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Carmen Miranda, GCIH o OMC (Portuguese pronunciation: ['ka?m??? mi'???d?], February 9, 1909 - August 5, 1955) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress, and film star who was popular from the 1930s to the 1950s. Nicknamed "The Brazilian Bombshell", Carmen Miranda is noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in her American films.

As a young woman, Miranda worked in a boutique designing hats before ultimately recording her first album with composer Josué de Barros in 1929. Yet it was her 1930 recording of the song Taí (Pra Você Gostar de Mim), written by Joubert de Carvalho that catapulted her to national stardom and cemented her status as the premiere interpreter of the increasingly popular samba genre.

Throughout the 1930s, Miranda performed on Brazilian radio stations and appeared in five Brazilian sound films known as chanchadas, which celebrated Brazilian music, dance, and carnival culture. Features like Hello, Hello Brazil! and Hello, Hello, Carnival! embodied the spirit of these early Miranda films, though it was the 1939 musical Banana da Terra, directed by Ruy Costa, that brought the world her iconic "Baiana" image, inspired by the wardrobe of poor afro-descendents from the northeastern state of Bahia.

In 1939, Lee Shubert, a Broadway businessman, offered Carmen Miranda an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris on Broadway after seeing her at Cassino da Urca, in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1940, she made her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way, with Don Ameche and Betty Grable; her exotic clothing and Latin accent became her trademark. In the same year, she was voted the third most popular personality in the United States and was invited to sing and dance for President Franklin Roosevelt, along with her group, Bando da Lua. In 1943, Miranda starred in Busby Berkley's The Gang's All Here, which was noted for its use of musical numbers with the fruit hats that were to become Miranda's trademark. By 1945, she was the highest paid woman in the United States.

Miranda made a total of fourteen Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953. Though hailed as a talented performer, her popularity waned by the end of World War II. She later grew to resent the stereotypical "Brazilian Bombshell" image she cultivated and attempted to break free of it with limited success. Undaunted, Miranda focused increasingly on her nightclub appearances, also becoming a fixture on television variety shows; indeed, for all the stereotyping she faced throughout her career, her performances made huge strides in popularizing Brazilian music, while at the same time paving the way for the increasing awareness of all Latin culture.

Carmen Miranda was the first Latin American star to be invited to imprint her hands and feet in the courtyard of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in 1941. She became the first South American to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is considered the precursor of Brazil's Tropicalismo cultural movement of the 1960s. A museum was later constructed in Rio de Janeiro in her honor, and in 1995 she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business.

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Early life

Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha in Várzea da Ovelha e Aliviada, a village in the northern Portuguese municipality of Marco de Canaveses. She was the second daughter of José Maria Pinto da Cunha (17 February 1887 - 21 June 1938) and Maria Emília Miranda (10 March 1886 - Rio de Janeiro, 9 November 1971). In 1909 when she was ten months old, her father emigrated alone to Brazil and settled in Rio de Janeiro, where he opened a barber shop. Her mother followed in 1910 with their daughters Olinda (1907-1931) and Maria do Carmo. Maria do Carmo, later Carmen, never returned to Portugal, but retained her Portuguese nationality. In Brazil, her parents had four more children: Amaro (1911), Cecília (1913-2011), Aurora (1915-2005) and Óscar (1916).

She was christened Carmen by her father because of his love for the opera comique, and also after Bizet's masterpiece Carmen. This passion for opera influenced his children, and Miranda's love for singing and dancing at an early age. She went to school at the Convent of Saint Therese of Lisieux. Her father did not approve of her plans to enter show business. However, her mother supported her and was beaten when her husband discovered Miranda had auditioned for a radio show. She had previously sung at parties and festivals in Rio. Her older sister Olinda contracted tuberculosis and was sent to Portugal for treatment. Miranda went to work in a tie shop at age 14 to help pay her sister's medical bills. She next worked in a boutique, where she learned to make hats and opened her own hat business which became profitable.

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Career

Brazilian career

While working at her family's inn, Carmen was introduced to Josué de Barros, a composer and musician from Bahia, Brazil. With help from de Barros and the Brunswick record company, Carmen Miranda recorded her first single in 1929: Samba Não vá Simbora. Her second single, Prá Você Gostar de Mim (also known as Taí), was a collaboration with the Brazilian composer Joubert de Carvalho. It sold a record 35 thousand copies the year of its release, 1930. She then signed a two-year recording contract with RCA Victor in the same year, giving them exclusive rights to Carmen and her image.

In 1933 went on to sign a two-year contract with Rádio Mayrink Veiga, the most popular station in the 1930s, becoming the first contract singer in the radio industry history of Brazil (though for a year - 1937 - she moved over to Radio Tupi). Later she signed a contract with record label Odeon. This made her the highest paid radio singer in Brazil at the time.

Miranda's rise to Brazilian stardom was intricately linked to the growing popularity of a distinctly Brazilian style of music: the samba. The expansion of the samba, and of Miranda's popularity, was greatly supportive of the refiguring of Brazilian nationalism during the regime of President Getúlio Vargas. Such was her gracefulness and vitality, as apparent in her recordings as in her live performances, that she was immediately dubbed "Cantora do It"; later she became "Ditadora Risonha do Samba", and then, in 1933, the radio announcer Cesar Ladeira gave her a lasting moniker: "A Pequena Notável".

Her film career in Brazil was closely bound up with genre of musical films that drew on the nation's carnival traditions, and the annual celebrations and musical style of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's then capital, in particular. She performed a musical number in O Carnaval Cantado no Rio (1932), the first sound documentary on this popular theme, and three songs in A Voz do Carnaval (1933), which combined real footage of street carnival celebrations in Rio with a fictitious plot that provided endless pretexts for carnival musical numbers.

Carmen's next screen performance was in the musical Hello, Hello Brazil! (1935), and her proven star status in the world of popular music was reflected in the fact that she was chosen to provide the closing number of the film, the marcha "Primavera no Rio", which she had recorded on the Victor record label in August 1934. By all accounts, in Hello, Hello Brazil! Miranda stole the show with this performance and the head of the Cinédia studios, Adhemar Gonzaga, decided to make it the musical finale of the film, rather than a number by the leading male singer of the era, Francisco Alves, as had been planned. A few months after the release of film, Cinearte magazine stated "Carmen Miranda is currently the most popular figure in Brazilian cinema, judging by the sizeable correspondence that she receives". In her next film, Estudantes (1935), Carmen Miranda was given a narrative role for the first time. In this musical comedy, Miranda played Mimi, a young radio singer (who performs two numbers in the film), who falls in love with a university student played by the singer Mário Reis.

Carmen was central to the success of the next co-production from the Waldow and Cinédia studios, the musical Hello, Hello, Carnival! (1936), which featured a roll call of star performers from the world of popular music and the radio, including Carmen's sister, Aurora Miranda. The backstage standards plot provided the pretext for the inclusion of 23 musical numbers, and by the Brazilian standards of the time Hello, Hello, Carnival! was a major production. The set reproduced the interior of Rio's plush Atlântico casino, where some of the scenes were shot, and the backdrops for certain musical numbers. Miranda clearly played a pivotal role in attracting mass audiences, as is evidenced by a poster advertising the film which includes just one image, a full-length photograph of her, seemingly supporting a large placard listing the cast members, with her name at the top.

During her later career, Miranda would become primarily identified with her colorful fruit-hat costume and image, though she only adopted that costume in 1939. In that year she appeared in the film Banana-da-Terra, where she wore a glamorized version of the traditional costume of a poor black girl of Bahia: flowing dress and fruit-hat turban. Singing the song "O que é que a Baiana Tem?" ("What does a Baiana have?"), the intent was to empower a social class which was usually looked down upon.

Lee Shubert, a Broadway impresario, offered Carmen an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris on Broadway after seeing her perform at Rio's Cassino da Urca in 1939. Although she was intrigued by the possibility of performing in New York, Miranda refused to accept the deal unless Shubert agreed to also hire her band, the "Bando da Lua". The impresario refused, saying that there were plenty of great musicians in New York who could back her. But Miranda remained steadfast. She felt that North American musicians would not be able to authentically create the sounds of Brazil. As a compromise, Shubert agreed to hire the six band members, but he would not pay for their transport to New York. At this point, President Vargas, realizing the propaganda value of Miranda's tour, stepped in and announced that the Brazilian government would sponsor the band by providing free tickets on the Moore-McCormack Lines between Rio and New York.

He believed that Carmen Miranda would foster greater ties between northern and southern hemispheres and serve as an Ambassadress of Brazil in the United States. This could benefit Brazil economically by increasing its share of the American coffee market. Miranda took very seriously the official sanction of her trip and her duty of representing Brazil to the outside world. She departed to New York aboard ship SS Uruguay on May 4, 1939, on the eve of World War II.

American stage and films

Miranda arrived in New York on 18 May. She and the band made their first Broadway performance on 19 June 1939, in The Streets of Paris. Although her part was small (she only spoke four words), Miranda received good reviews and became a media sensation. According to the New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson, most of the musical numbers "ap[e] the tawdry dullness" of genuine Paris revues, and "the chorus girls, skin-deep in atmosphere, strike what Broadway thinks a Paris pose ought to be". Atkinson continues, "South American contributes the most magnetic personality" of the revue. Carmen Miranda, singing "rapid-rhythmed songs to the accompaniment of a Brazilian band, she radiates heat that will tax the Broadhurst [theater] air-conditioning plant this Summer". Though Atkinson finds the bulk of the musical numbers forgettable he tells his readers that Miranda makes the show.

The columnist Walter Winchell reported in the Daily Mirror, in a column syndicated to newspapers all over the USA, that a new star had been born who would save Broadway from the slump in ticket sales caused by the popularity of the New York World's Fair of 1939. Winchell's praise for Carmen and her Bando da Lua was repeated on his daily show on the ABC radio network, which reached 55 million listeners. The press lauded Miranda as "the girl who saved Broadway from the World's Fair". Her fame grew quickly, she having been formally presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt at a White House banquet shortly after her arrival.

Life magazine's reviewer noted:

Time Magazine dubbed her the "oomph that stops the show". One critic summed up her surprising appeal: "she is the biggest theatrical sensation of the year".

As soon as news of Broadway's latest star, the so-called "Brazilian Bombshell", reached Hollywood, Twentieth Century-Fox began to develop a film to feature Carmen Miranda. The working title of the project was The South American Way - the title of one of the songs she had performed in the Broadway in New York - and her performances in what would be later titled Down Argentine Way (1940). Although the film's production and cast were based in Los Angeles, Miranda's scenes were filmed in New York City due to her obligation to perform for a club there. Fox was able to combine the footage from both cities because Miranda has no on-screen dialogue with other cast members. The film was a great success and grossed $2 million that year in the American market.

The Shuberts brought Carmen back to Broadway, teaming her with Olsen and Johnson, Ella Logan, the Blackburn Twins, and others in the musical revue Sons o' Fun on 1 December 1941. The show was a hodgepodge of slapstick, songs, and skits. According to the New York Herald Tribune theater critic Richard Watts Jr., "In her eccentric and highly personalized fashion, Miss Miranda is by way of being an artist and her numbers give the show its one touch of distinction." On 1 June 1942, she left the production; her Shubert contract had expired. Meanwhile she made recordings for Decca Records.

Miranda was encouraged by the United States government as part of President Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy, designed to strengthen links with Latin America and Europe. It was believed that in delivering content like hers, the policy would be better received by the American public. Miranda's contract with 20th Century Fox lasted from 1941 to 1946; this period coincides with the time of World War II (1939-1945) and the creation in 1940 of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA), based in Rio de Janeiro, whose goal was to obtain support from governments and Latin American societies for the cause of the United States.

The interference was linked to the Good Neighbor policy and Roosevelt sought to forge better diplomatic relations with Brazil and other South American nations, and pledged to refrain from further military intervention, which has sometimes been done to protect U.S. business interests in industries such as mining or agriculture. Hollywood was asked to help out with the Good Neighbor Policy, and both Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox participated. Miranda was considered the goodwill ambassador and promoter of intercontinental culture.

Criticism

While Miranda's popularity in the United States continued to rise, she began to lose favor with some Brazilians. On 10 July 1940, she returned to Brazil where she was welcomed by cheering fans. Soon after her arrival, however, the Brazilian press began criticizing Miranda for giving in to American commercialism and projecting a negative image of Brazil. Members of the upper class felt her image was "too black" and she was criticized in one Brazilian newspaper for "singing bad-tasting black sambas". Other Brazilians criticized her for playing up the stereotype of a "Latina bimbo" after her first interview upon arriving in the United States. In an interview with the New York World-Telegram, Miranda discussed her then limited knowledge of the English language stating, "I say money, money, money. I say twenty words in English. I say money, money, money and I say hot dog!"

On 15 July, she appeared at a charity concert organized by Brazilian First Lady Darci Vargas. The concert was attended by members of Brazil's high society. She greeted the audience in English but was met with silence. When Miranda began singing a song from one of her club acts, "The South American Way", the audience began to boo her. She attempted to finish her act but gave up and left the stage after the audience continued to boo. The incident deeply hurt Miranda and she later cried in her dressing room. The following day, the Brazilian press criticized her for being "too Americanized".

Weeks later, Miranda responded to the criticism with the Portuguese language song "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada" (or "They Say I've Come Back Americanized"). Another song, "Bananas Is My Business" was based on a line in one of her movies and directly addressed her image. She was greatly upset by the criticism and did not return to Brazil again for fourteen years.

Miranda's films came under harsh scrutiny by Latin American audiences for characterizing Central and South America in a culturally homogenous way. When her films hit theatres in Central and South America, it was strongly felt that the films depicted Latin American cultures through the lens of American preconceptions, and not as they actually were. Many Latin Americans felt their cultures were being misrepresented, and felt that someone from their own region, Carmen Miranda, was misrepresenting them. Her film, Down Argentine Way (1940), was met with heavy criticism, with pundits in Argentina claiming that it failed to depict Argentinean culture. It was alleged that lyrics throughout the movie were filled with non-Argentine themes, and that the sets were not strictly Argentinean, but rather, a fusion of cultures from Mexico, Cuba, and Brazil. The film was subsequently banned in Argentina, for "wrongfully portraying life in Buenos Aires". Similar sentiments arose in Cuba after the debut of Miranda's film, Weekend in Havana (1941). Cuban audiences were offended by Miranda's portrayal of a Cuban female. Reviewers of the film asserted that an import from Rio could not possibly portray a woman from Havana. Further, they claimed that throughout the film Miranda does not "dance anything Cuban". Miranda's performances, it was argued, were merely hybridizations of Brazilian culture and other Latin cultures. Critics contend that other of her films likewise misrepresented Latin locales, by assuming that Brazilian culture could suffice as a direct representation of Latin America.

Peak years

The war years saw Carmen Miranda starring in eight of her fourteen films and, although the studios labelled her the "Brazilian Bombshell", the films tended to blur her Brazilian identity in favor of a generalized Latin American image.

In reviewing Miranda's second Hollywood picture That Night in Rio (1941), directed by Irving Cummings, Variety pointed out how Miranda's ostensibly supporting character upstaged the supposed leads: "[Don] Ameche is very capable in a dual role, and Miss [Alice] Faye is eye-appealing but it's the tempestuous Miranda who really gets away to a flying start from the first sequence." The New York Times wrote: "whenever one or the other Ameche character gets out of the way and lets her [Carmen Miranda] have the screen, the film sizzles and wickedly scorchers." Years later, Clive Hirschhorn wrote that "That Night in Rio was the quintessential Fox war-time musical - an over-blown, over-dressed, over-produced and thoroughly irresistible cornucopia of escapist ingredients."

On 24 March 1941, Carmen Miranda became one of the first Latinas to leave her hand and footprints in the sidewalk of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Her next film, Week-End in Havana was directed by Walter Lang with William LeBaron as producer. The cast included Alice Faye, John Payne and Cesar Romero. After this third effort to activate the "Latin hot blood", Fox was dubbed by Bosley Crowther of "Hollywood's best good neighbor". In its release week, the film went to the top of the box office and topped the now-classic Citizen Kane, which was in its second week of release.

In 1942, 20th Century-Fox paid sixty thousand dollars to Lee Shubert to end her contract with Miranda. She finished her Sons o' Fun tour and began filming Springtime in the Rockies with Fox. It grossed about $2 million mark, staying among the ten most successful films at the box office in 1942. The film reviewed by the Chicago Tribune as "senseless, but eye intriguing... The basic plot is splashed over with songs and dances and the mouthings and eye and hand work of Carmen Miranda, who sure would be up a tree if she ever had to sing in the dark."

In 1943, she appeared in an extravaganza from noted director Busby Berkeley called The Gang's All Here. Berkeley's musicals were known for their lavish production, and Miranda's role as Dorita featured her number "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat". An optical trick from the set behind her made the fruit-bedecked hat she was wearing appear even larger than humanly possible. By then, Miranda seemed to be locked into such roles as the exotic songstress, and her studio contract even forced her to appear at events in her trademark film costumes, which grew even more outlandish. One song she recorded, "I Make My Money With Bananas" seemed to pay somewhat ironic tribute to her typecasting. The film was included among the 10 highest-grossing films of that year, and Fox's most expensive production in 1943, and received positive reviews at its premiere, although The New York Times' film critic mused about the Freudian suggestions of All Those bananas, "Mr. Berkeley has some sly notions under his busby. One or two of his dance spectacles seem to stem straight from Freud."

The following year, Miranda made a cameo appearance in Four Jills in a Jeep, a B movie, based on a true adventure of the actresses Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye and Mitzi Mayfair. The film also has the participation of Alice Faye and Betty Grable in short appearances.

In 1944, Miranda starred with Don Ameche, Greenwich Village, a Fox musical with William Bendix and Vivian Blaine in supporting roles. The movie attracted bad reviews from the press. The New York Times wrote that "Technicolor is the picture's chief asset, but still worth a look for the presence of Carmen Miranda" and Peggy Simmonds, in his review for The Miami News said "Fortunately for Greenwich Village, the picture is made in Technicolor and has Carmen Miranda. Unfortunately for Carmen Miranda, the production doesn't do her justice, the overall effect is disappointing, but still she sparkles the picture whenever she appears." Besides that Greenwich Village did not manage to bring the box office numbers that Fox and Miranda had expected from the Technicolor musical.

The third film with Carmen Miranda released in 1944 was Something for the Boys, a musical comedy based on an eponymous Broadway musical, starring Ethel Merman with Cole Porter's songs. This would be the first of her films without William LeBaron or Darryl F. Zanuck as a producer. The person responsible for production was Irving Starr, charge of the second line of studio movies. For magazine Time, the film "turns out to have nothing very remarkable. There is not Carmen Miranda".

By 1945, she had become Hollywood's highest-paid entertainer and top female taxpayer in the United States, earning more than $200,000 that year ($2.2 million in 2010 adjusted for inflation).

Decline

After World War II, Carmen's films at Fox were made on black-and-white stock, reflecting Hollywood's diminishing interest in her and in the portrayal of Latin Americans in general, in keeping with the demise of the now strategically unnecessary "Good Neighbor policy". A monochrome Carmen was not what audiences expected, and it undoubtedly contributed to reducing the box-office appeal of the backstage musical, Doll Face (1945), in which she was demoted to fourth on the bill. She plays the character Chita Chula, billed in the show-within-the-film as "the little lady from Brazil", an endlessly cheerful comic sidekick to leading lady, Doll Face played by Vivian Blaine, and she is given only one musical number and little dialogue. The New York Herald Tribune alerted, "Carmen Miranda does what she always does, only not well," and The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that "Carmen Miranda appears in a straight part with only one singing number. The innovation is not a success, but the fault is the director's not Carmen's."

In her follow-up movie for Fox, made when she was no longer under contract, If I'm Lucky (1946), Carmen was again fourth on the bill, and all the stock elements of her screen persona are firmly in evidence: heavily accented English, comic malapropisms, and bizarre hairstyles that recreate her famous turbans.

When Carmen's contract with 20th Century Fox expired on January 1, 1946, she made the decision to pursue her acting career free of the constraints of the studios. Her ambition was to play a genuinely leading role and to show off her comic skills, which she sets out to do in the independent production for United Artists, Copacabana (1947) alongside Groucho Marx. While the films were modest hits, film critics and the American public did not accept Miranda's new image.

Though her film career was faltering, Miranda's music career remained solid, and she was still a popular attraction at nightclubs. From 1948 to 1950, Miranda teamed with The Andrews Sisters to produce and record three Decca singles. Their first collaboration was on radio in 1945 when Miranda guested on ABC's The Andrews Sisters Show. The first single, "Cuanto Le Gusta", was the most popular (a best-selling record and a number-twelve Billboard hit). "The Wedding Samba" (#23) followed in 1950.

After Copacabana, Joe Pasternak invited Carmen to make two Technicolor musicals for the MGM studios, A Date with Judy (1948) and Nancy Goes to Rio (1950). With the first of these two productions, MGM set out to portray a different image of the star, allowing her to take off her turban and reveal her own hair, styled by the legendary coiffeur Sydney Guilaroff, and set off by make-up by the equally renowned make-up artist Jack Dawn. Carmen's wardrobe for the film eschewed "baiana" outfits, and instead included elegant dresses and hats designed by Helen Rose. She was clearly no longer the star attraction, however, appearing as fourth on the bill, in the role of Rosita Cochellas, a rumba teacher, who makes her first appearance on-screen some 40 minutes into the film and has little dialogue. In spite of the best efforts of MGM to introduce innovations into her star text, her roles in both productions were peripheral, and largely watered-down caricatures of her earlier screen performances in Hollywood, which relied heavily on fractured English and over-the-top musical and dance numbers.

In her last film, Scared Stiff (1953), a Paramount production in which she appears alongside Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Carmen's scopic appeal was once again diminished by black-and-white film stock. Returning full-circle to her very first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way, Carmen had virtually no narrative function in the film. A further slight comes in the form of Jerry Lewis's parody of her, as he mimes intentionally badly to her well-known song "Mamãe Eu Quero", which is playing on a scratched record, and eats a banana that he plucks from his turban. Similarly, Carmen, in the role of Carmelita Castilha, a Brazilian showgirl on a cruise ship, gives performances that verge on the self-parodic, with the variations on the "baiana" costume taken to absurd extremes.

In April 1953, Carmen Miranda embarked on a four-month European tour. While performing in Cincinnati in October 1953, Miranda collapsed from exhaustion, she was rushed to LeRoy Sanitarium by her husband Dave Sebastian and has canceled four following presentations. She began suffering from acute depression, and underwent electroshock therapy, and when that failed to cure her, her physician suggested a return visit to Brazil. According to Bananas Is My Business, her family blamed a troubled and abusive marriage for Miranda's nervous breakdown, forcing her to return to Rio de Janeiro to recuperate from acute depression and anxiety, before heading back, once again, to the U.S. to resume her celebrity career in 1955. She stayed four months in Brazil. Recovered, Miranda returned to the United States on April 4, 1955.

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Personal life

In 1947, to achieve more creative freedom in a film she was making, Carmen decided to produce her own film. It was called Copacabana and she played opposite Groucho Marx. The budget was divided into around ten sponsors' quotas. A Texan investor, who held one of the quotas, sent his brother David Sebastian (23 November 1907 - 2 August 1990) to keep an eye on Carmen and look after his interests on the film set. His position allowed him to get close to Carmen and they started to date.

Carmen Miranda and David Sebastian married on 17 March 1947. The ceremony was performed at the Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills with the Right Rev Patrick J. Concannon officiating. In 1948 she became pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage after a show. The marriage lasted only a few months, but Carmen, who was Catholic, would not accept getting a divorce. Her sister Aurora Miranda later would state in the documentary Bananas is My Business that "he married her for selfish reasons, she got very sick after she married and lived with a lot of depression". The couple announced their separation in September 1949. But they reconciled months later.

Carmen Miranda was always very discreet and little is known about her private life. Before leaving for the United States and before meeting her husband, she had a relationship with the young Mario Cunha and bon vivant Carlos da Rocha Faria, son of a traditional family of Rio de Janeiro, and also with musician Aloysio de Oliveira, one of the "Bando da Lua" members. In the US, she maintained relationships with the actor John Payne, Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova, Dana Andrews, Harold Young, John Wayne, Donald Buka and the Brazilian Carlos Niemeyer.

In her later years, in addition to her already heavy smoking and alcohol consumption, Miranda began taking amphetamines and barbiturates, all of which took a toll on her health.

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Death

In April 1955, Carmen performed at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, and in July, in Cuba. She then returned to Los Angeles to recuperate from a recurring bronchial ailment.

On 4 August 1955, Miranda was shooting a segment for the filmed NBC variety series The Jimmy Durante Show. According to Durante, Miranda had complained of feeling unwell before filming. Durante offered to get Miranda a replacement but she declined. After completing a song and dance number, "Jackson, Miranda, and Gomez", with Durante, she fell to one knee. Durante later said of the incident, "I thought she had slipped. She got up and said she was outa [sic] breath. I told her I'll take her lines. But she goes ahead with 'em. We finished work about 11 o'clock and she seemed happy."

After the last take, Miranda and Durante staged an impromptu performance on the set for the cast and technicians. The singer took several members of the cast and some friends home with her for a small party. It was about 3 a.m. when she climbed the stairs to bed. Miranda removed her clothing, placed her platform shoes in a corner, lit a cigarette and placed it in an ash tray and went into her bathroom to fix her face for the night. She apparently came from the bathroom with a small, circular mirror in her hand and in the small hall that led to her bedroom, she toppled to the floor and suffered a fatal heart attack. She was just 46 years old. Her body was found at about 10:30 a.m. lying in the hallway.

The Jimmy Durante Show episode in which Miranda appeared was aired two months after her death, on 15 October 1955. A clip of the episode was also included in the A&E Network's Biography episode about Miranda.

Funeral and burial

In accordance with her wishes, Miranda's body was flown back to Rio de Janeiro where the Brazilian government declared a period of national mourning. A crowd of about 60,000 people attended her mourning ceremony at the Rio town hall, and more than half a million Brazilians escorted the funeral cortège to her resting place.

She is buried in São João Batista Cemetery in Rio de Janeiro. In 1956, all her belongings were donated by her husband and family for the creation of Carmen Miranda Museum, which opened its doors in Rio on 5 August 1976.

For her contributions to the television industry, Carmen Miranda has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the south side of the 6262 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

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Image

Miranda's Hollywood image was one of a generic Latinness that blurred the distinctions between Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico as well as between samba, tango and habanera. It was carefully stylized and outlandishly flamboyant. She was often shown wearing platform sandals and towering headdresses made of fruit, becoming famous as "the lady in the tutti-frutti hat". Miranda's enormous, fruit-laden hats are iconic visuals recognized around the world. These costumes led to Saks Fifth Avenue developing a line of turbans and jewelry inspired by Carmen Miranda in 1939. In fact, the Bonwit Teller store even created mannequins with faces and poses copied directly from Miranda's for their window displays. Many costume jewelry designers made fruit jewelry also inspired by Carmen Miranda which is still highly valued and collectible by vintage and antique costume jewelry collectors. Fruit jewelry is still popular in jewelry design today. Much of the fruit jewelry seen today is often still called "Carmen Miranda jewelry" because of this.

Carmen's tutti-frutti hat from The Gang's All Here of 1943 inspired the United Fruit Co.'s Chiquita Banana logo the following year. In the 1960s, tropicália film makers in Brazil were fascinated and deeply influenced by her Hollywood movies.

In 2009, Miranda was theme of São Paulo Fashion Week and of short film called "Tutti Frutti " from the German photographer Ellen von Unwerth. In the 40s, she was criticized for misrepresenting the Brazilian culture. Regardless, Carmen Miranda both helped to popularize samba internationally and served as a source of inspiration for designers to this day--Jean Paul Gaultier, Pedro Lourenço, and Marc Jacobs, to name a few. In her second runway show in London, titled Let's Go Bananas!, Charlotte Olympia took as her muse Carmen Miranda.

Her image was much satirized and taken up as camp, and today, the "Carmen Miranda" persona is popular among drag performers. Today, "Carmen Miranda Administração e Licenciamentos" is the company in charge of protecting and managing Miranda's artistic estate.

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Legacy

The Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, who is largely responsible for resurrecting Carmen Miranda as a Brazilian icon during the 1960s, has this to say about her legacy in an article for the New York Times: "For generations of musicians who were adolescents in the second half of the 1950s and became adults at the height of the Brazilian military dictatorship and the international wave of counterculture-my generation-Carmen Miranda was first a cause of both pride and shame, and later, a symbol that inspired the merciless gaze we began to cast upon ourselves, Carmen conquered 'white' America as no other South American has done or ever would, in an era when it was enough to be 'recognizable Latin and Negroid' in style and aesthetics to attract attention." For Veloso and other musicians contemplating a career abroad, Miranda's pioneering experiences continue to loom as a point of reference. Miranda helped establish and transform the relationship between Brazilian musicians and American producers that now has created several remarkable transnational collaborations. In Veloso's words: "To think of her is to think about the complexity of this relationship".

When Carmen Miranda died in 1955, her popularity abroad was greater than in Brazil. Nonetheless, her contributions to the music and culture of Brazil should not be overlooked. Although she was accused of peddling Brazilian music and dance in a highly commercialized format, Carmen Miranda can be credited with bringing Brazil's national music, the samba, to a worldwide audience. In addition, she introduced the image of the baiana with wide skirts and turbaned headdress as the "showgirl" of Brazil at home and abroad. The baiana costume was adopted as the central feature of Carnival for women and, especially, for men, who famously dress up in elaborate Carmen Miranda style and parade through the streets of Brazil's cities during Carnival.

Even after her death, Miranda is remembered for being perhaps the most important Brazilian artistic personality of all time and one of the most influential in Hollywood. She is listed by the American Film Institute as one of the "500 great legends of Cinema".

On 25 September 1998, a city square in Hollywood was named Carmen Miranda Square in a ceremony headed by longtime honorary mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant, who was also one of the singer's friends dating back to World War II. Brazil's Consul General Jorió Gama was on hand for opening remarks, as were members of Bando da Lua, Carmen Miranda's original band. Carmen Miranda Square is only one of about a dozen Los Angeles city intersections named for historic performers. The square is located at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive across from Grauman's Chinese Theater. The location is especially noteworthy not only since Carmen Miranda's handprints and footprints are preserved in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, but in remembrance of an impromptu performance at a nearby Hollywood Boulevard intersection on V-J Day.

A museum dedicated to Carmen Miranda is located in Rio de Janeiro in the Flamengo neighborhood on Avenida Rui Barbosa. The museum includes several original costumes, and shows clips from her filmography. There is also a museum dedicated to her in Marco de Canaveses, Portugal called "Museu Municipal Carmen Miranda", with various photos and one of the famous hats. Outside the museum there is a statue of Carmen Miranda.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Miranda's death, many events were held in Brazil, including an exhibition, "Carmen Miranda Forever", that was initially mounted at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in November 2005 and at the Latin America Memorial in São Paulo in 2006.

In 2005, Ruy Castro one of the Brazil's best-known writers, published a 600-page biography of "the most famous Brazilian woman of the 20th century." Brazilians "tend to forget," Castro told Mac Margolis in Newsweek International, that "no Brazilian woman has ever been as popular as Carmen Miranda - in Brazil or anywhere."

In 2009, the recording of "O que é que a baiana tem?" by Dorival Caymmi, sung by Miranda in 1939, was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress. The recording helped to introduce both the samba rhythm and Carmen Miranda to American audiences. It was also the first recording of a song by Caymmi, who went on to become a major composer and performer.

In 2011, along with Selena, Celia Cruz, Carlos Gardel and Tito Puente, Carmen Miranda was immortalized by the U.S. Postal Service in the series of Postage stamp: Latin Music Legends (Forever). The stamps were painted by artist Rafael Lopez. "From this day forward, these colorful, vibrant images of our Latin music legends will travel on letters and packages to every single household in America. In this small way, we have created a lasting tribute to five extraordinary performers, and we are proud and honored to share their legacy with Americans everywhere through these beautiful stamps", said Marie Therese Dominguez, vice president of Government Relations and Public Policy for the U.S. Postal Service.

In 2014, Down Argentine Way and The Gang's All Here were deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

At the Closing Ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, there was a special tribute to Carmen Miranda before the athletes' parade, featuring singer Roberta Sá playing the part of Miranda.

On February 9, 2017, she was honored with a Google doodle in commemoration to the 108th anniversary of her birth.

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In popular culture

Non-fiction

• Helena Solberg made a documentary of Miranda's life entitled Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business, in 1995.
• Brazilian author Ruy Castro wrote a biography of Carmen Miranda entitled Carmen, published in 2005 in Brazil. This book has yet to appear in English.
• In 2007, the BBC Four produced "Carmen Miranda - Beneath the Tutti Frutti Hat", a one-hour documentary on Carmen Miranda, that includes interviews with her biographer Ruy Castro, her niece Carminha and Mickey Rooney, among others.
• In 2013, the book Carmen Miranda written by Lisa Shaw, was released by publisher Palgrave Macmillan. It is the first book-length study of Carmen Miranda in English.

Portrayals

• Gal Costa appeared in the 1995 film The Mandarin (O Mandarim) as Carmen Miranda.
• In the movie Gangster Squad, released in January 2013, Miranda is portrayed by Yvette Tucker performing in Slapsy Maxie's nightclub.

Imitations

• In The House Across the Bay (1940) an independent feature, produced by Walter Wanger and released by United Artists, Joan Bennett performing a Carmen Miranda-like musical number called "Chula Chihuahua."
• In Babes on Broadway (1941), the finale show opens with the number "Bombshell from Brazil" during which Tommy (Mickey Rooney) outfitted as Carmen Miranda, sings Mamãe Eu Quero.
• The musical finale of the film Time Out for Rhythm (1941), begins with The Three Stooges performing a hilarious rhumba dance number, with Curly Howard dressed up as Carmen Miranda.
• In 1943, Daffy Duck is characterized as Carmen Miranda in a scene from the cartoon Yankee Doodle Daffy produced by Warner Bros.
• In the 1943 Tom and Jerry cartoon Baby Puss, the cat Topsy is characterized as Carmen Miranda while singing and dancing to music Mamãe Eu Quero.
• In Winged Victory (1944), Sgt. Sascha Brastoff impersonates Carmen Miranda dancing and lip-syncing "Chica Chica Boom Chic".
• In the 1944 British motion picture Fiddlers Three, its star, comedian Tommy Trinder, performs one musical number as "Senorita Alvarez", an imitation of Carmen Miranda.
• Jo Ann Marlowe appears in the film Mildred Pierce singing South American Way like Carmen Miranda, in Down Argentine Way.
• Animator Virgil Ross used Miranda's image in his short Slick Hare, (1947) featuring Bugs Bunny, who escapes from Elmer Fudd by hiding in the fruit hat. Bugs himself mimics Miranda briefly in What's Cookin' Doc? Tex Avery also used it in his MGM short Magical Maestro when an opera singer is temporarily changed into the persona, fruit hat and all, via a magician's wand.
• Bob Hope appears characterized as Carmen Miranda while interpreting the song Batuque do Morro in a scene in the movie Road to Rio produced by Paramount Pictures in 1947.
• In Always Leave Them Laughing (1949), comedian Kip Cooper (Milton Berle) performs in the musical revue The Wonder of It All a impersonation of Carmen Miranda.
• In the Season 1 episode of I Love Lucy entitled "Be a Pal", Lucille Ball does an imitation of Miranda in the episode in which she lip-syncs to a record of Carmen Miranda singing "Mamãe Eu Quero".
• In Scared Stiff (1952) Jerry Lewis impersonates Carmen Miranda and lip syncs one of her signature numbers, "Mamãe Eu Quero".
• Carol Channing and some female Whatnots sing I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much) as part of a medley which also includes Jeepers Creepers and Them There Eyes in episode 423 of The Muppet Show. Rita Moreno sings the same song in The Muppets Go Hollywood, backed by the Mutations.
• Carol Burnett plays a Carmen Miranda-style performer in the movie Chu Chu and the Philly Flash released in 1981 by 20th Century Fox.
• Fruta Manzana is an animated spoof of Carmen Miranda who appeared in two segments, created by Don Duga and Irra Verbitsky, for Sesame Street.
• In January 1972, in his first show after his return from exile in London, Caetano Veloso appeared on stage dressed and dancing like Carmen Miranda. Veloso's feminisation of his body provoked the desired scandal and polemic in invoking Miranda he also made reference to her status as icon gay men in Brazil and internationally, and the use and fetishisation of elements of her style in gay culture.
• In Privates on Parade (1982), under the supervision of Maj. Giles Flack, a song-and-dance unit based in war-torn Singapore in the late '40s, is on tour entertaining British troops. The group's artistic director, Capt. Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley) loves to stage cross-dressing performances that his audiences find impossible to comprehend. Dennis' favorite include an imitation of Carmen Miranda.
• In the film Radio Days 1987, the Brazilian actress Denise Dumont participates in singing the song Tico-Tico no Fubá. In another scene, Ruthie personifies Carmen Miranda in front of the mirror as she dances and lip-syncs to the song South American Way.
• Marilia Pera does a parody of Carmen Miranda in Brazilian film Better Days Ahead in 1990.
• Fernanda Lima presented the TV show Amor & Sexo, on 13 November 2014, dressed as Carmen Miranda.
• In Maya & Marty, Maya Rudolph appeared as Carmen Miranda during the 'Carmen Miranda' sketch on July 12, 2016.
• On Three's Company in the episode "Up in the Air" Jack Tripper took tranquilizes to calm his nerves in fear of flying. He then had alcohol and acting " Life of the Party" and he fell over a bar at an exclusive party when he got up from the floor, he had a potted fern on his head and danced around pretended to be Carmen Miranda.

Covers of Carmen Miranda songs

Miranda's songs "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada", "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)", "South American Way" and "Tico-Tico no Fubá" have each been covered many times, often in tribute to her; see those songs' articles for information on other recordings.

• Brazilian singer Ney Matogrosso's album Batuque, brings the period and several of Miranda's early hits back to life in faithful style.
• In 1968, Maria Bethânia recorded a cover version of the song "Camisa Listrada" for his album Recital na Boite Barroco.
• Gal Costa, recorded in 1975 the Marching of Carnival "O Balancê" of João de Barro and Alberto Ribeiro. Recorded by Carmen Miranda in 1936.
• In 1973, the Brazilian singer Clara Nunes recorded the song "Ao voltar do samba" of Synval Silva and recorded by Miranda in 1934.
• In 1989, Tom Jobim recorded the samba "Na Batucada da Vida" of Ary Barroso and Luiz Peixoto and recorded by Miranda in 1934.
• In 1995, the American singer Dionne Warwick recorded a cover version of the song "Na Baixa do Sapateiro" of Ary Barroso and recorded by Miranda in 1938.
• In 1996, Chico Buarque and Maria Bethânia recorded a cover version of the song "Quando Eu Penso na Bahia" of Ary Barroso and Luiz Peixoto and recorded by Carmen Miranda in 1937.
• Pink Martini recorded "Tempo perdido" for their 2007 album Hey Eugene!.
• Eduardo Dusek recorded a cover version of the song "Tá-Hi (Pra Você Gostar de mim)", written by Joubert de Carvalho and recorded by Miranda in 1930. The song was part of the soundtrack of the telenovela Chocolate com Pimenta in 2003.
• In 2003, singer Ivete Sangalo recorded a cover version of the song "Chica Chica Boom Chic" for the DVD MTV ao Vivo.
• In honour of Carmen Miranda's centenary, Daniela Mercury recorded a "duet" with her in the cover of "O Que É Que A Baiana Tem?", which includes the original 1939 phonogram.

Other musical references

• In the early 1970s, the novelty act Daddy Dewdrop had a top 10 hit single in the US titled "Chick-A-Boom", one of Miranda's trademark song phrases, although the resemblance ended there.
• Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett included a tribute to Carmen Miranda on his 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, entitled "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More."
• On one of Caetano Veloso's most popular songs, "Tropicalia", he sings "Viva a banda da da da ... Carmen Miranda da da da" as the final lyrics of the song.
• Singer Leslie Fish wrote a song called "Carmen Miranda's Ghost Is Haunting Space Station Three", in which a space station is inundated with fresh fruit. A science fiction anthology later had the same title.
• John Cale included the song "The Soul of Carmen Miranda" on his album Words for the Dying.

Other references

• In 1944, the United Fruit Company did not hesitate to take advantage of the Carmen Miranda craze. The company created a banana-woman cartoon character named Chiquita whose "tutti-frutti" hat unmistakably conjured Carmen Miranda.
• In the sitcom, Home Improvement, season 2 episode 13, (1993) Jill Taylor owns a hat similar to Carmen Miranda's hats. When her husband, Tim, asks if she still needs it, she says, "Yes. Every time I go to a new grocery store, I point to it and say, 'What aisle are these in?'"
• In Episode 10, Cycle 12 (2009) of America's Next Top Model the models embodied Brazilian icon Carmen Miranda in a photoshoot.
• In the sitcom Modern Family, Cameron Tucker dresses his two-year-old daughter Lily as Carmen Miranda for a photoshoot.
• In the 2016 film, Hail Caesar!, set in the film industry of the early 1950s, the character of Carlotta Valdez (played by Veronica Osorio) is an oblique reference to Carmen Miranda.

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Filmography

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Singles

Brazilian singles

• "Anoiteceu"
• "Entre Outras Coisas"
• "Esqueci de Sorrir"
• "Foi Numa Noite Assim"
• "Fogueira Do Meu Coração"
• "Fruto Proibido"
• "Cor de Guiné"
• "Casaco de Tricô"
• "Dia de Natal"
• "Fala, Meu Pandeiro"
• "Deixa Esse Povo Falar"
• "Sonho de Papel" (recorded with Orchestra Odeon on 10 May 1935)
• "E Bateu-Se a Chapa" (recorded with Regional de Benedito Lacerda on 26 June 1935)
• "O Tique-Taque do Meu Coração" (recorded with Regional de Benedito Lacerda on 7 August 1935)
• "Adeus, Batucada" (recorded with Odeon Orchestra on 24 September 1935)
• "Querido Adão" (recorded with Orchestra Odeon on 26 September 1935)

• "Alô, Alô, Carnaval"
• "Duvi-dê-ó-dó"
• "Dou-lhe Uma"
• "Capelinha do Coração"
• "Cuíca, Pandeiro, Tamborim ..."
• "Beijo Bamba"
• "Balancê"
• "Entra no cordão"
• "Como Eu Chorei"
• "As Cantoras do Rádio" (recorded with Aurora Miranda and Orchestra Odeon on 18 March 1936)
• "No Tabuleiro da Baiana" (recorded with Louis Barbosa and Regional Luperce Miranda on 29 September 1936)
• "Como Vai Você?" (recorded with Ary Barroso and Regional Luperce Pixinguinha and Miranda on 2 October 1936)

• "Dance Rumba"
• "Em Tudo, Menos em Ti"
• "Canjiquinha Quente"
• "Cabaret No Morro"
• "Baiana Do Tabuleiro"
• "Dona Geisha"
• "Cachorro Vira-Lata" (recorded with Regional de Benedito Lacerda on 4 May 1937)
• "Me Dá, Me Dá" (recorded with Regional de Benedito Lacerda on 4 May 1937)
• "Camisa Amarela" (recorded with the Odeon Group on 20 September 1937)
• "Eu Dei" (recorded with Regional Odeon on 21 September 1937)

• "Endereço Errado"
• "Falar!"
• "Escrevi um Bilhetinho"
• "Batalhão do amor"
• "E a Festa, Maria?"
• "Cuidado Com a Gaita do Ary"
• "A Pensão Da Dona Stella"
• "A Vizinha Das Vantagens"
• "Samba Rasgado" (recorded with Odeon Group on 7 March 1938)
• "E o Mundo Não Se Acabou" ("And the World Would Not End") (recorded with Regional Odeon on 9 March 1938)
• "Boneca de Piche" (recorded with Admiral and Odeon Orchestra on 31 August 1938)
• "Na Baixa do Sapateiro" (recorded with Orchestra Odeon on 17 October 1938)

• "A Preta Do Acarajé"
• "Deixa Comigo"
• "Candeeiro"
• "Amor Ideal"
• "Essa Cabrocha"
• "A Nossa Vida Hoje É Diferente"
• "Cozinheira Grã-fina"
• "O Que É Que a Bahiana Tem?" (recorded with Dorival Caymmi and Regional Assembly on 27 February 1939)
• "Uva de Caminhão" (recorded with Joint Odeon on 21 March 1939)
• "Camisa Listada" (recorded with Bando da Lua on 28 August 1939)

• "Voltei pro Morro" (recorded with Joint Odeon on 2 September 1940)
• "Ela Diz Que Tem"
• "Disso É Que Eu Gosto"
• "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada" (recorded with Odeon Set on 2 September 1940)
• "Bruxinha de Pano"
• "O Dengo Que a Nêga Tem"
• "É Um Quê Que a Gente Tem"
• "Blaque-Blaque"
• "Recenseamento" (recorded with Joint Odeon on 27 September 1940)
• "Ginga-Ginga"

American singles

• "South American Way" (recorded with Bando da Lua and boy on 26 December 1939)
• "Touradas Em Madrid"
• "Marchinha do grande galo"
• "Mamãe Eu Quero"
• "Bambú, Bambú"

• "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)" (recorded with Bando da Lua on 5 January 1941)
• "Alô Alô"
• "Chica-Chica-Bum-Chic" (recorded with Bando da Lua on 5 January 1941)
• "Bambalê"
• "Cai, Cai" (record with Bando da Lua on 5 January 1941)
• "Arca de Noé"
• "A Weekend In Havana"
• "Diz Que Tem..."
• "When I Love I Love"
• "Rebola, Bola" (recorded with the Bando da Lua on 9 October 1941)
• "The Man With the Lollipop Song"
• "Não Te Dou A Chupeta"
• "Manuelo"
• "Thank You, North America"

• "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (recorded with Bando da Lua and boy on 25 July 1942)
• "Tic-tac do Meu Coração"
• "O Passo Do Kanguru (Brazilly Willy)"
• "Boncea de Pixe"

• "Upa! Upa!"
• "Tico Tico"

• "The Matador (Touradas Em Madrid)" (recorded with The Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen & his orchestra)
• "Cuanto La Gusta" (recorded with The Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen & his orchestra)

• "Asi Asi (I See, I See)" (recorded with The Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen & his orchestra)
• "The Wedding Samba" (recorded with The Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen & his orchestra)

• "Baião Ca Room' Pa Pa" (recorded with The Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen & his orchestra)
• "Ipse-A-I-O" (recorded with The Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen & his orchestra)

Source of the article : Wikipedia