The great government drive toward Pan-American friendship as well as the Good Neighbor policy would inspire producers to seek for suitable Pan-American stars to decorate films with titles like Down Argentine Way (1940) Weekend In Havana and That Night in Rio (both 1941). They found Carmen Miranda, who was actually born in Portugal but not a soul would question that. Carmen was billed as the Brazilian Bombshell Miranda (1909-1955) and she belonged to another class of the 1940's star - the specialty star. As far as anyone could tell, all she was ever able to do was her signature hip-wagging, finger-twisting, pseudo-Latin ditty (usually written for her by old Hollywood stalwarts like Harry Warren) and wear her notorious tutti-frutti hats.
Carmen Miranda was indeed the most noted - specialty star, but not the biggest. For that honor it was a close competition between the acting skater Sonja Henie and swimmer Esther Williams. Henie prettily skated her way to music through nearly a dozen films at 20th Century Fox, from One in a Million (1936) to The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948) before retiring from the screen to make fortune promoting ice shows.