Evening star., 1947-08-31
You've Got to Make Them Look at You
It's Not Ego but Mrand Recipe for Success Which in
Her Case Has Worked Well ss
BvR
HOLLYWOOD.

dOLL1 WSJ1..
A gaudy little woman walked into
the patio Of Los Angeles Union Sta
ton.
The patio, which looks more like
a movie-set hacienda than a rail-
road waiting room. was jammed
with people. Not one appeared to
notice the little woman. despite her
7-inch-high shoes and her peculiar
Notwithstanding all the raw
ingredients OF a fruit salad
"I1l feex them," she whispered to
her companion. Then she said, In
her best stage voice:
"Ooh. I am fah-meeshed. hev
not had my lonch."
Whereupon she extracted ba-
mana from the headdress, peeled it,
and began to MUNICH.
That did 1t. Every one was watch
ing the little woman.
She was Carmen Miranda, Of
course. And she was merely prac-
ticing a lesson learned years ago:
you've got to make them look at
you. This is more than petty ego
tism. It's the secret Of Carmen's
success. (She was Americas high
est-paid actress, with $2o1 ,45S in
1945)
She Feex That.
MANY years before" says Car
men, when I was singing in night
clubs in Brazil, it happened to me.
A New York impresario Tor maybe
it was a booking agent) came to
hear my show. He was not i'm
pressed.
shes nice he conceded. but
we have such singers by the dozens
in the States
$50 I feex that.
Il make myself typically Brazil
ian costume, with all splashy colors,
and just to make 1t different, I de-
sign a turban with a basket on top,
for bah-nah-nas and pine e-ahpples.
Now, other Brazilian singers have
good voice. They wear slinky Paris
clothes. But nobody has costumes
like Miranda, with bah h-nah-nas and
pine -ahpples on top. So get the
job"
Carmen's been getting the jobs
ever since. First, there was a series
of night club jobs in New York.
For eight years, she's had more
movie offers than she can handle.
In one of her latest movies,
"Copacabana," she stepped out Of
character-and out of her bizarre
costumes. Critics were little dis
appointed. Now. Carmen knows
better.
Her Luckiest Film.
She recently spent $1,000 on new
costumes, the most flamboyant she's
ever designed. One consists of a
beaded skirt, which weighs in at so
pounds, and beaded and feath-
cred turban weighing Is, pounds.
With her platformed shoes, the
whole getup totals IS pounds-and
5-foot-1- Inch Carmen tips the
scales at only lit.
"Copacabana" may not have been
Miranda's best picture. but she says
it was one of her luckiest. 1t was
during the filming Of that picture
that she met her producer husband,
Dave Sebastian.
she's perfectonist, but still a
great person to work with" says
Dave. 1--WE developed a mutual re-
spect and admiration, and by the
time the picture was finished were
great friends.
Then she had to take a plane to
fill an engage as she calls it, in
Miami"
While Carmen was in Miami
Dave telephoned and proposed. II
was afraid she would think I was
kidding" Dave says. "but she ac-
cepted the first time I asked her.,
Born in Lisbon.
Carmen has always been a little
shy about her personal life. She
loves an audience, but she has in
sisted that although her profess
sional life belongs to her public,
her personal life is her own.
Besides" she used to explain.
maybe they like me better as a
woman of mystery. If they know
too much, they lose interest"
Apparently Carmen forgot to