Joyce Bryant
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Joyce Bryant (October 14, 1927 – November 20, 2022) was an American singer, dancer, and
civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
activist who achieved fame in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a theater and nightclub performer. With her signature silver hair and tight mermaid dresses, she became an early African-American
sex symbol A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive and often synonymous with sexuality. Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British St ...
, garnering such nicknames as "The Bronze Blond Bombshell", "The Black
Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...
", "The Belter", and "The Voice You'll Always Remember". Bryant left the industry in 1955 at the height of her popularity to devote herself to the
Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sa ...
. A decade later, she returned to show business as a trained classical vocalist and later became a vocal coach.


Early life

Joyce Bryant, the third of eight children, was born in
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
, and raised in San Francisco. Her father, Whitfield W. Bryant (1904–1993), worked as a chef for the
Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
. Her mother, Dorthy Constance Withers ''(maiden;'' 1907–1995), was a devout Seventh-day Adventist. Her maternal grandfather, Frank Withers ''(né'' Frank Douglas Withers; 1880–1952), was an early jazz trombonist. Bryant, a quiet child raised in a strict home, had ambitions of becoming a sociology teacher. Bryant eloped at the age of 14 but the marriage ended that same evening. In 1946, while visiting cousins in Los Angeles, she agreed on a dare to participate in an impromptu singalong at a local club. "After a while," Bryant recounted in a 1955 '' Jet'' interview, "I found I was the only one singing. A few minutes later the club owner offered me $25 to go up on stage, and I took it because I eeded the moneyto get home."


Career

During the late 1940s, Bryant had slowly acquired a series of regular gigs, from a $400-per-week engagement at New York City's
La Martinique La Martinique was a popular nightclub in New York City, United States during the 1940s. Situated in a basement at 57 West 57th Street, the club was owned and operated by Dario Goldfarb and Jim Vernon. It was at La Martinique that Mr. & Mrs. Walt ...
nightclub to a 118-show tour of the
Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...
hotel circuit. Her reputation and profile eventually grew to the level that one night, she appeared on the same bill as
Josephine Baker Freda Josephine Baker (; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first Black woman to s ...
. Not wanting to be upstaged, Bryant colored her hair silver using radiator paint, and performed wearing a tight silver dress and silver floor-length mink. Bryant recalled when she arrived onstage, "I stopped everything!" Bryant's silver hair and tight, backless, cleavage-revealing mermaid dresses became her trademark look and, combined with her four octave voice, further elevated her status into one of the major headlining stars of the early 1950s, by which time she became known by such nicknames as "The Bronze Blond Bombshell", "the black
Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...
", "The Belter", and "The Voice You'll Always Remember".
Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's R&B clubs, collectively known as the Ch ...
noted in her 2003 autobiography, ''Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story'': "I didn't want to look innocent. I wanted to look like Joyce Bryant. ..I dug her. I thought Joyce was gutsy and I copied her style–brazen and independent." Beginning in 1952, Bryant released a series of records for
Okeh OKeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name originally was spelled "OkeH" from the init ...
, including "A Shoulder to Weep On", " After You've Gone", and "Farewell to Love". Two of her most well-known standards, " Love for Sale" and "Drunk with Love", were banned from radio play for their provocative lyrics. Upon the release of " Runnin' Wild" two years later, ''Jet'' noted that the song was Bryant's "first to be passed by
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
and
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
radio censors, who banned three previous recordings for being too sexy." Bryant remarked in 1980, "what an irony that my biggest hit record was 'Love for Sale'. Banned in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
it was, and later...just about everywhere else." Bryant, who often faced discrimination and was outspoken on issues of racial inequality, became in 1952 the first black entertainer to perform at a
Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...
hotel, defying threats by the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
who had burned her in effigy. Bryant was critical of racial billing practices at night clubs and hotels and advocated for entertainers as a group to fight
Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...
. In 1954, she became one of the first black singers to perform at the Casino Royal in Washington, D.C., where she said that she had heard so much about the segregation practiced there that she was surprised to see so many African-Americans attend the downtown club. "It was a great thrill," she said, "to see them enter and be treated so courteously by the management." A ''
Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' magazine layout in 1953 depicted Bryant in provocative poses, which film historian and author
Donald Bogle Donald Bogle is an American film historian and author of six books concerning black history in film and on television. He is an instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania. Early years Bogle g ...
said were "the kind that readers seldom saw of white goddesses." The following year, Bryant – along with
Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...
,
Hilda Simms Hilda Simms ( Moses; April 15, 1918 – February 6, 1994) was an American stage actress, best known for her starring role on Broadway in '' Anna Lucasta''. Early years Hilda Simms was born Hilda Moses in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of 9 siblings ...
,
Eartha Kitt Eartha Mae Kitt (née Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress. She was known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Baby" ...
, and
Dorothy Dandridge Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress and singer. She was the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for '' Carmen Jones'' (1954). Dandridge had a ...
– was named in an issue of ''
Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also includes the persimmon tree. A few ''Diospyros'' species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Ebony is fin ...
'' one of the five most beautiful black women in the world.


Departure and return to show business

Bryant earned up to $3500 a performance in the early 1950s, but she had grown weary of the industry. The silver paint had damaged her hair, she did not enjoy working on the
Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...
, and she felt uneasy with her image. "Religion has always been a part of me," she said. "and it was a very sinful thing I was doing being very sexy, with tight, low cut gowns." She also recalled: "I had a very bad throat and I was doing eight performances a day ..A doctor was brought in to help and he said, 'I can spray your throat with
cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
and that will fix the problem, but you'll become addicted.' Then I overheard my manager say, 'I don't care what you do, just make her sing!'" Further, Bryant hated the men, often gangsters, who frequented the clubs in which she worked. She was once beaten in her dressing room after rejecting a man's advances. Her disenchantment with the drug and gangster subcultures, combined with pressures from her management, led Bryant to quit performing late in 1955. Devoting herself to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Bryant enrolled in Oakwood College in
Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
. ''Ebony'' published a feature article in its May 1956 issue entitled "The New World of Joyce Bryant: Former Café Singer Gives Up $200,000-a-year Career to Learn to Serve God". Traveling for years through the South, Bryant grew angry when she saw hospitals refuse care for those in critical need because they were black. As a result, she organized fundraisers for blacks to buy food, clothing, and medicine, and she continued to put on concerts wearing her natural black hair and no makeup to raise money for her church. Bryant met frequently with
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
a fan of her singingto support his efforts to bring basic material comforts to blacks. Bryant believed the struggle for civil rights to be the struggle for all people who believed in God, but when she confronted her church, asking it to take a stand against discrimination, the church refused with the reasoning, "But these are of earthly matters and thus of no spiritual importance." Disillusioned, Bryant returned to entertaining in the 1960s and trained with vocal teacher Frederick Wilkerson at
Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
, which led to her winning a contract with the
New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...
. She also toured internationally with the Italian, French, and Vienna Opera companies. She returned to performing jazz in the 1980s and began a career as a vocal instructor, with such clients as
Jennifer Holliday Jennifer Yvette Holliday (born October 19, 1960) is an American singer and actress. She started her career on Broadway in musicals such as ''Dreamgirls'' (1981–83), '' Your Arms Too Short to Box with God'' (1980–1981) and later became a ...
,
Phyllis Hyman Phyllis Linda Hyman (July 6, 1949 – June 30, 1995) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Hyman's music career spanned the late 1970s through the early 1990s, and she was best known for her expansive contralto range. Some of her most ...
, and
Raquel Welch Jo Raquel Welch (; September 5, 1940 – February 15, 2023) was an American actress. Welch first gained attention for her role in ''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she signed a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her con ...
. A documentary, entitled ''Joyce Bryant: The Lost Diva'', is in the works.


Personal life and death

Bryant died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Los Angeles on November 20, 2022, at the age of 95.


References


External links


''Joyce Bryant: The Lost Diva''
documentary website *"Meeting the Legendary Joyce Bryant
Part 1Part 2
— ''50 Shades of Black'', November 2013 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Joyce 1927 births 2022 deaths 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American women opera singers Actresses from San Francisco Actresses from Washington, D.C. 20th-century African-American actresses 20th-century American actresses Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights activists African-American women opera singers American film actresses American jazz singers American musical theatre actresses American stage actresses American women jazz singers Musicians from Huntsville, Alabama Singers from Oakland, California Actors from Oakland, California Singers from Los Angeles Singers from San Francisco Singers from Washington, D.C. American torch singers Traditional pop music singers Activists from California Activists from Alabama Former Seventh-day Adventists Jazz musicians from San Francisco Jazz musicians from Alabama Classical musicians from California