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Brazil rediscovers Carmen
Carmen - Uma Biografia, (Carmen - a Biography) by author Ruy Castro is an ode to the Brazilian beauty.
With her tropical-fruit headdresses and a smile as wide as Copacabana Beach, Carmen Miranda remains an instantly recognisable show business figure 50 years after her death.
Decades before Brazilian music and women became appreciated worldwide, she took the swing of samba from Rio de Janeiro to Hollywood and became one of the highest-paid entertainers in the United States.
By the end of her life, however, Hollywood had transformed her into such a caricature that only now are Brazilians themselves rediscovering the powerful woman inside those bizarre costumes.
"Brazil has never understood the dimension of such a legend and sometimes was unable to accept her success in America," Ruy Castro, author of a new 600-page book Carmen - Uma Biografia, (Carmen -- a Biography) said.
"Carmen suffered with this and created a Brazil of her own by her Beverly Hills poolside."
As well as the biography, an exhibition entitled "Carmen Miranda Forever" is currently on at Rio de Janeiro's Museum of Modern Art.
It assembles more than 700 items related to Miranda, including original costumes such as those she wore in the movies Copacabana (1947) and Nancy Goes to Rio (1950).
The exhibition features documentaries and snippets from musicals including The Gang's All Here (1943) and That Night in Rio (1941), which brought her fame and fortune in the United States.
Miranda went to the United States in 1939 after a Broadway impresario saw her perform in Rio. She had just created her famous "Bahian" costume of a long colorful skirt and a turban adorned with fruit to go with the song O que que a baiana tem? (What the Bahian Lady Has) by Dorival Caymmi.
"When she adopted this costume, she realized it was powerful. When she signed to go to Broadway, it was because of this costume. And there in the United States, she exaggerated the Bahian outfit," Castro said.
The American studios transformed the costume into something more like a Cuban rumba dancer. To the chagrin of Brazilians, she became a cartoonish South American with her heavily-accented English. Her persona became a campy staple for female impersonators.
Born in Portugal in 1909, Miranda moved to Brazil with her parents when she was about 1 year old.
Before her transplant to the United States, she was a samba superstar in Brazil. She helped composers such as Caymmi and Ary Barroso become famous in samba's Golden Age.
As radio grew increasingly popular, she became the queen of Brazilian airwaves and recorded hit songs from Rio's Carnival.
Her move to the United States was well-timed. Technicolor had just been developed and 20th Century Fox loved her studio test.
When she filmed her Hollywood debut Down Argentine Way with Betty Grable in 1941 and sung Down South American Way, a star was reborn.
The movie was criticised in Brazil and banned in Argentina. But she went on to be hugely successful in the United States, where she was known as "the Brazilian Bombshell".
Despite her poor English, her charisma was huge.
"She could sing in Chinese, Japanese, English, any language. Her charisma and the way she moved her hands and danced hypnotized everyone", said her nephew Carmen de Carvalho.
She died aged just 46 from a heart failure.
Even the official Web site run by her estate acknowledges the mixed feelings her countrymen have about her.
"Her importance to the Brazilian historical and cultural context must be redeemed and appreciated," it says.
Certainly her legacy is now reemerging in Brazilian fashion trends. At the last Fashion Rio show -- one of the world's top fashion events -- many brands paid homage to her.
"Carmen was a star who designed her own clothes, her turbans, platform shoes, embroidery and jewelry," said museum curator Fabiano Canosa. "A myriad of them are still being copied and remade".
Carvalho likened the strength of her image to Charlie Chaplin's.
"For him, it was the bowler hat and cane. For her, it was the Bahiana style."
