Carmen Miranda

This is the first book-length study in English of the film career and star persona of Carmen Miranda, the first Latin American star to be invited to imprint her hands and feet outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, in 1941, who officially would become the highest paid woman in the USA in 1946. It examines Miranda's emergence as one of the first stars of the Brazilian film industry after the arrival of sound at the beginning of the 1930s, and her contribution to the rise of the musical comedy tradition known as the chanchada. It charts her transition from star singer on Rio de Janeiro's radio stations and casino stages, and within the record industry, to Brazilian film star in the mid-1930s, analysing how she constructed her star persona by drawing on performance techniques honed during her singing career and on the popular cultural forms enjoyed by lower-class audiences, such as the teatro de revista (the local version of vaudeville). The book then examines how her star text shifted after her move to Broadway, in 1939, and Hollywood just a year later, particularly its ethnic dimension, dissecting its performative elements, both visual and sonic, such as her increasingly extravagant baiana costumes (and her ubiquitous turbans) and her intentionally mangled English. It pays particular attention to her agency in constructing a star text which both endorsed and subverted dominant stereotypes about Latin America and its people in the USA during the 'Good Neighbour Policy' era. It seeks to explain Miranda's appeal to both mainstream and marginalized audiences, both in the USA and back in Brazil. Finally, it considers why her image is still instantly recognisable across the world, examining her impact on material culture, particularly women's fashions, both during her lifetime and until the present day, and the role played in the consecration of her 'tropical' star persona by imitators, ranging from the Warner Bros. animated character Bugs Bunny, Lucille Ball and Mickey Rooney, to contemporary Carmen Miranda imitators of both genders.