Alexey Sklyarenko:"Van begins to perform as Mascodagama at
Chose. On his last tour he dances tango on his hands to the tune Pod
znoynym nebom Argentiny (Ada: 1.30). The same tango Ostap Bender
dances in Ilf & Petrov's "The Golden Calf" (Chapter XX: "The Commodore
is Dancing a Tango").In the same novel (Chapter II: “The Thirty
Sons of Lieutenant Shmidt”) Bender mentions a Charleston U moey devochki est’ odna malen’kaya
shtuchka(“My girl has one little thing”) said to be popular in Rio de
Janeiro, the city of Ostap’s dreams. We can only guess what is this
malen'kayashtuchka (little thing; Fr. petite
chose) possessed by the girl in the song. Similarly, we can not see from the
context what little thing (malen'kaya shtuchka) Tolstoy has
in mind in a letter of January 1-3, 1864, to his sister-in-law,
Tatiana Baehrs (who had a romance with Tolstoy's brother Sergey who left Tatiana
for his old mistress, a gypsy singer Maria Shishkin):
JM: Perhaps in this instance we
should forget geography for the most common samba song-themes,
associated with Rio de Janeiro, are sung by Carmen Miranda in a stylized
"baiana" dress* ( from the state of Bahia) and most of its melodies were also
composed by Bahia's Doryval Caymi .
In Woody Allen's movie "Radio Days" Carmen Miranda is
featured, but she sings "The Southamerican Way" and "Tico-tico no Fubá" where
Woody quips about what the baiana has not (a pistol, a
carrot...aso).
To find out what the woman actually has, among the items
which she offers on a tray, or her assorted necklaces, bracelets and
ear-rings, one has to remember a special bracelet charm that little girls
enjoyed in the forties ( a silver baiana-doll wearing a silver skirt
hung by a little hinge that serves to lift it up and show her
silver legs,panties and belly). The bracelet charm is designated as "o
que é que a baiana tem" ( what is it that the baiana has got?) also sung by
Carmen Miranda who became the IT singer, that's what the baiana's got: "IT"
(the English pronoun mixed with the Portuguese to indicate a mysterious sort of
personal alure and charm)**
In the forties and fiftives, a woman's little thing is
"IT"***
www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2AW-PFVNxI6 min-30 abr. 2008-Vídeo enviado por DoniSacramento Woody Allendedicates thisfilmof 1987 to the golden era of the
American radio,...CARMEN MIRANDAINWOODY ALLEN'SRADIO DAYS...
** Logo
recebeu o apelido de "Cantora do It".Em30 de
outubrorealizou sua primeira
turnê internacional, apresentando-se emBuenos
Aires. Voltou àArgentinano ano seguinte para uma temporada de
um mês na Rádio Belgrano... [from Carmen Miranda – Wikipédia, a enciclopédia
livre
pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Miranda :No Tabuleiro da Baiana(gravada comLuís
Barbosae Regional deLuperce Mirandaem 29 de setembro de 1936);
O Que É Que a Baiana Tem?(gravada comDorival Caymmie Conjunto Regional em 27 de fevereiro
de 1939)]
