Happy 104th Birthday Maria do Carmo “Carmen” Miranda da Cunha
└ February 9, 1909 —- August 5, 1955The poor girl grew up in Lapa, Rio de Janeiro downtown, and had become by 1930 the prime Brazilian music star, leaving behind a life marked by jobs as a shop clerk. In that decade, her path was luminous and with no parallel. Broadway, Hollywood and international fame would come later. By 1946, The Brazilian Bombshell would earn more than any other performer in Hollywood, provoke mafia people, make fun of movie industry executives, challenge racists and drive madly around Los Angeles. The girl who once said she wanted to be very rich to make her boyfriend a prince, had become a princess herself.
