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Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha was born on February 9th 1909 in Marco de Canavezes, Portugal. She is now known as Carmen Miranda, The chiquita lady , and the Brazilian Bombshell.
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Her devoutly catholic parents moved to Brazil when she was an infant. Her convent education necessitated that she keep her entertainment business dreams well hidden, and she began as a department store clerk, entertaining her co-workers.(devoutly means ~sincere or religious or earnest)
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A weekly radio slot led to her receiving her first recording contract with RCA in 1928. By the early 1930s, she made her film debut in the Brazilian film A Voz do Carnaval. Maintaining both her acting and recording careers in Brazil, she had recorded over 300 singles by 1939.
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Maintaining both her acting and recording careers in Brazil, she had recorded over 300 singles by 1939. That's ALOT!
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She became ill in 1943, which resulted in emergency surgery for a stomach ailment. A period of depression, mental exhaustion, and reliance on medication followed which altered her for the rest of her life.
(ailment means ~ a sickness or disease that is unknown) -
Hollywood became less interested in her , so she returned to the nightclub s again, making appearances at El Rancho in Las Vegas and the London Palladium in 1948. Her final film was Scared Stiff, with Jerry Lewis, in 1953.
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Her health declined further and, returning to Brazil in 1954, protective custody was ordered by her doctor, following a fainting spell at the airport.
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In April 1955, she returned to Hollywood feeling healthy, looking better than she had in years and willing to go back to the stage.
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She joined friends and family members at home for a party, where she seemed in high spirits and, despite her delicate health, danced and sang on August 4th 1955.
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On 4 August 1955, while recording a exhausting dance number for the Jimmy Durante Show, Carmen collapsed in the final sequence and said, "I'm all out of breath."
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Retiring to bed early, she collapsed and died at two-thirty in the morning on August 5th 1955 at home at 46 years of age services were held in California . She died of a heart attack.
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Her body was shipped to Rio for final burial. Nearly one million people lined the streets to bid her a last farewell. Her costumes were donated to Brazil for a "Carmen Miranda Museum".Her burrial site was in São João Batista Cemetery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
