Carmen Miranda in Hollywood
First engaged for Broadway when she arrived in America, the time was not long before she moved on to Hollywood. The name Carmen Miranda alone conjures up memories of Technicolor Fox musicals of the forties at their zenith.
Carmen Miranda was a bundle of energy and mischief and the first Brasilian popular entertainer to become an international superstar. She was also to solidify the Latina standard for the silver screen. As Rita Moreno, who won an Academy Award six years after Carmen Miranda's death, observed wryly, "We had to be peppy and vivacious. But I wanted to be an actress: to play Shakespeare. When meaty roles failed to materialize after "West Side Story", the versatile Moreno made no movies for years. But if Carmen Miranda ever chafed at being a high priced specialty act, she never seemed to show it, at least on screen."
Carmen Miranda in Hollywood. It is our opinion that if you want to know the real Carmen Miranda, view one of her many festive movies on video: "Down Argentine Way", "Weekend In Havana" & "Springtime In The Rockies" are three of her best Fox vehicles. There are others: "A Date With Judy" and "Nancy Goes To Rio", two examples of her years at M.G.M. and even "Doll Face" and "Lucky Stiff", which are minor showcases of her work. Still they are fun to watch today. "Copacabana" co-starring Grouch Marx has been colorised recently to fairly good advantage. Best of all is "The Gang's All Here" - a constant cable attraction. (That's the Busby Berkeley confection in which Carmen Miranda immortalised "The Lady With The Tutti Frutti Hat" for posterity.) It is sad that Carmen Miranda probably loved Brasil far more than it ever loved her back. Her legacy of 14 musicals ensures that she will be remembered far longer than the Brazilian audiences who tended to scorn her for her success in Hollywood. That attitude may have changed in recent years and it would be difficult to find a Brazilian today that does not regard Carmen Miranda as a superb ambassador for Brazil as "Carmen Miranda in Hollywood". She had charm in abundance and her effervescent personality never failed to come across on the big screen.
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