Customer Reviews

Brazilian Bombshell

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Carmen Miranda da Cunha was born in Portugal and she with her family moved to Brazil when she was very young.Her family was poor but at a young age she started to sing and eventually she started to carve herself a very respectable notch in the Brazillian music scene.She toured during the thirties with the top flight Latin musicians in her country and with many recordings under her belt before she even landed in the U.S. she was in fact a bona fide star in her native country.
The U.S. recording industry got wind of this unique talent and then Hollywood who beckoned her northward.Determined,talented and driven she went on to conquer Hollywood as she had her home country.But it was the image she created there that many back home decried her for having sold out her principals and herself.Carmen so wanted everyone to like her and she especially couldn't understand the lack of tolerance in Brazil by some for what she was doing in the U.S.After all wasn't she just trying to be a success?
She unfortunately took alot of criticism to heart either from home or elsewhere and she became at times deeply depressed.She relied sometimes on alcohol and other chemical substances to asuage her inner demons but they wouldn't go away.Rest in sanitariums and even shock treatments over time didn't do it and neither did a loveless marriage with an abusive husband.
It was during a taping on Aug.4/55 of a Jimmy Durante show that she had an unexpected fall but quickly recovered.She had not been feeling her self for a while but she carried on and finished taping the show.The next morning at around 2:30AM she left to go to bed and that was the last time her family and friends saw her alive.Such a tragic ending for such a talented woman.
This book is a welcome tome on the life of Carmen but unfortunately the authors' writing gets away from her sometimes and she will devote paragraphs of florid prose on what she thinks Carmen may have thought of at a certain moment in her life.Also her chronology is sloppy as she skips forward then back from chapter to chapter.
In conclusion I would recommend this book,albeit not highly,as there are many things one can learn once you're able to seperate the wheat from the chaff.It does contains alot of photos previously unseen by this writer and contains adecdotes from many who knew her both in Brazil and in the U.S.
I can only hope there comes along another deserved book on this delightful and talented singer/actress but with a more focused and thorough approach to its' subject matter.

Brazillian Bombshell is a wonderful warm biography of Carmen Miranda. If you even think you love her this is a must read. It dispells all the Hollywood Publicity Machine foolishness about her life as well as the RCA Victor Bio bloopers. It's all finally straightened out, and now we, Carmen's Fans and Carmen herself, can rest knowing that the story has been told properly. It's about time!