Carmen Miranda

Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha designed hats in a Rio boutique before recording with Josué de Barros in 1929. Her 1930 recording of "Taí (Pra Você Gostar de Mim)" made her Brazil's foremost samba interpreter, leading to radio performances and five chanchadas celebrating carnival culture. The 1939 film Banana da Terra gave her the "Baiana" look inspired by Afro-Brazilians from Bahia. Broadway producer Lee Shubert saw her at Cassino da Urca that year and brought her to The Streets of Paris, then Hollywood came calling with Down Argentine Way in 1940. By 1945 she was the highest-paid woman in America, the first Latin American star to leave prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, making 14 films through 1953 - but she came to resent the stereotypical image she'd built, her popularity fading after the war. She died in 1955, a fixture of variety television, having planted the seeds for Brazil's Tropicalismo movement without ever escaping the costume.