Joyce Bryant

American singer and actress, Joyce Bryant, was born in California on the 14th October 1928 and became famous in the 1940s and early 50s as a theatre and nightclub performer.  With her trade-mark silver hair and tight mermaid dresses, Joyce became one of the first African-American sex symbols and became known as the "black Marilyn Monroe".

Joyce acquired her silver hair when she was booked to sing at a club where Josephine Baker was also performing.  Not wanting to be upstaged, Joyce dyed her hair silver using radiator paint and performed in a silver long mink outfit.

In 1952, she became the first black woman to sing at a Miami hotel much to the anger of the Klu Klux Klan and also became one of the first black singers to perform at the Casino Royal in Washington.

Joyce gave up her career in 1955, at the height of her fame to devote herself to the Seventh-day Adventist Church which her mother was also a member.

In 1953, Ebony Magazine voted her one of the five most beautiful women in the world.