During the late 1940s, Bryant had slowly acquired a series of regular gigs, from a $400-per-week engagement at New York's La Martinique nightclub to a 118-show tour of the Catskill Mountains hotel circuit.
Her reputation and profile eventually grew to the level that one night, she appeared on the same bill as Josephine Baker.
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", "The Belter", and "The Voice You'll Always Remember".

Etta James 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, 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 and NBC 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 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 hotel, defying threats by the Ku Klux Klan who had burned her in effigy.

She was critical of racial billing practices at night clubs and hotels and advocated for entertainers as a group to fight Jim Crow laws.

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 magazine layout in 1953 depicted Bryant in provocative poses, which film historian and author Donald Bogle said were "the kind that readers seldom saw of white goddesses."
The following year, Bryant–along with Lena Horne, Hilda Simms, Eartha Kitt, and Dorothy Dandridge–was named in an issue of Ebony one of the five most beautiful black women in the world.
During the late 1940s, Bryant had slowly acquired a series of regular gigs, from a $400-per-week engagement at New York's La Martinique nightclub to a 118-show tour of the Catskill Mountains hotel circuit. Her reputation and profile eventually grew to the level that one night, she appeared on the same bill as Josephine Baker. 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", "The Belter", and "The Voice You'll Always Remember". 
Etta James 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, 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 and NBC 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 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 hotel, defying threats by the Ku Klux Klan who had burned her in effigy. 
She was critical of racial billing practices at night clubs and hotels and advocated for entertainers as a group to fight Jim Crow laws. 
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 magazine layout in 1953 depicted Bryant in provocative poses, which film historian and author Donald Bogle said were "the kind that readers seldom saw of white goddesses." The following year, Bryant–along with Lena Horne, Hilda Simms, Eartha Kitt, and Dorothy Dandridge–was named in an issue of Ebony one of the five most beautiful black women in the world.
Joyce Bryant