A la Habana me voy, the Spanish versions of Down Argentine Way and Weekend in Havana (Starstruck, 163).

21. For a discussion of marketing strategies, see Ellis, Visible Fictions, 26–34.

22. Silver Screen, May 1941: 18.

23. “The Shadow Stage,” Photoplay, June 1941: 115.

24. Pressbook for The Gang’s All Here, “Catchlines,” n.p.

25. Screenland, Oct. 1943: 39.

26. One such poster appeared in Variety, Oct. 29, 1943, and others are included in the pressbook for The Gang’s All Here.

27. The publicity materials for The Gang’s All Here include a caricature drawing of Miranda with the caption “combustible Carmen Miranda . . . brings her volcanic high jinx to ‘The Girls He Left Behind.’” (“The Girls He Left Behind” was the film’s working title.)

28. See Edwards, The International Film Poster, 68, and Schapiro and Chierichetti, The Movie Poster Book, 13–14 for a detailed discussion of the different studios’ poster techniques.

29. See, for example, the publicity poster included in Motion Picture, May 1941: 11.

30. This is typical of the hierarchy embedded in the design of the Hollywood posters. See Robinson, “Introduction,” 6.

31. “Review of If I’m Lucky,” Variety, Aug. 28, 1946.

32. Quoted in a press release from the desk of Dannenbaum at Twentieth Century-Fox. N.d.

33. See Walker for a discussion of the industry’s neglect of the black population’s value to the box office until the late 1960s (Stardom, 347; 352).

34. Cesar Romero (1907–1994) was born in New York to a Cuban mother and Italian father.

35. See Stempel, American Audiences, 183.

36. I was able to screen the trailers for all of Miranda’s Twentieth Century-Fox films with the exception of Springtime in the Rockies, Four Jills in a Jeep, and Greenwich Village. Handel discusses how a trailer’s effectiveness depends not only on its skillful composition, but also on the stars’ popularity, the story type, and the title (Hollywood Looks at its Audience, 88).

37. I am borrowing this expression “visual shorthand” from Gaines, “Costume,” 204.

38. See Munich for a discussion of the term “look” in relation to both fashion and film and the implicit act of deliberate seeing (“Introduction,” 2).

39. See Schweitzer, When Broadway was the Runway, 226.

40. A review of Something for the Boys published in Screen Guide in November 1944 suggests that “the spectacular show La Miranda puts on is calculated to please masculine moviegoers of every type, in and out of uniform.” “Something for the Boys,” Screen Guide, Nov. 1944: 29.

41. See Lipovetsky for the importance of communicating a “brand-name personality” (The Empire of Fashion, 158).

42. “Brief Reviews,” Photoplay, Apr. 1944: 24; 119–24.

43. Adele Whitely Fletcher, “Who is Hollywood’s Best Dressed Woman?,” Photoplay, Mar. 1943: 84.

44. “Here’s Hollywood,” Screenland, Mar. 1941.

45. In Photoplay of November 1942, Miranda is featured dancing with Cesar Romero at “Mrs. Miniver’s” New York dance club, shown in a mink coat and shiny turban; in “Cal York’s ‘Inside Stuff’” in Photoplay of April 1945, she is photographed dancing with Ray Bolger at the Trocadero (15); in Silver Screen of August 1945, she is pictured in a turban and star-shaped earrings, dancing with Chandra Kaly, at Ciro’s (48). These are some among many other examples that appear throughout her contract years at Twentieth Century-Fox.

46. In the gossip section of Movie Story Magazine, November 1944, Miranda is pictured with butterflies on top of her hair and Michael O’Shea adding a basket of flowers, with the following caption: “Posies go nicely with butterflies” (25). See also “Tops in Toppers,” Movie Life, Feb. 1945: 16–17.

47. Carl A. Schroeder, “Hollywood Life,” Screen Guide, Mar. 1944: 4.

48. An exception to this very positive response was a letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News who likened her “scarlet slash” of a mouth and bodily undulations to those of a demimondaine and viewed her as immoral. John Rosenfield, “Just Brand New Slant on Carmen Miranda,” Dallas Morning News, Apr. 30, 1941.

49. Ida Zeitlin also refers to the costume Miranda wears on the stage at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre as “the plumage of a bird of paradise” in “Sous American Sizzler,” Motion Picture, Sept. 1941: 19.

50. Harry Brand, Vital Statistics on Weekend in Havana, n.p.

51. Pressbook for Greenwich Village. Margaret Herrick Library files.

52. “Greenwich Village. Gay Colorful Musical,” Silver Screen, Nov. 1944: 97.

53. “Carmen Miranda’s Latest Film May Set Double-Exposure Mode,” New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 26, 1944.

54. Movies, Dec. 1944: 41.

55. Pressbook for Doll Face. Margaret Herrick Library files.

56. “‘Souse’ American Carmen Miranda takes to North American Ways,” Pressbook for A Date with Judy. Margaret Herrick Library files.

57. Memo from Herbert L. Kneeter to William Klein, Sept. 22, 1939. Shubert Archive, legal files.

58. This request was signed, “Ben Kanrich on behalf of J. O. S. Corporation.” Shubert Archive, legal files.

59. Helen S. Albertson, “Carmen is Good Neighbor Policy in Person,” Philadelphia Record, Feb. 14, 1940.

60. This is reported in the pressbook for Miranda’s penultimate film, A Date with Judy, in a column titled “Souse’ American Carmen Miranda takes to North American Ways.” Margaret Herrick Library files.

61. Documents from the Fifth Avenue Association during the war period show the involvement of women in the designing of New York’s store windows (Whitaker, 126).

62. “Miranda, The New Stage Sensation, Good Reason to Check Brazilian Fashions,” Women’s Wear Daily, June 22, 1939: 2.

63. Undated press release by Reuben Rabinovitch, circa October 1939. Shubert Archive, press files.

64. Elizabeth R. Duval, “New Things in City Shops: Costume Jewelry Runs Riot,” New York Times, July 23, 1939: D7.

65. New York Journal and American, Dec. 2, 1939.

66. Helen S. Albertson, “Carmen is Good Neighbor Policy in Person,” Philadelphia Record, Feb. 14, 1940.

67. “Fashionable Footsteps,” Photoplay, June 1939.

68. Darr Smith, Los Angeles Daily News, May 22, 1951.

69. Unmarked newspaper clipping from the Shubert Archive.

70. Betty Harris, “The South American Way,” Modern Screen, Mar. 1941: 41; 90–91.

71. Pressbook for Greenwich Village, 16. Margaret Herrick Library files.

72. See Berry, Screen Style, 21.

73. See Doane, The Desire to Desire, 25 and Ohmer, “Female Spectatorship,” 54.

74. “Carmen Miranda Sets Fiesta Fashion Trend,” Pressbook for That Night in Rio, 16.

75. Undated photograph in the Carmen Miranda museum collection, probably late 1939 or early 1940.

76. Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, and Sally Eilers are all pictured wearing turbans in “Topics for Gossip,” Silver Screen, Jan. 1940: 21; Ginger Rogers in Silver Screen, April 1940: 19; and Claire Trevor in Silver Screen, July 1940: 66.

77. Duncan Underhill, “I’m Ter-ree-fic,” Hollywood, Sept. 1941: 20.

78. Letter to Hugh L. Ducker from Lee Schreiber (Executive Manager at Fox), Sept. 1, 1944. Brastoff was hired as a “designer, stylist, fashion expert and assistant to head of wardrobe department.” Twentieth Century-Fox Legal Files, Sascha Brastoff Box #1107, File 6066. UCLA Special Collections.

79. Harry Brand, press release, n.d. When Sascha Brastoff impersonated Miranda in the screen version of “Winged Victory,” he was at the time a twenty-four-year-old former GI.

80. Published on the same day, the Variety reviewer claims the film provides “a generous showing of Carmen Miranda in characteristic song and dance routine,” while The Hollywood Reporter claims that “as far as Carmen Miranda is concerned, she is hardly in the picture.” “Review of ‘If I’m Lucky,’” Variety, Aug. 28, 1946; Hollywood Reporter, Aug. 28, 1946.

81. Hollywood, Sept 1941: 20.

82. Virginia Wood, “Carmen’s Strangest Experience,” Motion Picture, Dec. 1944: 10; 12.

83. Berry, Screen Style, 196n40.

84. “Gowns Have Unusual Motif,” Pressbook for Down Argentine Way, 9. Margaret Herrick Library files.

85. “Carmen Miranda Sets Fiesta Fashion Trend,” Pressbook for That Night in Rio, 16. Margaret Herrick Library files.

86. Paul C. Mooney, Jr. “That Night in Rio,” Motion Picture Herald, Mar. 8, 1941.

87. Here Shaw is drawing from Huggan, The Postcolonial Exotic, 13.

88. William R. Weaver, “Down Argentine Way, Study in Latin Rhythms,” Morning Herald, Oct. 5, 1940.

89. On the studio’s quest for authenticity, see “That Night in Rio Filmed; Romantic, Glamorous” and “Introduces Cafezinho,” Pressbook for That Night in Rio, 16, 19; Harry Brand, “Vital Statistics on Week-End in Havana,” n.p.; and Brian O’Neil, “The Demands of Authenticity.”

90. “That Night in Rio Gorgeous Color. All Merit Praise in Lavish Hit Show,” Hollywood Reporter, Mar. 7, 1941.

91. Bob Fredericks, “Fiery Carmen Adds Fuel to Flaming Film,” Miami Herald, Mar. 14, 1941.

92. The Hays office banned the phrase “sex appeal” and suggested “oomph” or “it” as preferred alternatives (Thorp, America at the Movies, 65).

93. “Review: That Night in Rio,” News, Nov. 28, 1940.

94. Photoplay, Dec. 1941: 103.

95. As an example, see Harry MacArthur, “Torrid Carmen Miranda Brightens New Musical,” Washington DC Evening Star, Nov. 7, 1941.

96. “Carmen Miranda Loaves America—And Vice Versa,” Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 72.

97. Harry Brand, “Vital Statistics for Springtime in the Rockies,” 1. Margaret Herrick Library files.

98. Harry Brand, “Vital Statistics for Springtime in the Rockies,” 2. Margaret Herrick Library files.

99. Pressbook for Greenwich Village, 15. Margaret Herrick Library files.

100. Pressbook for Something for the Boys, 7. Margaret Herrick Library files.

101. Sara Hamilton, “20th Century Film Swingy,” Los Angeles Examiner, Nov. 24, 1944. A similar opinion about the sameness of Miranda’s South American tune is voiced in “Shadow Stage,” Photoplay, Feb. 1945: 117.

102. Helen Parker, “Doll Face,” Liberty, Jan. 26, 1946.

103. Philip T. Hartung, “Doll Face,” Commonweal, Jan. 18, 1946. This sentiment is also expressed in Photoplay, Sept. 1946: 26.

104. On the rise and fall of the fan magazines, see Slide, Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine, 3–4.

105. The golden age of the fan magazines was a good period for the consumer as fan magazines lowered their prices. A month after Modern Movies’ decision in April 1939 to lower its price from fifteen cents to ten cents, Screen Romances also lowered its cover price from twenty-five cents to ten cents.

106. Finch and Rosenkrantz, Gone Hollywood, 113.

107. Featured in the section labeled “Ladies Invited,” Gloria Mack, “To take advantage of some free handouts reserved for them and them alone,” Photoplay, Jan. 1942: 84.

108. On this topic see deCordova, Picture Personalities, 107.

109. An afghan that Miranda allegedly crocheted is featured with the caption, “Carmen Miranda, the Brazilian Bombshell who’ll appear in ‘The South American Way,’ is proud of the afghan she has crocheted.” On the same spread, Ann Sheridan and Dorothy Lamour are also featured relaxing with their crochet. Screenland, Apr. 1940: 78. (“The South American Way” was the working title for Down Argentine Way.)

110. As Roland Barthes discusses, the signifier of connotation is not to be found at the level of any one of the fragments (here the photographs) of the sequence but at that of the concatenation, which linguists refer to as the “suprasegmental level” (24).

111. Screenland, Aug. 1943: 48.

112. Movie Show, Nov. 1947: 44.

113. During the time Miranda filmed for Down Argentine Way, news reports referred to her as “inexhaustible,” filming, then appearing in The Streets of Paris, followed by two numbers in a nightclub (Richmond News Leader, Oct. 9, 1940). On the set of That Night in Rio, Miranda is said to have “worked like a horse from six in the morning until six at night, clean through a siege of influenza. Evenings she practiced her songs and her dances,” as reported in Screen Life, Oct. 1941: 87.

114. Ida Zeitlin, “Sous American Sizzler,” Motion Picture, Sept. 1941: 77. Motion Picture, Feb. 1945: 135; Time, Nov. 9, 1942.

115. See the above-mentioned article “Carmen Miranda Loaves America—And Vice Versa,” Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 72.

116. Betty Harris, “The South American Way,” Modern Screen, Mar. 1941: 41; 90–91.

117. “South American Rave,” Screen Life, Oct. 3, 1941: 35. A brief note under “Topics for Gossip” in Silver Screen, June 1941, had previously mentioned that Carmen “likes to hold hands with reporters (if they’re male and blond) when they come to interview her” (67).

118. Dick Mook, “Pictures on the Fire!” Silver Screen, Mar. 1941: 67.

119. “Sous American Sizzler,” Motion Picture, Sept. 1941: 19.

120. For a discussion of this shift in representation to include to a significant degree of domestic problems and the importance of sexuality as the stars’ best-kept secret, see deCordova, Picture Personalities, 120 and 142, respectively.

121. Vivian Reade, “Fruit ees ze Fashion,” Movie Story, July 9, 1947: 62.

122. See Parade, Oct. 5, 1941, and Sidney Skolsky, “Tintypes,” Citizen News, Aug. 3, 1944.

123. “Carmen Miranda Loaves America,” Sunday News, Nov. 16, 1941: 76.

124. “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1943: 66.

125. Screen Life, Oct. 1941.

126. News, Nov. 28, 1940.

127. “‘Rio’ Recipes,” Pressbook for That Night in Rio, 20. Margaret Herrick Library files.

128. Pauline Rawley, “The South American Way,” Motion Picture Magazine, Oct. 1941: 62–63; 93.

129. Marjorie Deen, “The Food of Our Allies: BRAZIL,” Modern Screen, May 1944: 80–81. In Women’s Home Companion, August 1941, Miranda is featured as one of “four charming Latin-American neighbors” and provides recipes for “peixe com bananas” (fish with bananas).

130. Ida Zeitlin, “Sous American Sizzler,” Motion Picture, Sept. 1941: 77.

131. Ida Zeitlin, “Sous American Sizzler,” Motion Picture, Sept. 1941: 77.

132. Hollywood, Sept. 1941: 20.

133. Los Angeles Times, Sept. 23, 1948.

134. Modern Picture, Dec. 1942: 15.

135. “Silver Screen. Topics for Gossip,” Silver Screen, Apr. 1941: 20.

136. Silver Screen, Feb. 1948: 89.

137. Harry Brand, Weekend in Havana “Vital Statistics,” circa September 1941. Margaret Herrick Library files.

138. Life Magazine, Feb. 12, 1945.

139. For a discussion on how advertising is based on evoking emotions indirectly by correlating “feelings, moods or attributes to tangible objects,” see Williamson, Decoding Advertisements, 31–38.

140. For the intersection of the history of film and that of the public and its tastes, see Jurca 4.

141. Here I am drawing from Doane’s discussion of the fans’ approximation to and appropriation of the stars’ bodily image, which bring the things of the screen closer (The Desire to Desire, 33).

142. Miranda posed for the Paul Meltsner portrait soon after her sensational Broadway début, joining the small circle of celebrities whose paintings became classics of modern portraiture.

143. Movie Stars Parade, Sept. 1946: 74.

144. Darr Smith, Los Angeles Daily News, May 22, 1951.

145. Quoted in Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man, 199.

CHAPTER 5

1. This is very similar to the omnipresence of camp that runs throughout the Judy Garland films. See Dyer, “Judy Garland and Camp,” 107–14.

2. See S. Roberts 4.

3. Booth discusses the feminine as a primary type of the marginal in society and that camp parodies in an exhibition of stylized effeminacy (Camp, 18). Latinidade aligns itself as another marginal type in North American society and culture.

4. This is what David Bergman coins the “Liberace effect” (“Introduction,” 14).

5. López uses the term “off-center” (“Are All Latins from Manhattan?,” 74).

6. Camp’s bending of gender “without genitals” is not gender specific, as Gene Kelly’s much-celebrated performance in the “Pirate Ballet” at the climax of the 1948 box office hit The Pirate illustrates. The “camp display of hypermasculinity” (Cohan, Incongruous Entertainment, 179) bears similarities with the campiness of Miranda’s hyperengendering.

7. In Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), the unobstructed view of Rio’s Sugar Loaf Mountain from the window of the hotel and the full view of Corcovado Mountain from the patio of the Carnival club are prime examples of these artificial backdrops. In this case, they also echo the unrealistic plot, complete with Miranda, back in her native Brazil, at one point jumping out of a drum and singing with a pair of clowns while dressed in a headdress of rainbow-colored parasols.

8. This samba-choro by Alcyr Pires Vermelho and Walfrido Silva was part of Miranda’s pre-Hollywood repertoire that she recorded in 1935.

9. This characterization of Charlotte Greenwood is very similar to the role she played in Down Argentine Way as the sidekick aunt who at one point, for inexplicable reasons, appears at the center of a village gathering and performs, complete with her signature kicks, a solo of “Sing, to your Señorita, Sing!” that ends with the protagonist lamenting, “Why, oh why, won’t someone sing to me?”

10. Roen theorizes camp as both fun and funny (High Camp 2: 8).

11. At this point of the film, I use the real names for Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche, as no mention of their character roles has been made, and they appear as two performers, one Brazilian and the other American. The number itself is an aggregate with no impact on the storyline.

12. For a discussion of the genesis and lack of authenticity of this song in relation to Miranda’s songs in general at Twentieth Century-Fox, see Clark, “Doing the Samba,” 271.

13. The name of Danny’s show makes reference to the 1925 Broadway production “The Garrick Gaieties,” which featured the music of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and is considered their big break on Broadway.

14. With the limitations imposed by the Production Code in full swing at the time, certain references to well-known aspects of Greenwich Village, such as its gay community, are discretely embedded into the script.

15. See Newton, “Role Models,” 100.

16. According to script files, the song “I Like to be Loved by You,” written by Harry Warren with lyrics by Mack Gordon, was sliced from the production of Springtime in the Rockies and recycled for this musical.

17. Fitting with the norms of the Production Code, under the bodice Miranda wears a skin-colored inlay that is barely discernible to the viewer. In this same scene, Vivian Blaine, wearing what appears from a distance to be an extremely low-cut dress, also has a similar inlay.

18. The phrases are from the following sambas: “Cai por cima de mim” (Fall on top of me), “Quando eu penso na Bahia” (When I think of Bahia), “Me dá, me dá ioio” (Give me, give me ioio), and “Eu ia de novo para lá” (I would return there).

19. Shaw perceives Judy Garland along with Barbara Stanwyck as “subtle visual tributes” (Carmen, 99) to Miranda’s look; however, in my reading, Garland in Ziegfeld Girl is first and foremost pure Busby Berkeley camp, and Stanwyck’s bolero outfit in The Lady Eve is a signature Edith Head costume design similar to the golden bolero Shirley Ross wears in The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) and Head’s exquisite outfits for all of Paramount’s leading ladies, which predate Miranda’s screen début.

20. See Linda Mizejewski’s reading of the Minnie performance with an emphasis on Judy Garland’s slightly “off” version of a Ziegfeld girl (Ziegfeld Girl, 177).

21. For an insightful discussion of Ziegfeld girls and the representation of race, see Linda Mizejewski, Ziegfeld Girl, 167–68. Although in this scene the chorines’ costumes are rather toned-down, “collective feminine pulchritude” was a staple of Busby Berkeley’s choreographies (Berry, Screen Style, 60).

22. I’m borrowing the expression from Sennett, Hollywood Musicals, 183.

23. This scene is similar to “By a Waterfall” in Footlight Parade (1933), in which identical women swim happily between each other’s legs. See Mizejewski, Ziegfeld Girl, 198.

24. See, for example, Shohat, “Gender and Culture of Empire,” 68–69.

25. For a discussion of the music and its childlike qualities, see Clark, “Doing the Samba,” 262.

26. In contrast, the title song of Down Argentine Way that Betty Grable performs as she continues on from her “Moonlight” ballad foregrounds gaiety and acquiescence: “You’ll be as gay as can be, if you learn to ‘sí, sí’ like a Latin.”

27. The “Dames” number in the film of the same name (1934) includes a sequence of kaleidoscopic designs similar to those in the “Tutti Frutti Hat” number, where the precursor to the oversized strawberries are black beach balls, dropping down and creating a diamond-shaped vortex of swirling chorus girls.

28. See Rubin, Showstoppers, 74.

29. The scene is also reminiscent of the spectacular all-chorine black and white number on the roof of the New Amsterdam Theatre in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which twenty chorus girls jump from their beds, serve themselves champagne, and dance around, before returning to their starting position and flopping down as though overtaken by a drunken stupor.

30. Wanda Hale, New York Daily News, Dec. 23, 1943.

31. For a reading of how Berkeley bridges the distance between spectator (in the film and in the live audience) and the spectacle, see Robertson, “Feminist Camp,” 130.

32. Caetano Veloso, “Caricature and Conqueror, Pride and Shame,” New York Times, Oct. 20, 1991.

33. This motif of the rising water fountain as curtain will be widely explored the following year in the aqua-ballet grand finale of MGM’s Esther Williams vehicle Bathing Beauty (1944).

34. “‘Gang’s All Here’ Sumptuous Musical and Visual Treat. Magnificent Effects with Facile Camera,” Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 26, 1943.

35. As Rubin points out, the introduction of neonized objects recalls the neon-outlined violins of Berkeley’s “The Shadow Waltz” number in Gold Diggers of 1933 that appear when the lights go down and fill the screen (Showstoppers, 169).

36. See Fischer for a discussion of the pure-imagery realm of the Berkeley production numbers (“The Image of Woman as Image,” 73).

37. Berkeley integrated similar reverse-motion techniques in the numbers “Dames” (in Dames, 1934) and “Lullaby of Broadway” (in Gold Diggers of 1933, 1933). It was a means of literally defying gravity and upturning the audience’s sense of movement.

38. This is a technique that Berkeley had used previously in at least two different films. In the opening credits of Gold Diggers of 1933, prior to Ginger Rogers singing her now famous introductory solo, “We’re in the Money,” the main cast appears one by one set against a silver coin printed with the date 1933 and with their names and roles superimposed in front of the images. Another example is in the musical number “I Only Have Eyes for You” in Dames (1934), where the head of Ruby Keeler looms disembodied over the stage in abstract spectacularization.

CHAPTER 6

1. Ann Walton Sieber, “The Houston International Festival holds a Carmen Miranda talent show at Rich’s,” OutSmart, Mar. 2000. Web. www.outsmartmagazine.com. Accessed May 2007.

2. Dylan Otto Krider, “The Music! The Gaiety! The Samba! The Houston International Festival,” Houston Press, April 6, 2000. Web. www.houstonpress.com/calendar/the-music-the-gaiety-the-samba-6573833. Accessed May 2007.

3. For a discussion of “high drag,” see Newton, “Role Models,” 34.

4. An in-depth socio-ethnographic approach is beyond for the scope of this study.

5. See Babuscio, “The Cinema of Camp,” 117–18

6. See Cohan, “Introduction to Part Three,” in Hollywood Musicals, 103.

7. For gay male obsessions with classic Hollywood female stars, see Michael Moon, A Small Boy and Others, 86.

8. For a discussion of gay men’s identification with women on the screen as emotional subjects, see Bronski, Culture Clash, 95.

9. Here I am following Linda Hutcheon’s understanding of parody as defined in A Theory of Parody. See, in particular, 16–26 and 50–63.

10. In 1937, Mae West plays dual roles as blond con artist Peaches O’Day and brunette Parisian sensation Mademoiselle Fifi in Every Day’s a Holiday, similar to the plot reprised in Copacabana. Both scripts have very little in common with Guy de Maupassant’s 1882 short story with the eponymous title, “Mademoiselle Fifi,” in which the title character is an effeminate and unpleasant German captain in the Franco-Prussian war.

11. This distinction actually belongs to the 1977 “Gay Bob” doll, which caused a controversy at the time. See Garber, Vested Interests, 2.

12. These examples include Sailor Billy, Cowboy Billy, San Francisco Billy, and others.

13. See Paul Jackson for a discussion of words such as “fruit” to signify effeminate or queer men during World War II (One of the Boys, 5).

14. “The Guys are Dolls,” BBC Online Network, May 31, 1999. Web. Accessed June 5, 2011.

15. See Halberstam, Female Masculinity, 29.

16. New York Herald Tribune, Jan. 31, 1940: 19.

17. New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 13, 1939.

18. The media fueled great anticipation around Miranda’s attendance of the show. “News of the Theater,” New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 19, 1939: 16.

19. New York Herald Tribune, Oct. 13, 1939.

20. “1,300 Cheer Show by Hasty Pudding,” New York Times, Apr. 7, 1940: 44.

21. Although beyond the scope of this study, the Andrews Sisters recorded several songs with Carmen Miranda and several covers of Miranda’s hits. See Sforza, Swing It!, 217–66.

22. See, for example, Walt, “Time Out for Rhythm,” Variety, May 28, 1941: 16.

23. Some of the most memorable Three Stooges cross-dressing scenes include: “Three Little Pigskins” (1934); “Pop Goes the Easel” (1935); “Pardon My Scotch” (1935); “Movie Maniacs” (1936); “Micro-phonies” (1945); “Rhythm and Weep” (1946); “Self-Made Maids” (1950); and “Knutzy Knights” (1954).

24. The song “Mamãe eu quero,” or in its Spanish version “Mamá yo quiero” (Mommy I want), was a successful Carnival song written by Vicente Paiva and Jararaca in 1937 and performed by Miranda in Down Argentine Way (1940). Folha carioca (Sept. 10, 1941) declared it the most popular marcha in the world (2), and through the Miranda imitators its popularity would only grow.

25. “Mickey ‘Bombshell’ Rooney!,” Silver Screen, Jan. 1942: 40–41.

26. “Babes on Broadway,” New Yorker, Jan. 10, 1942.

27. “Babes on Broadway (Musical Extravaganza),” Variety, Dec. 3, 1941.

28. “The Shadow Stage,” Photoplay, Feb. 1942: 110.

29. “Film Reviews,” Variety, Oct. 22, 1941: 8.

30. “Batuque no morro” was first recorded by Linda Batista in 1941. It is an upbeat, repetitive “samba-batucada” that is wonderfully appropriate for this clown-like performance by Hope and Crosby.

31. See Bell-Metereau, Hollywood Androgyny, 21

32. For Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times, “tremendously hilarious is the outlandish dance performed by the pair at the spectacular culmination.” In “Bing, Bob, Dottie Doughtily Cruise to Rio,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 1, 1948. See also Screen Guide, Feb. 1948: 99 and “‘Road to Rio,’ Another Lively Adventure for Hope, Crosby, Lamour,” Citizen-News, Jan. 1, 1948.

33. Cohan, “Queering,” 25.

34. This quote is from the back cover of Female Masculinity, and is an issue that Halberstam discusses throughout the text.

35. Barbara Berch, “Daley—the Dentist’s Dilemma,” Motion Picture, Nov. 1943: 54–56.

36. See Newton, “Role Models,” 111.

37. “Diplomatic Courier,” Variety, June 11, 1952: 6.

38. “Diplomatic Courier Gets Varied Reaction,” Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1952: A7.

39. “Diplomatic Courier,” Variety, June 11, 1952: 6.

40. As a visual message concerning the shows the soldiers would prefer to see, an article in Liberty features a crossed-out picture of Maurice Evans as Macbeth and a photograph of Olsen, Johnson, and Carmen Miranda in Sons O’ Fun with an “OK” of approval written over it, with the caption “One guess which the boys in camp would rather see!” George Jean Nathan, “A Critic in Camp,” Liberty, Feb. 14, 1942: 26–27.

41. See Bérubé, “Coming Out Under Fire,” 96–97.

42. See, for example, America Entertains the Troops, where Miranda performs one of her signature songs, “Tico tico no fubá,” and Celebrity Propaganda, where she appears with her headdress covered with glitter and jewelry to give a message of hope along with her famous hand twirls and sparkling smile.

43. See Bérubé, “Coming Out Under Fire,” 67 and 92.

44. See the script summary dated March 7, 1944, from the office of George Wasson. Winged Victory Legal Box 1136, File 5707: 4. Fox legal files, UCLA.

45. “Winged Victory,” Los Angeles Examiner, Dec. 28, 1944: 12.

46. Depending on the current sponsor and network, the show’s name changed over the years of Berle’s television stardom, from The Texaco Star Theater (1948–1953) to The Buick-Berle Show (1953–1955) to simply The Milton Berle Show (1955–1956).

47. It is estimated that the show maintained around five million viewers—unprecedented ratings for any television show. “Television’s Top,” Newsweek, May 16, 1949: 56.

48. Among the many celebrities to appear on one of Milton Berle’s shows were Phil Silvers, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Bob Hope, and Frank Sinatra.

49. “Television’s Top,” Newsweek, May 16, 1949: 57.

50. Always Leave Them Laughing was not released on VHS, perhaps due to a “corking up” scene where Berle imitates Al Jolson in blackface in front of the proscenium curtains and gets hosed off the stage. I was able to view the film at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

51. “The New Pictures,” Time, Dec. 5, 1949: 104. A typically harsh review is published in “Berle in Always Leave Them Laughing,” New York Times, Nov. 24, 1949: 48.

52. “Wald turns Berle into Screen Star,” Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 22, 1949. Apart from the Al Jolson impersonation, among some of the more memorable segments Berle as Kip Cooper has a long skit at the piano with a cow emerging from inside and squirting him with milk; and there is the famous sketch about the “comet pen” that can write under water, and to test it out Berle’s character ends up inside a tank full of water.

53. “Boys will be Girls,” Screen Guide, Jan. 1950: 94. The Screen Guide issue from the following month gave the film a two-star rating. Screen Guide, Feb. 1950: 88.

54. “‘Chu Chu’ Chugs off from its Charm,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 19, 1981.

55. Twentieth Century-Fox, “Just a Couple of Swells,” Press release. N.d.

56. Janet Maslin, “Screen: ‘Philly Flash,’ a Burnett-Arkin Romp,” New York Times, Aug. 29, 1981.

57. In the Paramount short Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945), Olga San Juan performs “Rhumba Matumba” very much à la Miranda, with accelerated singing and exaggerated hand gestures and facial expressions, while dressed in a Spanish ruffled skirt, opulent jewelry, and a token small sombrero slightly to the side.

58. See, for example, the publicity in Photoplay, Aug 1947, that refers to Olga San Juan as the “Lively Latin” because of her “rhythmic Brazilian songs and Cuban sambas.”

59. Shaw, quoting Shari Roberts, also mentions Margo at RKO and Acquanetta at Universal Studios as “Carmen wannabes” (Carmen 132n111). Although Margo was Xavier Cugat’s niece, her portrayal of foreign otherness is limited to a castanet-clacking Spanish dancer in the thriller The Leopard Man (1943), a French chanteuse in Gangway for Tomorrow (1943), and an American secretary stationed in Japan in Behind the Rising Sun (1943). Acquanetta, despite her moniker “the Venezuelan Volcano” and exotic beauty, starred as a glamorous “gorilla girl” in the horror and action movie Captive Wild Woman (1943) and its sequel Jungle Woman (1944) and appeared as a priestess in leopard skin in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946), a native island girl in Rhythm of the Islands (1943), and an uncredited harem girl in Arabian Nights (1942). In these two last examples, she is more similar to sarong-wearing Dorothy Lamour than any resemblance with Carmen Miranda.

60. Easy to Wed’s soundtrack includes “Acércate más” (written by Cuban songwriter Osvaldo Farrés and sung by Colombian singer Carlos Ramírez), “Toca tu samba” (by the Uruguayan composer Raúl Soler, in extended organ version by Ethel Smith), alongside “Viva México.”

61. An example of a more modern version, from 2011, can be found in the British drama series Land Girls, which depicts the World War II era and opened one of its third-season episodes with an air-raid that intercepts the distinct voice of Carmen Miranda on the radio singing “I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I like you very much),” once again drawing from a Miranda song as emblematic of that period.

62. F. Scott Fitzgerald died on December 21, 1940, and That Night in Rio was released April 11, 1941.

63. “I’m Just Wild about Harry” was a popular tune of the moment and the following year would be performed by Carmen Miranda in Greenwich Village (1944).

64. Porky’s Pooch (1941) also has a very brief Miranda segment impersonated by a mutt named Rover who, through a quick camp transformation, performs a few lines of the song “Mi caballero” by M. K. Jerome and Jack Scholl, originally performed by Ann Sheridan in the role of a nightclub singer in a previous Warner Brothers production, the 1940 film Torrid Zone, appropriately set in a Central American banana plantation.

65. For a discussion of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett as the “two cartoon masters of speed,” see Klein, Seven Minutes, 18.

66. Bugs’s talking straight at the audience and the camera is a typical Clampett parodic strategy inherited from Tex Avery. See Ford, “Warner Brothers,” 12.

67. For more on the sudden-reversal technique, see Abel, “The Rabbit in Drag,” 195.

68. The name of the nightclub is clearly a parody of the nightclub Mocambo (1941–1958) on Sunset Boulevard, which was one of the main hot spots for leading motion-picture actors and actresses, especially during the late 1940s, and which had, most appropriately for a Miranda performance, a Latin American decor. It was just up the street from its main competitor, Ciro’s.

69. The cuíca is a Brazilian friction drum with a large pitch range; the ganzá is a handheld cylinder that is shaken like a rattle.

70. The Rio-specific Hope and Crosby film Road to Rio postdates this Popeye cartoon by three years.

71. See also Freire-Medeiros on the context of Zé Carioca and the international image of Brazil in the United States (“Star in the House of Mirrors,” 24).

72. “The First of Walt Disney’s Technicolor Musical Cartoon-and-Travelogue Impressions of South America,” Film and Radio Discussion Guide, Jan. 1942: 149. For an insightful discussion of the mixed critical reception of Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros in Latin America, see Borges, Latin American Writers, 159–65.

73. Publicity for Saludos Amigos drew from the vogue of the “jitterbug” and featured Joe Carioca as the “Brazilian Jitterbird” or “Jiving Jitterbird.” See Photoplay, Jan. 1943: 163 and Photoplay, Mar. 1945: 71.

74. “The Three Caballeros (Walt Disney–RKO),” Shadow Stage, Mar. 1945: 116.

75. Durante and Miranda previously appear in the seven-minute TerryToon cartoon short A Torrid Toreador (1942), where the toreador cat talks like Jimmy Durante and wants to marry the vivacious Latin cat, Carmen Miranda.

76. In Leroy and Stitch, the brief Miranda extra-terrestrial experiment conflates the Brazil/Hawaii overlap of the 1930s and 1940s that Seigel discusses (Uneven Encounters, 70).

77. Other Miranda hat-wearing episodes include Kermit the Frog in Muppet Treasure Island Sing-Alongs (1996); Ojo, Pip, and Pop in “Dance Fever,” episode 221 of Bear in the Big Blue House, in which they dance with the blue mouse Grandma Flutter to the “Grandma Mambo” (1998); Oscar the Grouch’s pet worm Slimey getting ready for “Wormy Gras” in Sesame Street episode 3856 (2000); and Theresa in episode 203 of Muppets Tonight (1997), who in the local coffee emporium is the lead vocalist for “The Coffee Song” (also known as “There’s an Awful Lot of Coffee in Brazil”—as performed on the Milton Berle Show in 1953).

78. Despicable Me 2 (2013) also includes a short Chiquita-Banana “minion” fruit dance in the juice factory, blending the “Chiquita Banana” song with the fruit-laden headdress image.

79. In 1987, Chiquita Banana changed its mascot to a woman with a fruit basket on her head, which bears even more resemblance to the Miranda image.

80. Christy Carlson Romano, at the age of twelve, makes her first feature film appearance in Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You (1996) as a trick-or-treating child, dressed in an elaborate banana costume with headdress and ruffles, who performs a dynamic version of the “Chiquita Banana” song accompanied by two young maraca-shaking mariachis.

81. See blog post “Duckworth’s Thoughts: The Cat in the Hat 2003,” Duckworth, May 10, 2013, Web. June 12, 2013. duckworth.deviantart.com; and untitled text by Daniel Eagon, Film Journal International Online, Nov. 2003, Web. June 12, 2013. filmjournal.com. The only positive review I have read was posted at GayToday.com on December 1, 2003, by John Demetry, who sees The Cat in the Hat as Mike Myers’s best-yet screen performance.

82. “Interview: Pixar’s Rob Gibbs Talks about Cars 2 Air Mater Short,” Liveforfilms.com, Nov. 14, 2011. Accessed Mar. 2012.

83. The McDonald’s trademark Happy Meals came with characters from the film, among which Luiz was depicted with his Miranda headdress.

84. See Newton, “Role Models,” 109.

CONCLUSION

1. Aline Mosby, “Durante has her OK. Last Carmen Miranda Show on TV Tonight,” United Press Hollywood. Undated news-clipping from the Margaret Herrick Library.

2. Caetano Veloso, “Caricature and Conqueror, Pride and Shame,” New York Times, Oct. 20, 1991.

3. Diário carioca, Aug. 6, 1955.

4. O globo, Aug. 9, 1955.

5. Qtd. in “A primeira canção,” Manchete, Aug. 13, 1955: 38. See also Braguinha’s testimony in Folha de São Paulo, Aug. 5, 1977.

6. See, for example, the Brazilian Carnival held at the Hollywood Palladium in 1998 with Miranda as its main theme and the show Blame it on Rio presented at the Hollywood Bowl (September 12, 2009), which featured Bebel Gilberto singing a dynamic rendering of some of Miranda’s classic songs. Don Heckman, “Miranda Rites,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 19, 1998: 18–20; Reed Johnson, “Blame It on Rio Concert at Hollywood Bowl,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 15, 2009.

7. In 1982 Marília Pêra received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress and is today the most awarded Brazilian actress ever. She has starred in innumerous films, soap operas, and television miniseries, as well as live performances throughout Brazil. See the interview included as part of the special features on the DVD Marília Pêra canta Carmen Miranda.

8. Quoted in Solange Bagdadi, “Mito: A volta da garota do It,” JB Online, Sept. 18, 2005. Accessed September 19, 2005.

9. Carmem is an alternative spelling that was sometimes used in Brazil.

10. This show was filmed and released as a DVD with the same name in 2006.

11. Barbara Heliodora, “Para reencontrar a Pequena Notável,” O globo, Oct. 28, 2005: 20 Caderno.

12. The theater award “Prêmio Shell,” established in 1988, recognizes each year outstanding theatrical performances in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with awards in an array of categories (director, actor, actress, costumes, music, lighting, etc.).

13. Maura Ferreira, “South American Way,” ISTOÉ Gente, July 9, 2001.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. I am grateful to Carlos Reis for bringing this show to my attention.

17. “Miranda por Miranda: Stella conta a história de Carmem em espetáculo,” Globo.com, July 2, 2014. Accessed July 15, 2014.

18. “Carmen Miranda Imitators,” Deseret News, Aug. 27, 1995; “Mob of Mirandas,” (L. B.) Press-Telegram, Sept. 27, 1995; Jon Pareles, “For Carmen Miranda, with Fruit, of Course,” New York Times, Sept. 7, 1996.

19. Erika Milvy, “Multi-Cultists Ride New Wave,” New York Post, Sept. 27, 1991: 26. Weekend edition.

20. Jon Pareles, “Fruit Piled on Her Head, An Icon of Joyful Excess,” New York Times, Oct. 26, 1991.

21. Ibid.

22. A carioca, May 13, 1939. Qtd. in Mendonça, Carmen Miranda, 57.

23. On the transformative nature of stardom, see Marshall, Celebrity and Power, 48.

24. See Mendonça, Carmen Miranda, 131–52.

25. This juxtaposition is summarized in the succinct phrase “brutality garden” of the Tropicalist song “Geléia geral” (General jelly), from which Christopher Dunn drew the title of his seminal text on the movement. See Dunn, Brutality Garden, 3 and 94–97.

26. Newton, “Role Models,” 107.

27. See Veloso, Tropical Truth, 298. On Veloso’s androgynous performativity, see Lorraine Leu’s insightful interpretation in Brazilian Popular Music, 42–43.

28. See Hamilton, Queen of Camp, 218.

29. Caetano Veloso, “Caricature and Conqueror, Pride and Shame,” New York Times, Oct. 20, 1991.

30. A benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in 1989 is one such example. See Dunn, Brutality Garden, 35–36.

31. See Dunn, Brutality Garden, 217n39.

32. Film Fan Monthly of December 1971 discusses the screening of The Gang’s All Here at the very same Murray Hill Theater, prepared for over a year by film buff Eric Spilker. Unlike the Hirsch account, the event was highly successful, with the lobby decorated in “1940s’ garish.” See Leonard Maltin, “Welcome Back,” Film Fan Monthly, Dec. 1971.

33. Filk music refers to a genre of folk music with a science-fiction or fantasy theme. Considered one of the pioneers of the genre, Leslie Fish contributed to the first commercial recordings of filk music in the mid-1970s.

34. For a thorough discussion of the dominant metaphor of space as sea in literature, see Westfahl, Islands in the Sky, 33–35.

35. Leib Goldkorn had previously appeared in The Steinway Quintet (1976) and Goldkorn Tales (1985).

36. D. T. Max, “The Magic Flutist,” New York Times, Oct. 31, 1999.

37. Antunes Filho explains in an interview that the idea for the play was to talk about “Carmen Miranda is gone, she is no longer, that Rio is gone, the nostalgia of friends that died. Far from throwing a party, I want people to reflect.” See Solange Bagdadi, “Mito: a volta da garota do it,” JB Online, Sept. 18, 2005. Accessed Sept. 28, 2005.

38. Fonemol is a technique that Antunes Filho has used previously in his work. See Britton, “Antunes Filho’s Prismatic Theatre,” 201n1.

39. This was performed by the theater group Sociedade Litero-Dramática Gastão Tojeiro at the São Paulo theater Maria Della Costa. See Marcella Franco, “‘Ciclo de musicais biográficos’ começa no teatro Maria Della Costa,” Folha de São Paulo, May 6, 2000.

40. There is a very elaborate blog about this theatrical production at umacertacarmen.blogspot.com.

41. See Karin Kukkonen, “Metalepsis in Popular Culture,” 18.

42. Bananas Is My Business won “Best Documentary” at the Festival of Brasília (1994), the Havana Film Festival (1995), the Chicago International Film Festival (1995), the International Film Festival of Uruguay (1996), and the Encontro Internacional de Cinema in Portugal (1996).

43. Gary Morris, “Carmen Miranda. Bananas Is My Business,” Bright Lights Film Journal, April 1996. Web. Accessed May 2005. www.brightlightsfilm.com/16/carmen.html.

44. See Félix, “The Migrant,” 214.

45. See the pertinent discussion of Bruzzi in Félix, “The Migrant,” 213.

46. Erik Mink, “Bittersweet ‘Bananas’ a Life of Miranda,” Daily News, Oct. 6, 1995.

47. D’Ezequiel, “Night Clubs,” O jornal [Rio de Janeiro], Jan. 25, 1955.

48. See Garcia, O ‘it verde e amarelo’ de Carmen Miranda, 119.

49. See Dennison and Shaw, Popular Cinema in Brazil, 115.

50. “Carmen Miranda Will Be Paid Tribute in Rio,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 10, 1955.

51. This neighborhood is far from the center of Rio de Janeiro and the areas that Carmen Miranda frequented; it is part of the largest island in the Guanabara Bay, where the Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport occupies a third of the island.

52. Hector Tobar, “Some City Squares Bring Lives, and History, Full Circle,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 26, 1998.

53. “Exposição no Rio e show em São Paulo celebram a cantora,” Folha de São Paulo, Nov. 30, 2005.

54. Carmen Miranda para sempre was in Rio from December 1, 2005, to January 22, 2006, then in São Paulo from March 8 to April 23, 2006, and finally in Salvador, Bahia, from October 27 to November 26, 2006.

55. As part of the events initiated in Salvador, Bahia, in the mid-1990s to revitalize the Historical Centre and the Pelourinho, in particular with “Carnival in the Pelourinho,” in 1998 they curated the exhibition “O que é que a baiana tem?,” on display in February and March. See exhibition catalogue “O que é que a baiana tem?” by the Secretary of Culture and Tourism of Bahia.

56. Florença Mazza, “Ex-paquita Andrea Veiga estrela musical em homenagem a Carmen Miranda,” O globo, Nov. 7, 2009.

57. Warren Hoge, “A Museum in Rio Recalls Days of Carmen Miranda,” New York Times, Apr. 22, 1979.

58. Pranove, May 1939: 20.