How American Propaganda Changed Carmen Miranda's Career

since her american film debut in 1940 carmen miranda has become one of the most imitated pop culture figures of the 20th century imitators don extravagant fruit-laden hats and platform shoes display an open midriff and shake their hips to some of her most famous songs these parodies and imitations are enough to give us a general idea of who carmen miranda was but there's a lot more to the brazilian bombshell than that behind the spectacle of her samba is a fascinating story that sits right at the intersection of brazilian culture world war ii american propaganda and the hollywood star machine in this video we'll talk about all of that and more from the origins of her image in brazil to the censorship apparatus implemented to monitor her films and finally the limits of her stardom before we get started i want to thank helix sleep for sponsoring this video whenever i visit my parents i used to sleep in a bed that felt roughly like i was sleeping on a medieval torture device like my hips 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miranda was a movie star she was a radio star born in portugal her family immigrated to rio de janeiro brazil when she was less than a year old growing up in a working-class family she began performing around town as a singer against her father's wishes before she was discovered by josue barros a composer and musician who helped her find musical collaborators and to seriously enter the music industry in 1930 she became the first singer in brazil to receive a radio station contract and by the end of the decade she had become the highest paid radio singer in the country known for her graceful and unique interpretations of samba that helped spread the genre's popularity beyond the working class and outside of afro-brazilian communities where it originated in the mid-1930s she transitioned to film and began starring in a series of chancadas a genre of brazilian film partially modeled on american musicals but with roots as well in brazilian comic theater and in the sung films about carnival while most of these films are lost footage does remain of the 1939 film banana da terra in which she sings okiyake on a team or what does a bayana have this is the first time we see carmen miranda and what we've come to know as the carmen miranda look the turbine beads open mid-drift platform shoes etc which from this point she adopts full-time as part of her act however this costume did not originate with her like samba it originated in afro-brazilian communities in the broadest terms bayana refers to the afro-brazilian women of bahia a small but visible group often seen in urban areas selling fruit or at carnival festivities here carmen sports a stylized exaggerated and form-fitting version of the traditional bayana dress the lyrics list components of her garments as her band points to them written by dorival kaimi a legendary singer-songwriter from salvador bahia the song acts as a sincere celebration of the bayana as part of brazilian culture it is not a coincidence that carmen a white woman who was not from bahia was able to sing this song and dress this way on a national stage to great success catherine bishop sanchez explains in her book creating carmen miranda that miranda's bayana was part of a whitening movement in vogue at the time in which white singers appropriated black music and by performing it and distributing it to white upper class elites assimilated afro-brazilian culture into the mainstream in the 1920s and 30s the impact of racial diversity in brazilian culture was both acknowledged and suppressed on the one hand traditionally black music like samba was embraced as a sign of a thriving culture on the other hand brazil perceived whiteness as its passport to emulate the more civilized countries of western europe the brazilian government sought to elevate figures who would prove these ideas were not mutually exclusive someone who could appease white elites by signaling that brazil's future was white but also perpetuate the myth that racism was over by embracing black themes techniques and genres in popular culture this racial hierarchy created the conditions that allowed carmen's fame to thrive she embodied this contradiction and due to her popularity across demographics could act as a symbol of national unity because of her whiteness she was allowed to perform at popular venues where she had access to an international and wealthy clientele who could potentially propel her career to new heights which is exactly what happened in february 1939 broadway producer lee schubert saw carmen perform her bayana routine at the orca casino in rio de janeiro and was blown away he signed her to a very lucrative deal at least for him he got a 50 cut of her earnings to bring her up to new york city to star in the broadway review the streets of paris the show included short comedic musical vignettes by various entertainers including abbott and costello carmen appeared for just six minutes at the end of the first act singing a few songs and speaking just four words but in those few minutes carmen miranda captured the imagination of american audiences she became the talk of the town the reason to see the show as the brooklyn daily eagle noted the streets of paris is good regulation stuff with pretty girls brief costumes genial comedians but carmen miranda is a miracle her success was due in part obviously to her talent but it was also because of the novelty of her act most americans had genuinely never seen anything like the bayana or samba represented on broadway before sure most people had no clue what she was saying but it didn't really matter to them she was exotic a means of transportation to another world as another review put it using her hands her eyes and a rhythmic movement of her body not unlike the roomba role she speaks a language that knows no borders and needs no dictionary it's hard to understate how popular she became and how quickly broadway had been having an off year losing tourists to the world's fair but when business started to pick back up the press attributed this to carmen unsurprisingly every film studios talent scouts sought to obtain an option on her services so she soon signed a contract to appear in films for 20th century fox to miranda's advantage hollywood had been preparing for someone like her to arrive for a very long time the stage had been set for her stardom long before her arrival in new york city in the field of world policy i would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor carmen miranda's arrival in new york occurred in parallel with the american government's efforts to strengthen its cultural ties with central and south america germany and italy had been trying to recruit latin american countries particularly brazil and argentina as allies the united states did not like the possibility of having hostile states in its immediate neighborhood but also realized that its presence in the region had been somewhat antagonistic wars occupations treaties that protected american corporations over the local populations etc so president roosevelt decided hey maybe we should try to be a little nicer to our neighbors and so the good neighbor policy was born generally speaking this policy sought to encourage pan-american solidarity by the united states committing to stop intervening in the region's internal affairs the idea was to build trust so that should it become necessary the americas could form a collective security organization to stand up to the nazis the good neighbor policy was implemented in two ways first through actual tangible changes that put america's presence in the region on much more equitable terms for example the united states withdrew troops from haiti revised treaties with cuba and panama and supported mexico's nationalization of its oil holdings the second aspect of this policy much more relevant to this video was cultural diplomacy charitably you can call this pr realistically you can call it propaganda maria jose canelo writes political stability in the americas depended on a more positive image of each national identity and that this was at risk as long as the stereotypes of the yankee imperialist and the latin american gangster prevailed to a great extent the good neighbor policy committed itself to an enterprise of knowledge production that attempted to represent difference as mutually non-threatening promoting a general atmosphere of joy and friendliness through vehicles with a mass appeal what better way to do this than through film so in 1940 as the war raged in europe fdr established the oia or the office of inter-american affairs the main task of the oia was to oppose the german and italian influences on the american continent and improve the image of the usa in latin america and vice versa the office's motion picture division was specifically tasked with weaponizing the film industry to meet this goal the idea make more stuff about latin america and ensure it's sympathetic in nature the film industry as it turned out was absolutely on board with this from the get-go throughout the 1930s 35 of the motion picture industry's gross revenue came from export earnings 60 of which was derived from european distribution as the political situation in europe worsened it became politically untenable to send films overseas studios needed to make that revenue up elsewhere and latin america seemed like a viable option it would therefore financially benefit studios to make more films that appealed directly to their new export market more newsreel coverage and travelogues were created the american government paid artists to create educational materials about the region most famously orson welles whose documentary about brazil was never completed due to disputes with rko and walt disney who took his team of animators on a tour of south america to create the family-friendly film saludos amigos but to be truly effective in achieving these goals brian o'neill writes in his essay the demands of authenticity hollywood would have to begin to incorporate more latin american talent into its movies furthermore the film industry must be induced to voluntarily refrain from producing and or distributing in the other americas pictures that are objectionable or create a bad impression of america or latin americans hollywood did not have a fantastic track record with not offending other cultures in its films so an entire censorship apparatus was created to identify latin american talent themes and stories on behalf of studios and to monitor their films for anything that might potentially offend latin american cultures a cuban-american journalist addison durland was appointed to oversee this process for the production code administration durland coordinated with latin american censor boards as well as with studios to review scripts and offer suggestions for changes o'neill's essay about durlan's tenure at the pca details how he scrupulously reviewed scripts for the authenticity of costumes dances and music sought to cleanse scripts of broken english and regularly insisted to producers that all spanish and portuguese lines be spoken correctly and in the appropriate regional dialect or accent dialogue in a film in mexico for instance had to be spoken with a mexican accent sometimes this process actually worked and mistakes were corrected before films could hit screens a few examples fox changed the lyrics buenos noches to bonaichi in that night in rio when brazilian authorities pointed out that hey brazil speaks portuguese not spanish durland axed cuban congos from the 1944 film brazil and a cuban roomba planned for the mexican musical fiesta that said this process also frequently did not work these were genuine good faith efforts but it's probably fair to say that they fell short more often than not both by the standards of their time and of course ours this is for various reasons studios or filmmakers sometimes projected advice as the new york times put it in 1940 hollywood treated its southern neighbors with happy arrogance studios ignore the precise information provided by research departments in favor of the producers and director's conception of life below the border research departments though also made mistakes and often naively relied on flawed sources that were written through a racist or colonial lens like travel guides picture books and periodical coverage of foreign lands as we'll see with carmen miranda later durland also had his own missteps he was less attentive to films starring prominent latin americans because he apparently held the essentialist position that any film that featured a major latin american star was somehow automatically immune from offensive or problematic representations other countries biases also impacted accuracy when hollywood representatives reached out to governments or cultural representatives for notes or approval on a film they were dealing directly with elites who were invested in manipulating the foreign perception of their countries they wanted americans to think of them as modern cosmopolitan and most importantly white the brazilian embassy for example explicitly asked fox to remove a scene in that night in rio that included two black girls singing similarly among the reasons the argentinian government opposed the film down argentine way was the inclusion of the nicholas brothers during a nightclub sequence fearing that the scenes featuring black dancers would add to the genki impression that the people of argentina were indians or africans basically the film industry had the financial and political motivations to pump out film after film that made latin america especially brazil look like a fun exciting place to be an escape from the stress of a war-torn world where you could dance the night away and maybe meet the love of your life an american audiences ate this up they loved it musical comedies were the most popular genre for these stories but you even see this trend pop up in the most random places like how betty davis basically does an advertisement for brazilian tourism and now voyager up on that mountain there's something to please your architect's heart the christa statue there were latina stars working in hollywood at this time to appear in these films but the good neighbor policy needed a figurehead with a clean slate whose joy and friendliness not only entertained but also served the political moment by forming a bond across the americas when carmen miranda arrived in new york city enchanted broadway was selected by the brazilian government to represent brazil at the brazil pavilion at the world's fair and seemingly enchanted the nation overnight it became clear who that figurehead would be carmen miranda was touted as the ideal representative of the good neighbor policy almost immediately after she set foot in the united states by the summer of 1939 she was a singing heatwave from brazil turned good neighbor envoy her entertainment was another excellent reason for being a good neighbor here is a fine advertisement for the good neighbor policy here is a superb neighbor she can't speak english but she's done more to rivet the usa latin american axis at this end than any dozen diplomatic junkets playbill echoed that sentiment too she was bound to do more to cement the good relationship between the united states and south america than a couple boatloads of diplomats and other career men of course hollywood could not resist an enormously popular entertainer who happened to represent a demographic the industry was both politically and financially incentivized to exploit that she embodied the spirit of that policy became a driving facet of her persona one that made its way into her films on a literal level well there's your good neighbor policy come on honey that's good neighbor [Music] carmen's first american film down argentine way was actually filmed before her tenure on broadway had ended but fox was so eager to include her in their technicolor musical that they sent a crew to new york city to film her separately from the rest of the cast and inserted her into the film in post although the film had its um issues and was literally banned in argentina because of them it did its job of introducing the wider american public to carbon just like on broadway she took the nation by storm becoming an overnight success and the reason to see a film she was barely in and why not technicolor seemed like it was invented for someone like carmen miranda a performer who embraced extravagance and oozed one review said though she appears in only one scene singing two numbers down argentine way becomes an important entertainment feature because of it so began a very successful few years for carmen by 1940 she was voted the third most popular personality in the united states by 1944 she had become one of the highest paid actresses in the country by performing in films and at nightclubs and through merchandising her look although she doesn't have much screen time in down argentine way the film established key components of the carmen miranda persona that remained consistent until the end of her career so let's take a look at what that looks like carmen often received top billing but never played the protagonist in her films instead she played the comic sidekick to fox musical mainstays like alice fay vivian blaine or betty grable those women crooned slow pining love songs for their leading men that contrasted with the vibrant energetic spectacle of carmen's numbers she almost always played an entertainer or at least someone with access to a nightclub stage dancers in a band anything that would give her an excuse to launch into one of her signature songs in an elaborate costume speaking of the stylized mayana costume remained the most important aspect of her persona throughout her career gradually taking on more and more exaggerated and glamorous aesthetic with glimmering skirts and intricately decorated headpieces her image is most often replicated with fruit in her hat which has origins in the famous lady in the tutti frutti hat number in busby berkeley's absolutely insane film the gangs all hear her open midriff was of some concern to the censors who worried about whether or not it was appropriate to see a woman's abdomen priscilla pena ovalle writes in her book dance in the hollywood latina that miranda's body was so sensuous so powerful that it was regularly scrutinized by the production code administration whether for her costume or simply for her excessive performance style beyond its usual policing of sexuality the pca also regulated costume and dance and miranda regularly modeled her costumes for the pca to determine their decency as the comic sidekick heard jokes and gags often incorporated her ethnicity as a brazilian woman more specifically her accent became a trademark of her persona both because the press frequently mentioned it and because it was utilized to comic effect in her films carmen miranda did not speak very much english when she arrived in the united states but became fluent very quickly like impressively quickly still it's almost impossible to find an interview with her in which she is not quoted in phonetically spelled english to emphasize her foreignness just dumb demeaning things like spelling happy with two e's even though phonetically that's said exactly the same way as the correct spelling in one article in screenland the journalist harps on the fact that she just never got our spelling and the meaning of the words bread and bread and then goes on to misspell several words in portuguese and misgender her because of course anyway as you might expect mispronounced words or flawed grammar were common targets for laughs in her films are you a secretary i shot your hands please pronounce me i'm chiquita heart from terra hats indiana these jokes were built into the script deliberately worsening her english and using portuguese as a way of branding her the fiery emotional latina for example daryl zaneck at fox noted on the first draft of the screenplay for that night in rio her first real character role that the handling of carmen was good except that she does not need to talk nearly as much as she does in english you should confine her to english in one or two line speeches and if she has to explode she should go into portuguese ending up with a denunciation of one or two words in english which is exactly what happens in the film for good measure that bias that english is a language for even keeled and level-headed people also made an appearance listen listen i've been trying to teach you english for six months now you never learn unless you speak it and you can't speak it when you get excited english isn't that kind of a language so don't get excited the later you get into her career the less these jokes occur films like doll face and a date with judy didn't require the same brand of exaggerated comedy or manic energy as her early fox musicals so her line delivery takes on a less heightened everyday tenor carmen miranda was brazilian as we've established but came to represent a variety of latine identities usually remixed or blended together let's take weekend in havana as an example the film opens with carmen and her band depicted in an advertisement for a cruise to havana we zoom in she comes to life and sings weekend in havana in english later she sings hebola abula in portuguese so we have a brazilian woman literally framed as the poster child for cuban tourism singing songs neither in spanish nor inspired by cuban music like what culture is this it's everything and therefore nothing it's just latin many of her films are like this she sings then immediately re-transitioned to b-roll of buenos aires in down argentine way she sings chico chico puerto rico and dollface and in greenwich village she makes a point to say she's a portuguese woman born in buffalo and then 10 minutes later she's singing a brazilian song about bahia which is of course punctuated with american tap dancing even critic bosley krauther at the new york times noticed how these films collapsed every latin american culture into one blanket identity although he didn't seem to view that as an issue in his review of weekend in havana he wrote if you should casually note that the clubs and the roombas and the costumes and for that matter even the stars are remarkably reminiscent of the same ones already seen in fox's previous visits to buenos aires and rio de janeiro don't let that cause you great confusion this is just motion picture make-believe so despite the fact that the censorship office apparently encouraged cultural specificity carmen miranda's films are more as springtime in the rockies puts it a pan-american jubilee than anything else [Music] by placing her in this vague cultural space carmen transformed from a brazilian performer inspired by brazilian experiences and culture into a broad decontextualized general representative of the good neighbor policy this persona complicated her relationship with her home country the population of which feared she had become too americanized bishop sanchez writes to a north american audience the bianna had no cultural regional racial social or historical meaning so her image became the stereotype for the latin exotic vivacious incomprehensible fruit-laden colorful and accompanied by samba or marcinia music whose rhythms were identified as part of the foreign vogue originating from south america we can actually look at television to see how this works in practice in season 1 episode 2 of i love lucy lucy fears that ricky has lost interest in her in order to reignite the spark in their marriage she tries various methods to capture his attention like trying to be more glamorous and joining him in a poker game all to no avail finally ethel suggests i wouldn't be surprised if your whole trouble is that ricky misses cuba oh ethel that's ridiculous no it isn't you should fix this place up so that it will remind him of his happy childhood in cuba they do and what role does lucy play in this ruse carmen miranda so lucy decided to remind her cuban husband of his home by imitating a brazilian performer singing a song in portuguese it's possible to interpret lucy's ignorance as part of the joke but i don't think that's the intention here given that this same thing happened time and time again elsewhere that it's never addressed in the scene and that the comic intention of lucy's performances is typically to show that she's a bad entertainer when something goes awry of course that is what happens here when the record accidentally speeds up [Music] this joke was stolen two years later by jerry lewis and carmen miranda's last film by the way anyway point is the carmen miranda was considered a reasonable or viable spokesperson for cuba despite having no connection to that country whatsoever in the u.s american mind latin america had collapsed in on itself represented by the singular body of carmen miranda [Music] the post-war era was difficult for carmen miranda after world war ii the united states shifted its foreign policy priorities to preventing soviet influence in the western hemisphere rather than continue its good neighborliness toward latin america it basically tossed its non-intervention policies out the window and resumed hostile relationships with any nation that expressed communist sympathies the era of pan-americanism and the good neighbor policy was over not only was the government less invested but the american public seemingly lost interest as well the latin american musical lost its momentum as americans gravitated toward moody film noirs and dramas that expressed the anxiety of the post-war era carmen's persona was so rigidly defined that it was hard to place her in this new cultural context nor was she ever given opportunities to evolve her persona beyond what i've described in this video some of her later films as i've mentioned allow her to try slightly different things in copacabana for example she plays a dual role at once carmen a performer indistinguishable from her other characters and her disguise fifi the french cabaret sensation still for the most part it was impossible for carmen to break out of the exoticized and political role she'd served throughout the early 1940s peno avaya writes miranda displayed an in-betweenness that initially benefited from whiteness in brazil but ultimately she was not white enough in the united states preventing the greater access to narrative opportunities that whiteness afforded carmen miranda died very young at just 46 years old her final appearance was on the jimmy durante show in 1955 during which she fell briefly to her knees and said she was out of breath she gracefully finished the show but later that night passed away from a heart attack she'd had a very very difficult personal life one that is sadly familiar for many stars of her era one characterized by mental illness addiction and overwork carmen miranda is often reduced to just the lady in the tutti frutti hat but her life and work were so much more complex than that she was a figure of transnational significance a woman whose life was affected by the racial hierarchies of two enormous and complicated countries and more than anything she was a great performer i encourage you to do some reading on her if you're interested in this topic because i feel like i've only scratched the surface of what it entails many of the books i've mentioned are great resources and many of her films are available to watch for free right here on youtube so be sure to check the description box below [Music] thank you again to helix for sponsoring this video don't forget to click the link below or go to helixsleep.com be kind rewind for up to 200 off your helix sleep mattress plus two free pillows [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Be Kind Rewind

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Id: 1BndYyCrHH0

Length: 32min 54sec (1974 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 27 2022