BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " JOYCE BRYANT " THE BLONDE BOME SHELL THE FOUR OCTAVE SINGER AKA THE BLACK MARILYN MONROE AND THE VOICE YOU WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

                         BLACK               SOCIAL              HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Joyce Bryant. The Blonde Bombshell

Joyce Bryant, "the Bronze Blond Bombshell," never achieved Eartha Kitt or Lena Horne popularity, but the supper club chanteuse is still fondly remembered. The four octave singer, aka the black Marilyn Monroe, "the Voice You'll Always Remember," and "the Belter," was born in Oakland, CA, but raised in San Francisco (the oldest of eight children). She moved to Los Angeles to live with cousins when she was in her late teens. The move came after a disastrous marriage; she eloped at the age of 14 but the marriage ended on the wedding night without consummation. Her father was a carousing railroad chef who only came home long enough to impregnate his wife, a devout Seventh-Day Adventist. An impromptu singalong in a Los Angeles club in the late '40s was Bryant's first public performance. From there, she picked up other gigs and built a strong reputation.

Joyce Bryant - Jet Magazine, Oct 1, 1953

Her act was outrageously sexy; she wore provocative, tight, backless, cleavage-revealing mermaid dresses that left little to the imagination and they were so tight, she had to be carried off-stage. Supposedly, Bryant twisted so much she lost four pounds a performance. Bryant's hair was naturally black, but not wanting to be upstaged by Josephine Baker at a club, she doused it with silver radiator paint, slithered into a tight silver dress and voila: the Bronze Blond Bombshell and even Baker was impressed.

The gimmick and Bryant's elastic voice elevated the singer to heavyweight status; she earned as much as $3500 dollars a gig and $150,000 dollars a year in the early 1950s. She was called one of the most beautiful black women in the world and regularly appeared in Black magazines such as Jet. And a Life magazine layout in 1953 depicted the sexy singer in provocative poses.


She recorded a series of 78s for OKeh Records with the Joe Reisman Orchestra around 1952 that includes "It's Only Human," "Go Where You Go," "A Shoulder to Weep On," "After You've Gone," and "Farewell to Love." Two recordings, "Love for Sale" and "Drunk With Love," were banned from radio play.

(above clip from) 'Joyce Bryant' by Andrew Hamilton from All Music Guide 

Joyce Bryant in Valdes creation
Valdes helped found the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers, an organization of black designers. At the age of 65, she started making costumes for the Dance Theater of Harlem and worked everyday until 2000, when she retired.