text:
Carmen Miranda

Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha (9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955), known professionally as Carmen Miranda, was a Portuguese-born Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress. Nicknamed "The Brazilian Bombshell", she was known for her signature fruit hat outfit that she wore in her American films.

As a young woman, Miranda designed clothes and hats in a boutique before making her debut as a singer, recording with composer Josué de Barros in 1929. Miranda's 1930 recording of "Taí (Pra Você Gostar de Mim)", written by Joubert de Carvalho, catapulted her to stardom in Brazil as the foremost interpreter of samba.

During the 1930s, Miranda performed on Brazilian radio and appeared in five Brazilian chanchadas, films celebrating Brazilian music, dance and the country's carnival culture. Hello, Hello Brazil! and Hello, Hello, Carnival! embodied the spirit of these early Miranda films. The 1939 musical Banana da Terra (directed by Ruy Costa) gave the world her "Baiana" image, inspired by Afro-Brazilians from the north-eastern state of Bahia.

In 1939, Broadway producer Lee Shubert offered Miranda an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris after seeing her at Cassino da Urca in Rio de Janeiro. The following year she made her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way with Don Ameche and Betty Grable, and her exotic clothing and Lusophone accent became her trademark. That year, she was voted the third-most-popular personality in the United States; she and her group, Bando da Lua, were invited to sing and dance for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1943, Miranda starred in Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here, which featured musical numbers with the fruit hats that became her trademark. By 1945, she was the highest-paid woman in the United States.

Miranda made 14 Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953. Although she was hailed as a talented performer, her popularity waned by the end of World War II. Miranda came to resent the stereotypical "Brazilian Bombshell" image she had cultivated and attempted to free herself of it with limited success. She focused on nightclub appearances and became a fixture on television variety shows. Despite being stereotyped, Miranda's performances popularized Brazilian music and increased public awareness of Latin culture. In 1941, she was the first Latin American star to be invited to leave her hand and footprints in the courtyard of Grauman's Chinese Theatre and was the first South American honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Miranda is considered the precursor of Brazil's 1960s Tropicalismo cultural movement. A museum was built in Rio de Janeiro in her honor and she was the subject of the documentary Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business (1995).

Early life
Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha in Várzea da Ovelha e Aliviada, a village in the northern Portuguese municipality of Marco de Canaveses. She was the second daughter of José Maria Pinto da Cunha (17 February 1887 – 21 June 1938) and Maria Emília Miranda (10 March 1886, Rio de Janeiro – 9 November 1971).

The family's emigration to Brazil was already scheduled; however, upon finding herself pregnant, Carmen Miranda's mother preferred to wait for her daughter's birth. In 1909, her father emigrated to Brazil and settled in Rio de Janeiro, where he opened a barber shop. Her mother followed in 1910 with their daughters, Olinda (1907–1931) and Carmen, who was less than a year old. Although Carmen never returned to Portugal, she retained her Portuguese nationality. In Brazil, her parents had four more children: Amaro (1912–1988), Cecilia (1913–2011), Aurora (1915–2005) and Óscar (born 1916).

She was christened Carmen by her father because of his love for Bizet's Carmen. This passion for opera influenced his children, and Miranda's love for singing and dancing, at an early age. She was educated at the Convent of Saint Therese of Lisieux. Her father did not approve of Miranda's plans to enter show business; her mother supported her, despite being beaten when her father discovered that his daughter had auditioned for a radio show (she had sung at parties and festivals in Rio). Miranda's older sister, Olinda, developed tuberculosis and was sent to Portugal for treatment; the singer worked in a tie shop at age 14 to help pay her sister's medical bills. She then worked in a boutique (where she learned to make hats) and opened a successful hat business.

In Brazil

Miranda was introduced to Josué de Barros, a composer and musician from Bahia, while she was working at her family's inn. With help from de Barros and Brunswick Records, she recorded her first single (the samba "Não vá Simbora") in 1929. Miranda's second single, "Prá Você Gostar de Mim" (also known as "Taí", and released in 1930), was a collaboration with Brazilian composer Joubert de Carvalho and sold a record 35,000 copies that year. She signed a two-year contract with RCA Victor in 1930, giving them exclusive rights to her image.

In 1933 Miranda signed a two-year contract with Rádio Mayrink Veiga, the most popular Brazilian station of the 1930s, and was the first contract singer in Brazilian radio history; for a year, in 1937, she moved to Rádio Tupi. She later signed a contract with Odeon Records, making her the highest-paid radio singer in Brazil at the time.

Miranda's rise to stardom in Brazil was linked to the growth of a native style of music: the samba. The samba and Miranda's emerging career enhanced the revival of Brazilian nationalism during the government of President Getúlio Vargas. Her gracefulness and vitality in her recordings and live performances gave her the nickname "Cantora do It". The singer was later known as "Ditadora Risonha do Samba", and in 1933 radio announcer Cesar Ladeira christened her "A Pequena Notável".

Her Brazilian film career was linked to a genre of musical films that drew on the nation's carnival traditions and the annual celebration and musical style of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's capital at the time. Miranda performed a musical number in O Carnaval Cantado no Rio (1932, the first sound documentary on the subject) and three songs in A Voz do Carnaval (1933), which combined footage of street celebrations in Rio with a fictitious plot providing a pretext for musical numbers.

Miranda's next screen performance was in the musical Hello, Hello Brazil! (1935), in which she performed its closing number: the marcha "Primavera no Rio", which she had recorded for Victor in August 1934. Several months after the film's release, according to Cinearte magazine, "Carmen Miranda is currently the most popular figure in Brazilian cinema, judging by the sizeable correspondence that she receives". In her next film, Estudantes (1935), she had a speaking part for the first time. Miranda played Mimi, a young radio singer (who performs two numbers in the film) who falls in love with a university student (played by singer Mário Reis).

She starred in the next co-production from the Waldow and Cinédia studios, the musical Hello, Hello, Carnival! (1936), which contained a roll call of popular music and radio performers (including Miranda's sister, Aurora). A standard backstage plot permitted 23 musical numbers and, by contemporary Brazilian standards, the film was a major production. Its set reproduced the interior of Rio's plush Atlântico casino (where some scenes were filmed) and was a backdrop for some of its musical numbers. Miranda's stardom is evident in a film poster with a full-length photograph of her and her name topping the cast list.

Although she became synonymous with colorful fruit hats during her later career, she began wearing them only in 1939, and contrary to popular belief, they were never made from real fruit. Miranda appeared in the film Banana da Terra that year in a glamorous version of the traditional dress of a poor black girl in Bahia: a flowing dress and a fruit-hat turban. She sang "O Que É Que A Baiana Tem?"; which intended to empower a social class that was usually disparaged.

Producer Lee Shubert offered Miranda an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris on Broadway after seeing her perform in 1939 at Rio's Cassino da Urca. Although she was interested in performing in New York, she refused to accept the deal unless Shubert agreed to also hire her band, the Bando da Lua. He refused, saying that there were many capable musicians in New York who could back her. Miranda remained steadfast, feeling that North American musicians would not be able to authenticate the sounds of Brazil. Shubert compromised, agreeing to hire the six band members but not paying for their transport to New York. President Getúlio Vargas, recognizing the value to Brazil of Miranda's tour, announced that the Brazilian government would pay for the band's transportation on the Moore-McCormack Lines between Rio and New York. Vargas believed that Miranda would foster ties between the northern and southern hemispheres and act as a goodwill ambassador in the United States, increasing Brazil's share of the American coffee market. Miranda took the official sanction of her trip and her duty to represent Brazil to the outside world seriously. She left for New York on the SS Uruguay on 4 May 1939, a few months before World War II.

In the U.S.
Miranda arrived in New York on 18 May 1939. She and the band had their first Broadway performance on 19 June 1939 in The Streets of Paris. Although Miranda's part was small (she only spoke four words), she received good reviews and became a media sensation. According to New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson, most of the musical numbers "ap[e] the tawdry dullness" of genuine Paris revues and "the chorus girls, skin-deep in atmosphere, strike what Broadway thinks a Paris pose ought to be". Atkinson added, however, that "South American contributes the [revue's] most magnetic personality" (Miranda). Singing "rapid-rhythmed songs to the accompaniment of a Brazilian band, she radiates heat that will tax the Broadhurst [theater] air-conditioning plant this Summer". Although Atkinson gave the revue a lukewarm review, he wrote that Miranda made the show.

Syndicated columnist Walter Winchell wrote for the Daily Mirror that a star had been born who would save Broadway from the slump in ticket sales caused by the 1939 New York World's Fair. Winchell's praise of Carmen and her Bando da Lua was repeated on his Blue Network radio show, which reached 55 million listeners daily. The press called Miranda "the girl who saved Broadway from the World's Fair". Her fame grew quickly, and she was formally presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt at a White House banquet shortly after her arrival. According to a Life magazine reviewer:

Partly because their unusual melody and heavy accented rhythms are unlike anything ever heard in a Manhattan revue before, partly because there is not a clue to their meaning except the gay rolling of Carmen Miranda's insinuating eyes, these songs, and Miranda herself, are the outstanding hit of the show.

When news of Broadway's latest star (known as the Brazilian Bombshell) reached Hollywood, Twentieth Century-Fox began to develop a film featuring Miranda. Its working title was The South American Way (the title of a song she had performed in New York), and the film was later entitled Down Argentine Way (1940). Although its production and cast were based in Los Angeles, Miranda's scenes were filmed in New York because of her club obligations. Fox could combine the footage from both cities because the singer had no dialogue with the other cast members. Down Argentine Way was successful, grossing $2 million that year at the US box office.

The Shuberts brought Miranda back to Broadway, teaming her with Olsen and Johnson, Ella Logan, and the Blackburn Twins in the musical revue Sons o' Fun on 1 December 1941. The show was a hodgepodge of slapstick, songs, and skits; according to New York Herald Tribune theater critic Richard Watts, Jr., "In her eccentric and highly personalized fashion, Miss Miranda is by way of being an artist and her numbers give the show its one touch of distinction." On 1 June 1942, she left the production when her Shubert contract expired; meanwhile, she recorded for Decca Records. Miranda was encouraged by the US government as part of Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy, designed to strengthen ties with Latin America. It was believed that performers like her would give the policy a favorable impression with the American public. Miranda's contract with 20th Century Fox lasted from 1941 to 1946, coinciding with the creation and activities of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. The goal of the OCIAA was to obtain support from Latin American society and its governments for the United States.

The Good Neighbor policy had been linked to US interference in Latin America; Roosevelt sought better diplomatic relations with Brazil and other South American nations, and pledged to refrain from military intervention (which had occurred to protect US business interests in industries such as mining or agriculture). Hollywood was asked to help, and Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox participated. Miranda was considered a goodwill ambassador and a promoter of intercontinental culture.

Brazilian criticism
Although Miranda's US popularity continued to increase, she began to lose favor with some Brazilians. On 10 July 1940, she returned to Brazil and was welcomed by cheering fans. Soon after her arrival, however, the Brazilian press began criticizing Miranda for accommodating American commercialism and projecting a negative image of Brazil. Members of the upper class felt that her image was "too black", and she was criticized in a Brazilian newspaper for "singing bad-taste black sambas". Other Brazilians criticized Miranda for playing a stereotypical "Latina bimbo". In her first interview after her arrival in the US in the New York World-Telegram, she played up her then-limited knowledge of the English language: "I say money, money, money. I say twenty words in English. I say money, money, money and I say hot dog!"

On 15 July, Miranda appeared in a charity concert organized by Brazilian First Lady Darci Vargas and attended by members of Brazil's high society. She greeted the audience in English and was met with silence. When Miranda began singing "The South American Way", a song from one of her club acts, the audience began to boo her. Although she tried to finish her act, she gave up and left the stage when the audience refused to let up. The incident deeply hurt Miranda, who wept in her dressing room. The following day, the Brazilian press criticized her as "too Americanized".

Weeks later, Miranda responded to the criticism with the Portuguese song "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada" ("They Say I've Come Back Americanized"). Another song, "Bananas Is My Business", was based on a line from one of her films and directly addressed her image. Upset by the criticism, Miranda did not return to Brazil for 14 years.

Her films were scrutinized by Latin American audiences for characterizing Central and South America in a culturally homogeneous way. When Miranda's films reached Central and South American theaters, they were perceived as depicting Latin American cultures through the lens of American preconceptions. Some Latin Americans felt that their cultures were misrepresented, and felt that someone from their own region was misrepresenting them. Down Argentine Way was criticized, with Argentines saying that it failed to depict Argentine culture. Its lyrics were allegedly replete with non-Argentine themes, and its sets were a fusion of Mexican, Cuban, and Brazilian culture. The film was later banned in Argentina for "wrongfully portraying life in Buenos Aires". Similar sentiments were voiced in Cuba after the debut of Miranda's Weekend in Havana (1941), with Cuban audiences offended by Miranda's portrayal of a Cuban woman. Reviewers noted that an import from Rio could not accurately portray a woman from Havana, and Miranda did not "dance anything Cuban". Her performances were arguably hybrids of Brazilian and other Latin cultures. Critics said that Miranda's other films misrepresented Latin locales, assuming that Brazilian culture was a representation of Latin America.

Peak years

During the war years, Miranda starred in eight of her 14 films; although the studios called her the Brazilian Bombshell, the films blurred her Brazilian identity in favor of a Latin American image. According to a Variety review of director Irving Cummings' That Night in Rio (1941, Miranda's second Hollywood film), her character upstaged the leads: "[Don] Ameche is very capable in a dual role, and Miss [Alice] Faye is eye-appealing but it’s the tempestuous Miranda who really gets away to a flying start from the first sequence". The New York Times article said, "Whenever one or the other Ameche character gets out of the way and lets [Miranda] have the screen, the film sizzles and scorches wickedly." Years later, Clive Hirschhorn wrote: "That Night in Rio was the quintessential Fox war-time musical – an over-blown, over-dressed, over-produced and thoroughly irresistible cornucopia of escapist ingredients." On 24 March 1941, Miranda was one of the first Latinas to imprint her hand- and footprints on the sidewalk of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Her next film, Week-End in Havana, was directed by Walter Lang and produced by William LeBaron. The cast included Alice Faye, John Payne, and Cesar Romero. After the studio's third effort to activate the "Latin hot blood", Fox was called "Hollywood's best good neighbor" by Bosley Crowther. During the week it was released, the film topped the box office (surpassing Citizen Kane, released a week earlier).

In 1942, 20th Century-Fox paid $60,000 to Lee Shubert to terminate his contract with Miranda, who finished her Sons o' Fun tour and began filming Springtime in the Rockies. The film, which grossed about $2 million, was one of the year's ten most-successful films at the box office. According to a Chicago Tribune review, it was "senseless, but eye intriguing ... The basic plot is splashed over with songs and dances and the mouthings and eye and hand work of Carmen Miranda, who sure would be up a tree if she ever had to sing in the dark".

In 1943, she appeared in Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here. Berkeley's musicals were known for lavish production, and Miranda's role as Dorita featured "The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat". A special effect made her fruit-bedecked hat appear larger than possible. By then she was typecast as an exotic singer, and under her studio contract she was obligated to make public appearances in her ever-more-outlandish film costumes. One of her records, "I Make My Money With Bananas" seemed to pay ironic tribute to her typecasting. The Gang's All Here was one of 1943's 10 highest-grossing films and Fox's most expensive production of the year. It received positive reviews, although The New York Times film critic wrote: "Mr. Berkeley has some sly notions under his busby. One or two of his dance spectacles seem to stem straight from Freud."

The following year Miranda made a cameo appearance in Four Jills in a Jeep, a film based on a true adventure of actresses Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair; Alice Faye and Betty Grable also made brief appearances. In 1944 Miranda also starred with Don Ameche in Greenwich Village, a Fox musical with William Bendix and Vivian Blaine in supporting roles. The film was poorly received; according to The New York Times, "Technicolor is the picture's chief asset, but still worth a look for the presence of Carmen Miranda". In her Miami News review, Peggy Simmonds wrote: "Fortunately for Greenwich Village, the picture is made in Technicolor and has Carmen Miranda. Unfortunately for Carmen Miranda, the production doesn't do her justice, the overall effect is disappointing, but still she sparkles the picture whenever she appears." Greenwich Village was less successful at the box office than Fox and Miranda had expected.

Miranda's third 1944 film was Something for the Boys, a musical comedy based on the Broadway musical with songs by Cole Porter and starring Ethel Merman. It was Miranda's first film without William LeBaron or Darryl F. Zanuck as producer. The producer was Irving Starr, who oversaw the studio's second-string films. According to Time magazine, the film "turns out to have nothing very notable for anyone". By 1945, Miranda was Hollywood's highest-paid entertainer and the top female taxpayer in the United States, earning more than $200,000 that year ($2.88 million in 2020, adjusted for inflation).

Decline
After World War II, Miranda's films at Fox were produced in black-and-white, indicative of Hollywood's diminishing interest in her and Latin Americans in general. A monochrome Carmen Miranda reduced the box-office appeal of the backstage musical, Doll Face (1945), in which she was fourth on the bill. Miranda played Chita Chula, billed in the show-within-the-film as "the little lady from Brazil"—a cheerful comic sidekick to leading lady Doll Face (Vivian Blaine) with one musical number and little dialogue. A New York Herald Tribune review read, "Carmen Miranda does what she always does, only not well"; according to The Sydney Morning Herald, "Carmen Miranda appears in a straight part with only one singing number. The innovation is not a success, but the fault is the director's not Carmen's."

In If I'm Lucky (1946), her follow-up film for Fox when she was no longer under contract, Miranda was again fourth on the bill with her stock screen persona firmly in evidence: heavily accented English, comic malapropisms, and bizarre hairstyles recreating her famous turbans. When Miranda's contract with Fox expired on 1 January 1946, she decided to pursue an acting career free of studio constraints. Miranda's ambition was to play a lead role showcasing her comic skills, which she set out to do in Copacabana (1947, an independent production released by United Artists starring Groucho Marx). Although her films were modest hits, critics and the American public did not accept her new image.

Although Miranda's film career was faltering, her musical career remained solid and she was still a popular nightclub attraction. From 1948 to 1950, she joined the Andrews Sisters in producing and recording three Decca singles. Their first collaboration was on radio in 1945, when Miranda appeared on ABC's The Andrews Sisters Show. Their first single, "Cuanto La Gusta", was the most popular and reached number twelve on the Billboard chart. "The Wedding Samba", which reached number 23, followed in 1950. After Copacabana, Joe Pasternak invited Miranda to make two Technicolor musicals for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: A Date with Judy (1948) and Nancy Goes to Rio (1950). In the first production MGM wanted to portray a different image, allowing her to remove her turban and reveal her own hair (styled by Sydney Guilaroff) and makeup (by Jack Dawn). Miranda's wardrobe for the film substituted elegant dresses and hats designed by Helen Rose for "baiana" outfits. She was again fourth on the bill as Rosita Cochellas, a rumba teacher who first appears about 40 minutes into the film and has little dialogue. Despite MGM's efforts to change Miranda's persona, her roles in both productions were peripheral, watered-down caricatures relying on fractured English and over-the-top musical and dance numbers.

In her final film, Scared Stiff (1953, a black-and-white Paramount production with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), Miranda's appeal was again muted. Returning full-circle to her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way, she had virtually no narrative function. Lewis parodies her, miming badly to "Mamãe Eu Quero" (which is playing on a scratched record) and eating a banana he plucks from his turban. Miranda played Carmelita Castilha, a Brazilian showgirl on a cruise ship, with her costumes and performances bordering on self-parody.

In April 1953, she began a four-month European tour. While performing in Cincinnati in October, Miranda collapsed from exhaustion; she was rushed to LeRoy Sanitarium by her husband, Dave Sebastian, and canceled four following performances.

Personal life
Desiring creative freedom, Miranda decided to produce her own film in 1947 and played opposite Groucho Marx in Copacabana. The film's budget was divided into about ten investors' shares. A Texan investor who owned one of the shares sent his brother, David Sebastian (23 November 1907 – 11 September 1990), to keep an eye on Miranda and his interests on the set. Sebastian befriended her, and they began dating.

Miranda and Sebastian married on 17 March 1947 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, with Patrick J. Concannon officiating. In 1948, Miranda became pregnant, but miscarried after a show. Although the marriage was brief, Miranda (who was Catholic) did not want a divorce. Her sister, Aurora, said in the documentary Bananas is My Business: "He married her for selfish reasons; she got very sick after she married and lived with a lot of depression". The couple announced their separation in September 1949, but reconciled several months later.

Miranda was discreet, and little is known about her private life. Before she left for the US, she had relationships with Mario Cunha, Carlos da Rocha Faria (son of a traditional family in Rio de Janeiro) and Aloísio de Oliveira, a member of the Bando da Lua. In the US, Miranda maintained relationships with John Payne, Arturo de Córdova, Dana Andrews, Harold Young, John Wayne, Donald Buka and Carlos Niemeyer. During her later years, in addition to heavy smoking and alcohol consumption, she began taking amphetamines and barbiturates, all of which took a toll on her health.

Death
Miranda performed at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in April 1955, and in Cuba three months later before returning to Los Angeles to recuperate from a recurrent bronchial ailment. On 4 August, she was filming a segment for the NBC variety series The Jimmy Durante Show. According to Durante, Miranda had complained of feeling unwell before filming; he offered to find her a replacement, but she declined. After completing "Jackson, Miranda, and Gomez", a song-and-dance number with Durante, she fell to one knee. Durante later said, "I thought she had slipped. She got up and said she was outta breath. I told her I'll take her lines. But she goes ahead with 'em. We finished work about 11 o'clock and she seemed happy."

After the last take, Miranda and Durante gave an impromptu performance on the set for the cast and technicians. The singer took several cast members and some friends home with her for a small party. She went upstairs to bed at about 3 a.m. Miranda undressed, placed her platform shoes in a corner, lit a cigarette, placed it in an ashtray and went into her bathroom to remove her makeup. She apparently came from the bathroom with a small, round mirror in her hand; in the small hall that led to her bedroom, she collapsed from a fatal heart attack. Miranda was 46 years old. Her body was found at about 10:30 a.m. lying in the hallway. The Jimmy Durante Show episode in which Miranda appeared was aired two months after her death, on 15 October 1955. The episode began with Durante paying tribute to the singer, while also indicating that her family had given permission for the performance to be broadcast. A clip of the episode was included in the A&E Network's Biography episode about the singer.

In accordance with her wishes, Miranda's body was flown back to Rio de Janeiro. The casket was covered with the flag of Brazil; the Brazilian government declared a period of national mourning. About 60,000 people attended her memorial service at the Rio de Janeiro town hall, and more than half a million Brazilians escorted her funeral cortège to the cemetery.

Miranda is buried in São João Batista Cemetery in Rio de Janeiro. In 1956 her belongings were donated by her husband and family to the Carmen Miranda Museum, which opened in Rio on 5 August 1976. For her contributions to the entertainment industry, Miranda has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the south side of the 6262 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

Image
Miranda's Hollywood image was that of a generic Latina, blurring distinctions between Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, and Mexico and samba, tango and habanera music. It was stylized and flamboyant; she often wore platform sandals and towering headdresses made of fruit, becoming known as "the lady in the tutti-frutti hat". Her enormous, fruit-laden hats were iconic visuals recognized worldwide; Saks Fifth Avenue developed a line of Miranda-inspired turbans and jewelry in 1939, and Bonwit Teller created mannequins resembling the singer.

Her tutti-frutti hat from The Gang's All Here (1943) inspired the United Fruit Company's Chiquita Banana logo the following year. During the 1960s, tropicália filmmakers in Brazil were influenced by Miranda's Hollywood films. In 2009 she was the subject of São Paulo Fashion Week and a short film, Tutti Frutti, by German photographer Ellen von Unwerth. Two years later, Macy's wanted to use Miranda to promote a clothing line. Other products influenced by her stardom are the Brazilian fashion brand Malwee's "Chica Boom Chic" collection for women, and the Chica Boom Brasil company's high-end Carmen Miranda line, which includes Miranda-themed bags, wall clocks, crockery and placemats.

Legacy
According to Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, "Miranda was first a cause of both pride and shame, and later, a symbol that inspired the merciless gaze we began to cast upon ourselves ... Carmen conquered 'White' America as no other South American has done or ever would, in an era when it was enough to be 'recognizably Latin and Negroid' in style and aesthetics to attract attention." Miranda was the first Brazilian artist to gain worldwide fame in the 1950s, and she continued to define South American music in North America for decades. In 1991, Veloso wrote that "today, anything associated with Brazilian music in America – or with any music from the Southern Hemisphere in the Northern – makes us think of Carmen Miranda. And to think of her is to think about the complexity of this relationship"

Although she was more popular abroad than in Brazil at her death, Miranda contributed to Brazilian music and culture. She was accused of commercializing Brazilian music and dance, but Miranda can be credited with bringing its national music (the samba) to a global audience. She introduced the baiana, a type of traditional dress in Bahia, with wide skirts and turbans, as a Brazilian showgirl at home and abroad. The baiana became a central feature of Carnival for women and men.

Since her death, Miranda is remembered as an important Brazilian artist and one of the most influential in Hollywood. She was one of 500 stars nominated for the American Film Institute's 50 greatest screen legends.

On 25 September 1998, a square in Hollywood was named Carmen Miranda Square in a ceremony headed by honorary mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant (one of Miranda's friends since World War II) and attended by Brazilian consul general Jorió Gama and the Bando da Lua. The square is located at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive, across from Grauman's Chinese Theatre, near where Miranda gave an impromptu performance on V-J Day.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miranda's death, a Carmen Miranda Forever exhibit was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in November 2005 and at the Latin America Memorial in São Paulo the following year. In 2005, Ruy Castro published Carmen - Uma Biografia, a 600-page biography of "the most famous Brazilian woman of the 20th century." Brazilians "tend to forget," Castro told Mac Margolis of Newsweek, that "no Brazilian woman has ever been as popular as Carmen Miranda – in Brazil or anywhere."

Dorival Caymmi's "O Que É Que A Baiana Tem?" was his first work to be recorded, and introduced to the US the samba rhythm and Miranda in 1939; it was a Latin category inductee of the 2008 National Recording registry list.

Miranda, Selena, Celia Cruz, Carlos Gardel and Tito Puente appeared on a set of commemorative US Postal Service Latin Music Legends stamps, painted by Rafael Lopez, in 2011. Marie Therese Dominguez, vice president of government relations and public policy for the postal service, said: "From this day forward, these colorful, vibrant images of our Latin music legends will travel on letters and packages to every single household in America. In this small way, we have created a lasting tribute to five extraordinary performers, and we are proud and honored to share their legacy with Americans everywhere through these beautiful stamps".

Down Argentine Way and The Gang's All Here were inductees of the 2014 National Film Registry list. The 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony included a tribute to Miranda before the athletes' parade, with Roberta Sá portraying the singer. On 9 February 2017, Miranda was the subject of a Google Doodle created by Google artist Sophie Diao commemorating the 108th anniversary of her birth.

In popular culture
In The House Across the Bay (1940, produced by Walter Wanger and released by United Artists), Joan Bennett performed the Mirandaesque "Chula Chihuahua." Babes on Broadway (1941) finale opens with "Bombshell from Brazil", where Mickey Rooney (dressed as Miranda) sings "Mamãe Eu Quero". The finale of Time Out for Rhythm (1941) begins with the Three Stooges performing a rumba number; Curly Howard is dressed as Carmen Miranda. In 1943's Yankee Doodle Daffy, Daffy Duck performs "Chica Chica Boom Chic" while dressed as Carmen Miranda. The United Fruit Company created a banana-woman character in 1944, Chiquita, whose fruit hat resembled Miranda's. In Small Town Deb (1942), Jane Withers does an impression of Carmen Miranda and sings "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)," which was one of Miranda's signature songs. In the British comedy, Fiddlers Three, Tommy Trinder gives a bizarre performance as "Senorita Alvarez" from Brazil, a bold impersonation of Miranda.

The song "Mamãe Eu Quero" was featured in the 1943 Tom & Jerry short "Baby Puss", as performed by a trio of cartoon cats (Butch, Topsy and Meathead) with Topsy dressed up with a fruit hat, impersonating Carmen Miranda.

In Winged Victory (1944) Sascha Brastoff impersonates Carmen Miranda. In Mildred Pierce, Jo Ann Marlowe sings a Mirandaesque South American Way. In "Be a Pal", a season-one episode of I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball imitates Miranda and lip-syncs to "Mamãe Eu Quero".

In Diplomatic Courier (1952), during a nightclub sequence, Arthur Blake performs impersonations of Carmen Miranda, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Bette Davis. Caetano Veloso appeared dressed as Miranda in January 1972, in his first show after his return to Brazil from London.

Jimmy Buffett's 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean contains the song "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More".

Musician Leslie Fish wrote and recorded a song called "Carmen Miranda's Ghost," on her 1989 album of the same name. The song describes the chaos that ensues when the singer's ghost appears on a space station. It was later the basis for a multi-author short story anthology edited by Don Sakers. John Cale's 1989 Words for the Dying features a song co-written with Brian Eno titled "The Soul of Carmen Miranda."

Helena Solberg filmed a documentary, Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business, in 1995. Eduardo Dusek recorded a cover version of the song "Tá-Hi (Pra Você Gostar de Mim)", written by Joubert de Carvalho and recorded by Miranda in 1930, for the 2003 telenovela Chocolate com Pimenta. In 2004, Caetano Veloso and David Byrne performed live at Carnegie Hall a song they had written together, "Dreamworld: Marco de Canaveses", that pays homage to Miranda. In 2007, BBC Four produced Carmen Miranda – Beneath the Tutti Frutti Hat, a one-hour documentary which included interviews with biographer Ruy Castro, niece Carminha and Mickey Rooney. That year, singer Ivete Sangalo recorded a cover version of the song "Chica Chica Boom Chic" for the DVD MTV ao Vivo. For Miranda's centenary, Daniela Mercury recorded a "duet" with the singer on a cover of "O Que É Que A Baiana Tem?", which includes the original 1939 recording.

At the closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, a few seconds' homage to Miranda was paid with an animated, projected image on the floor of the Maracanã Stadium.

Bonita Flamingo, a character in the children's show Noddy, is a flamingo spoof of Miranda.

In 2009, Miranda served as the inspiration for a photo shoot on the 12th season of the reality TV show, America's Next Top Model.

1935

 * "Anoiteceu"
 * "Entre Outras Coisas"
 * "Esqueci de Sorrir"
 * "Foi Numa Noite Assim"
 * "Fogueira Do Meu Coração"
 * "Fruto Proibido"
 * "Cor de Guiné"
 * "Casaco de Tricô"
 * "Dia de Natal"
 * "Fala, Meu Pandeiro"
 * "Deixa Esse Povo Falar"
 * "Sonho de Papel" (recorded with Orchestra Odeon 10 May 1935)
 * "E Bateu-Se a Chapa" (recorded 26 June 1935)
 * "O Tique-Taque do Meu Coração" (recorded 7 August 1935)
 * "Adeus, Batucada" (recorded with Odeon Orchestra 24 September 1935)
 * "Querido Adão" (recorded with Odeon Orchestra 26 September 1935)

1936

 * "Alô, Alô, Carnaval"
 * "Duvi-dê-ó-dó"
 * "Dou-lhe Uma"
 * "Capelinha do Coração"
 * "Cuíca, Pandeiro, Tamborim ..."
 * "Beijo Bamba"
 * "Balancê"
 * "Entra no cordão"
 * "Como Eu Chorei"
 * "As Cantoras do Rádio" (recorded with Aurora Miranda and Odeon Orchestra 18 March 1936)
 * "No Tabuleiro da Baiana" (recorded with Louis Barbosa 29 September 1936)
 * "Como Vai Você?" (recorded with Ary Barroso 2 October 1936)

1937

 * "Dance Rumba"
 * "Em Tudo, Menos em Ti"
 * "Canjiquinha Quente"
 * "Cabaret No Morro"
 * "Baiana Do Tabuleiro"
 * "Dona Geisha"
 * "Cachorro Vira-Lata" (recorded 4 May 1937)
 * "Me Dá, Me Dá" (recorded 4 May 1937)
 * "Camisa Amarela" (recorded with the Odeon Group 20 September 1937)
 * "Eu Dei" (recorded 21 September 1937)

1938

 * "Endereço Errado"
 * "Falar!"
 * "Escrevi um Bilhetinho"
 * "Batalhão do amor"
 * "E a Festa, Maria?"
 * "Cuidado Com a Gaita do Ary"
 * "A Pensão Da Dona Stella"
 * "A Vizinha Das Vantagens"
 * "Samba Rasgado" (recorded with Odeon Group 7 March 1938)
 * "E o Mundo Não Se Acabou" ("And the World Would Not End") (recorded 9 March 1938)
 * "Boneca de Piche" (recorded with Odeon Orchestra 31 August 1938)
 * "Na Baixa do Sapateiro" (recorded with Orchestra Odeon 17 October 1938)

1939

 * "A Preta Do Acarajé"
 * "Deixa Comigo"
 * "Candeeiro"
 * "Amor Ideal"
 * "Essa Cabrocha"
 * "A Nossa Vida Hoje É Diferente"
 * "Cozinheira Grã-fina"
 * "O Que É Que A Baiana Tem?" (recorded with Dorival Caymmi 27 February 1939)
 * "Uva de Caminhão" (recorded 21 March 1939)
 * "Camisa Listrada" (recorded with Bando da Lua 28 August 1939)

1940

 * "Voltei pro Morro" (recorded 2 September 1940)
 * "Ela Diz Que Tem"
 * "Disso É Que Eu Gosto"
 * "Disseram que Voltei Americanizada" (recorded with Odeon Set 2 September 1940)
 * "Bruxinha de Pano"
 * "O Dengo Que a Nêga Tem"
 * "É Um Quê Que a Gente Tem"
 * "Blaque-Blaque"
 * "Recenseamento" (recorded 27 September 1940)
 * "Ginga-Ginga"

1939

 * "South American Way" (recorded with Bando da Lua 26 December 1939)
 * "Touradas Em Madrid"
 * "Marchinha do grande galo"
 * "Mamãe Eu Quero"
 * "Bambú, Bambú"

1941

 * "I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)" (recorded with Bando da Lua 5 January 1941)
 * "Alô Alô"
 * "Chica Chica Boom Chic" (recorded with Bando da Lua 5 January 1941)
 * "Bambalê"
 * "Cai, Cai" (recorded with Bando da Lua 5 January 1941)
 * "Arca de Noé"
 * "A Weekend in Havana"
 * "Diz Que Tem ..."
 * "When I Love I Love"
 * "Rebola, Bola" (recorded with Bando da Lua 9 October 1941)
 * "The Man With the Lollipop Song"
 * "Não Te Dou A Chupeta"
 * "Manuelo"
 * "Thank You, North America"

1942

 * "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (recorded with Bando da Lua 25 July 1942)
 * "Tic-tac do Meu Coração"
 * "O Passo Do Kanguru (Brazilly Willy)"
 * "Boncea de Pixe"

1945

 * "Upa! Upa!"
 * "Tico Tico"

1947

 * "The Matador (Touradas Em Madrid)" (recorded with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and his orchestra)
 * "Cuanto La Gusta" (recorded with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and his orchestra)

1949

 * "Asi Asi (I See, I See)" (recorded with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and his orchestra)
 * "The Wedding Samba" (recorded with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and his orchestra)

1950

 * "Baião Ca Room' Pa Pa" (recorded with the Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and his orchestra)
 * "Ipse-A-I-O" (recorded with The Andrews Sisters and Vic Schoen and his orchestra)

title: Carmen Miranda


text:
Elbe

The Elbe (Labe ; Ilv or Elv; Upper and Łobjo, ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is 1094 km.

The Elbe's major tributaries include the rivers Vltava, Saale, Havel, Mulde, Schwarze Elster, and Ohře.

The Elbe river basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of 148268 km2, the twelfth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries; however, it lies almost entirely just in two of them, Germany (65.5%) and the Czech Republic (33.7%, covering about two thirds of the nation's territory). On its southeastern edges, the Elbe river basin also comprises small parts of Austria (0.6%) and Poland (0.2%). The Elbe catchment area is inhabited by 24.4 million people; its biggest cities are Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Dresden and Leipzig.

Etymology
First attested in Latin as Albis, the name Elbe means "river" or "river-bed" and is nothing more than the High German version of a word (*albī) found elsewhere in Germanic; cf. Old Norse river name Elfr, Swedish älv "river", Norwegian elv "river", Old English river name elf, and Middle Low German elve "river-bed".

In the Czech Republic
The Elbe (Labe) rises on the slopes of Mt. Violík at an elevation of 1386 m in the Giant Mountains on the northwest borders of the Czech Republic. Of the numerous small streams whose waters compose the infant river. After plunging down the 30 m of the Elbe Falls, the latter stream unites with the steeply torrential Bílé Labe, and thereafter the united stream of the Elbe pursues a southerly course, emerging from the mountain glens at Jaroměř, where it receives Úpa and Metuje.

Here the Elbe enters the vast vale named Polabí (meaning "land along the Elbe"), and continues on southwards through Hradec Králové (where Orlice flows in) and then to Pardubice, where it turns sharply to the west. At Kolín some 43 km further on, it bends gradually towards the north-west. At the village of Káraný, a little above Brandýs nad Labem, the Jizera enters in.

At Mělník its stream is more than doubled in volume by the Vltava, a major river which winds northwards through Bohemia. Upstream from the confluence the Vltava is in fact much longer (434 km against 294 km of the Elbe so far), and has a greater discharge and a larger drainage basin. Nonetheless, for historical reasons the river retains the name Elbe, also because at the confluence point it is the Elbe that flows through the main, wider valley while the Vltava flows into the valley to meet the Elbe at almost a right angle, and thus appears to be the tributary river.

Some distance lower down, at Litoměřice, the waters of the Elbe are tinted by the reddish Ohře. Thus augmented, and swollen into a stream 140 m wide, the Elbe carves a path through the basaltic mass of the České Středohoří, churning its way through a picturesque, deep, narrow and curved rocky gorge.

In Germany
Shortly after crossing the Czech-German frontier, and passing through the sandstone defiles of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, the stream assumes a north-westerly direction, which on the whole it preserves right to the North Sea.

The river rolls through Dresden and finally, beyond Meissen, enters on its long journey across the North German Plain passing along the former western border of East Germany, touching Torgau, Wittenberg, Dessau, Magdeburg, Wittenberge, and Hamburg on the way, and taking on the waters of the Mulde and Saale from the west, and those of the Schwarze Elster, Havel and Elde from the east. In its northern section both banks of the Elbe are characterised by flat, very fertile marshlands (Elbe Marshes), former flood plains of the Elbe now diked.

At Magdeburg there is a  viaduct, the Magdeburg Water Bridge, that carries a canal and its shipping traffic over the Elbe and its banks, allowing shipping traffic to pass under it unhindered.

From the sluice of Geesthacht (at kilometre 586) on downstream the Elbe is subject to the tides, the tidal Elbe section is called the Unterelbe (Low Elbe). Soon the Elbe reaches Hamburg. Within the city-state the Unterelbe has a number of branch streams, such as Dove Elbe, Gose Elbe, Köhlbrand, Norderelbe (Northern Elbe), Reiherstieg, Süderelbe (Southern Elbe). Some of which have been disconnected for vessels from the main stream by dikes. In 1390 the Gose Elbe (literally in shallow Elbe) was separated from the main stream by a dike connecting the two then-islands of Kirchwerder and Neuengamme. The Dove Elbe (literally in deaf Elbe) was diked off in 1437/38 at Gammer Ort. These hydraulic engineering works were carried out to protect marshlands from inundation, and to improve the water supply of the Port of Hamburg. After the heavy inundation by the North Sea flood of 1962 the western section of the Southern Elbe was separated, becoming the Old Southern Elbe, while the waters of the eastern Southern Elbe now merge into the Köhlbrand, which is bridged by the Köhlbrandbrücke, the last bridge over the Elbe before the North Sea.

The Northern Elbe passes the Elbe Philharmonic Hall and is then crossed under by the old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel), both in Hamburg's city centre. A bit more downstream the Low Elbe's two main anabranches Northern Elbe and the Köhlbrand reunite south of Altona-Altstadt, a locality of Hamburg. Right after both anabranches reunited the Low Elbe is passed under by the New Elbe Tunnel (Neuer Elbtunnel), the last structural road link crossing the river before the North Sea. At the bay Mühlenberger Loch in Hamburg at kilometre 634, the Northern Elbe and the Southern Elbe (here now the cut-off meander Old Southern Elbe) used to reunite, which is why the bay is seen as the starting point of the Niederelbe (Lower Elbe). Leaving the city-state the Lower Elbe then passes between Holstein and the Elbe-Weser Triangle with Stade until it flows into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. Near its mouth it passes the entrance to the Kiel Canal at Brunsbüttel before it debouches into the North Sea.

Navigation
The Elbe has always been navigable by commercial vessels, and provides important trade links as far inland as Prague. The river is linked by canals (Elbe Lateral Canal, Elbe-Havel Canal, Mittellandkanal) to the industrial areas of Germany and to Berlin. The Elbe-Lübeck Canal links the Elbe to the Baltic Sea, as does the Kiel Canal, whose western entrance is near the mouth of the Elbe. The Elbe-Weser Shipping Channel connects the Elbe with the Weser.

By the Treaty of Versailles the navigation on the Elbe became subject to the International Commission of the Elbe, seated in Dresden. The statute of the commission was signed in Dresden on 22 February 1922. Following articles 363 and 364 of the Treaty of Versailles, Czechoslovakia was entitled to lease its own harbour basin, Moldauhafen in Hamburg. The contract of lease with Germany, and supervised by the United Kingdom, was signed on 14 February 1929, ending in 2028. Since 1993 the Czech Republic holds the former Czechoslovak legal position.

Before Germany was reunited, waterway transport in Western Germany was hindered by the fact that inland navigation to Hamburg had to pass through the German Democratic Republic. The Elbe-Seitenkanal (Elbe Lateral Canal) was built between the West German section of the Mittellandkanal and the Lower Elbe to restore this connection. When the two nations were reunited, works were begun to improve and restore the original links: the Magdeburg Water Bridge now allows large barges to cross the Elbe without having to enter the river. The often low water levels of the Elbe no longer hinder navigation to Berlin.

Headwaters

 * Hořejší – in Kolín
 * Kmochův – in Kolín

Upper reaches

 * Pillnitzer Elbinsel – in Dresden's southern quarter of Pillnitz in the Dresden Basin
 * Gauernitzer Elbinsel – east of Gauernitz in the Dresden Basin between Dresden and Meißen

Middle Elbe

 * Rotehorninsel – in Magdeburg
 * Steinkopfinsel – in Magdeburg

Between Northern and Southern Elbe (Norderelbe/Süderelbe)

 * Wilhelmsburg, including the islands Veddel, Georgswerder, Kleiner Grasbrook, Steinwerder, Peute and several more – in Hamburg's borough of Mitte (centre)
 * Kaltehofe (also "Kalte Hofe") – in Hamburg's borough of Mitte
 * Finkenwerder – in Hamburg's borough of Mitte

Lower Elbe

 * Schweinesand – south of Blankenese (Hamburg)
 * Neßsand – south of Tinsdal
 * Hahnöfersand – north of Jork
 * Hanskalbsand – south of Schulau
 * Lühesand – east of Stade
 * Bisterhorster Sand – west of Wedel
 * Pagensand – west of Seestermühe
 * Schwarztonnensand – east of Drochtersen
 * Rhinplate – west of Glückstadt

Outer Elbe (estuary)

 * Neuwerk – an exclave – in Hamburg's borough of Mitte
 * Scharhörn – an exclave Hamburg's borough of Mitte
 * Nigehörn – an exclave Hamburg's borough of Mitte

Former islands

 * Medemsand

Ferries
The Elbe is crossed by many ferries, both passenger and car carrying. In downstream order, these include:
 * Dolní Žleb Ferry, at Dolní Žleb part of Děčín
 * Rathen Ferry, at Rathen
 * Pillnitz Kleinzschachwitz Ferry, in the eastern suburbs of Dresden
 * Laubegast Niederpoyritz Ferry, in Dresden
 * Johannstadt Neustadt Ferry, in Dresden
 * Belgern Ottersitz Ferry, between Belgern and Ottersitz
 * Dommitzsch Prettin Ferry, between Dommitzsch and Prettin
 * Mauken Pretzsch Ferry, between Mauken and Pretzsch
 * Wartenburg Elster Ferry, between Wartenburg and Elster
 * Wörlitz Coswig Ferry, between Wörlitz and Coswig
 * Steutz Aken Ferry, between Steutz and Aken
 * Tochheim Ferry, between Tochheim and Alt Tochheim near Breitenhagen
 * Ronney Barby Ferry, between Barby and Walternienburg
 * Westerhüsen Ferry, at Westerhüsen near Magdeburg
 * Schartau Rogätz Ferry, between Schartau and Rogätz
 * Ferchland Grieben Ferry, between Ferchland and Grieben
 * Sandau Büttnershof Ferry, between Sandau and Büttnershof
 * Räbel Havelberg Ferry, between Räbel and Havelberg
 * Lenzen Pevestorf Ferry, between Lenzen and Pevestorf
 * Neu Darchau Darchau Ferry, between Darchau and Neu Darchau
 * Bleckede Ferry, between Bleckede and Neu Bleckede
 * Zollenspieker Ferry, between Kirchwerder a part of the Bergedorf borough of Hamburg, and Hoopte, part of the town Winsen (Luhe), in the state of Lower Saxony, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-east of Hamburg centre
 * Ferries in the port of Hamburg, operated by HADAG
 * Wischhafen Glückstadt Ferry, between Wischhafen and Glückstadt to the west of Hamburg
 * Brunsbüttel Cuxhaven Ferry, between Brunsbüttel and Cuxhaven at the mouth of the river (out of service as of October 2022).

Many of these ferries are traditional reaction ferries, a type of cable ferry that uses the current flow of the river to provide propulsion.

Prehistory
Humans first lived in the northern Elbe region before about 200,000 years ago, during the Middle Paleolithic.

History
Ptolemy recorded the Elbe as Albis (Germanic for "river") in Germania Magna, with its source in the Asciburgis mountains (Giant Mountains), where the Germanic Vandalii then lived.

The Elbe has long served as an important delineator of European geography. The Romans knew the river as the Albis; however, they made only one serious attempt to move the border of their empire forward from the Rhine to the Elbe, and this attempt failed with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, after which they never seriously tried again. In the Middle Ages the Elbe formed the eastern limit of the Empire of Charlemagne (King of the Franks from 769 to 814). The river's navigable sections were essential to the success of the Hanseatic League in the Late Middle Ages, and much trade was carried on its waters.

From the early 6th century Slavic tribes (known as the Polabian Slavs) settled in the areas east of the rivers Elbe and Saale (which had been depopulated since the 4th century). In the 10th century the Ottonian Dynasty (dominant from 919 to 1024) began conquering these lands; a slow process of Germanization ensued, including the Wendish Crusade of 1147.

The Elbe delineated the western parts of Germany from the eastern so-called East Elbia, where soccage and serfdom were more strict and prevailed longer than westwards of the river, and where feudal lords held bigger estates than in the west. Thus incumbents of huge land-holdings became characterised as East Elbian Junkers. The Northern German area north of the Lower Elbe used to be called North Albingia in the Middle Ages. When the four Lutheran church bodies there united in 1977 they chose the name North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church. Other, administrative units were named after the river Elbe, such as the Westphalian Elbe département (1807–1813) and Lower Elbe département (1810), and the French département Bouches-de-l'Elbe (1811–1814).

On 10 April 1945, General Wenck of the German Twelfth Army located to the west of Berlin to guard against the advancing American and British forces. But, as the Western Front moved eastwards and the Eastern Front moved westwards, the German armies making up both fronts backed towards each other. As a result, the area of control of Wenck's army to his rear and east of the Elbe River had become a vast refugee camp for Germans fleeing from the approaching Soviet Army. Wenck took great pains to provide food and lodging for these refugees. At one stage, the Twelfth Army was estimated to be feeding more than a quarter of a million people every day. During the night of 28 April, Wenck reported to the German Supreme Army Command in Fuerstenberg that his Twelfth Army had been forced back along the entire front. According to Wenck, no attack on Berlin was possible as support from Busse's Ninth Army could no longer be expected. Instead, starting April 24, Wenck moved his army towards the Forest of Halbe, broke into the Halbe pocket and linked up with the remnants of the Ninth Army, Hellmuth Reymann's "Army Group Spree", and the Potsdam garrison. Wenck brought his army, remnants of the Ninth Army, and many civilian refugees across the Elbe and into territory occupied by the U.S. Army.

In 1945, as World War II drew to a close, Germany came under attack from the armies of the western Allies advancing from the west and those of the Soviet Union advancing from the east. On 25 April 1945 these two forces linked up near Torgau, on the Elbe. The victorious countries marked the event unofficially as Elbe Day. From 1949 to 1990 the Elbe formed part of the Inner German border between East Germany and West Germany.

During the 1970s the Soviet Union stated that Adolf Hitler's ashes had been scattered in the Elbe following disinterment from their original burial-site.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Elbe


text:
User:John Abbe

Or not. But still fascinated by the Paleolithic in the Timeline of historic inventions, among everything else. --2018-2019

Haven't edited this much in a looong time, but it seems a 10-year cycle of sorts is underway... --2017

home page: http://ourpla.net/

Earlier
''Welcome to Wikipedia, John! Not meaning to dog your steps, it's just that everything you've been editing has been interesting. :)''

Thanks, Stephen! What have I written here? I don't track everything (I don't always log in), but I was very happy to add the first link to Meditation to the Buddhism page (! - and later added it to the List of Buddhist topics), and wrote something on the deeper aspects of Nonviolence. (Then noticed there are several such pages; someday I may take on merging them.) I apologize to all serious Wikipedians for so often failing to do proper research within and outside of Wikipedia, and doing the occasional original thinking out loud here. I come from the old wiki world where that was the point, and it's taking me a long time to get used to this.

I rewrote part(/all?) of the intro to Nonviolent Communication (NVC) at one point and am glad to see that several bits that are imho core to NVC have remained present there (probably helps that I referenced my own, um, independent writing on another website :-). Sadly, my attempt to introduce ease of linking and eliminate exclusivity to the web into the intro of Wiki has not fared as well (should find/create some external sources I guess). Wiki is so many things to so many people, the only common denominator seems to be the easy editability, and I've met people to whom even that is not central.

I keep coming back to the to the Paleolithic and early Neolithic eraoric on the Timeline of historic inventions. My focus on that era has heightened since reading Guns, Germs and Steel, both from general interest, and particularly from wanting to better understand how power-over (Mary Parker Follett) / domination (Walter Wink) / Taker (Daniel Quinn) systems - cultural, political, personal, etc. - have become so powerful & adaptive, and infected nearly the whole human species. So that we can reverse the tide and achieve World Undomination! (aka power-with, partnership, leaver. Or mender (Sharif Abdullah).

My ears have enjoyed learning a lot about the roots of rock & roll by working on the impossible First rock and roll record.

In a fit of up-to-the-momentness, I updated the Pluto page on March 15, 2004 to reflect the announced discovery of Sedna.

Way back when, i participated in the development of, and slow-motion edit wars in, the Sri Lanka pages.

ObWiki: I've been into wiki since 1998 or so, helped start RecentChangesCamp, and worked on http://wagn.org/ for a few years.

Didn't log in To Wikipedia in 2002 or 2003. My 2001 edits were as JohnAbbe

Articles I'd like to write, Real Soon Now:
 * interdependence (someone else got there first) (later: a very disjointed entry, which is probably why it got redirected to systems theory even though that page includes almost nothing explicit about interdependence)
 * transformational movement (compare reform movement and revolution)
 * World Undomination (just kidding, probably, but related writing/editing has and will appear on the appropriate pages)

I would write about science fiction here, but read little lately :-/, and when I do, enjoy more the community feel of [Bookshelved] wiki and the freedom to write original thinking there and on my own wiki. I may reference some of that here eventually. [2017 update - alas, BookShelved is long gone.]

My great-aunt Elfriede Abbe really was a remarkable artist. Her brother was Ernst Abbe but not that Ernst Abbe, although Clifford Stoll did once gave me an Abbe prism.

I am related to the Robert Abbe who pioneered radiation therapy in the United States of America and founded the Abbe Museum. Cleveland Abbe — first chief scientist of the (U.S.) National Weather Service — was my great-great-grandfather. I never met either of them though. ;-)

Feb 17, 2021
Some time last year it became clear that masks, ventilation, distance are more important than handwashing. Unfortunately, the flatten the curve message has struggled to stay in the public consciousness.

March 10, 2020
Testing in serious numbers is just getting underway in the US, so the number of cases reported here will be jumping. (3/8) “Don’t panic” is always good advice (thank you, Douglas Adams) but “Better safe than sorry” also seems to apply here.

This article on pandemic phases (3/9) notes that phase two is "when people who don’t realise they have contracted Covid-19 go about their daily lives rather than stay isolated." This is where a lot of the US is right now, and the article includes (already on Wikimedia), depicting how being careful now will help prevent COVID-19 from doing more harm than it will already:

A doctor in Italy (now on lockdown across the country) noted yesterday: "Some of our colleagues who are infected also have infected relatives and some of their relatives are already struggling between life and death. So be patient, you can't go to the theatre, museums or the gym. Try to have pity on the myriad of old people you could exterminate."

Context
Simple living, Consumerism, Gandhian economics, Regenerative economics,

List
Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough (book from the two films)

I Am (2010 American documentary film)

Koyaanisqatsi

E. F. Schumacher: The Other Way (1975) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-OaI0w0cw

Gandhian economics - eg Ella R. Bhatt segment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvevGMHZp6k

this list is impossibly long - maybe later

copyright
I hereby license all of the writing and any other original material by me here as:

title: User:John Abbe


text:
Brethren

Brethren, also called "brothers", are male siblings.

(The) Brethren may refer to:

Groups and organizations

 * Brethren (religious group), any of a number of religious groups
 * Brethren (Australian group), an Australian hip hop group
 * Brethren, an early name of Lindisfarne (folk rock group)
 * Brethren of the Coast, a loose coalition of Caribbean pirates
 * Brethren of the Croatian Dragon, a Croatian historical society

In arts and entertainment

 * The Brethren or Bratrstvo, an 1899–1908 trilogy novel by Alois Jirásek
 * The Brethren (Haggard novel) or Brethren, a 1904 novel by H. Rider Haggard (title depends on market)
 * The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court, a 1979 book by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong
 * The Brethren (Grisham novel), a 2000 novel by John Grisham
 * Brethren (novel), a 2006 novel by Robyn Young
 * The Brethren, a 2006 novel by Beverly Lewis
 * The Brethren, the 2015 English language title of the 1977 French historical novel Fortune de France by Robert Merle
 * Brethren, a book of poetry by Ida Gerding Athens
 * The Brethren, a fictional warrior race in the Marvel Comics universe, created by the Celestials

title: Brethren