Gladys Bryant

Gladys Lillian Bryant was an American blues singer, vaudeville performer, and Broadway actress born on December 21, 1901, in Aiken, South Carolina, though some sources place her birth year as 1902.

Bryant's professional career began to take shape in 1922, when she appeared in the chorus of Plantation Revue, a production by Lew Leslie that featured Florence Mills in the starring role. That same year marked the beginning of her Broadway work, which would continue through 1924. Her stage credits included the musicals The Lady in Ermine and The Chocolate Dandies.

In 1923, Bryant traveled to England alongside Mills and the rest of the company to perform in the revue From Dover Street to Dixie. During that engagement, Bryant and fellow performer Edith Wilson became among the first artists to bring blues singing to British audiences. Also in 1923, Bryant entered the recording studio, cutting six tracks for Paramount Records. Her recorded output included "Tired O' Waitin' Blues" and "Laughin' Cryin' Blues," made with pianist Porter Grainger, while Fletcher Henderson accompanied her on additional recordings.

Bryant married dancer Arthur Bryson in Manhattan in 1924, after which she made no further recordings. By 1930, census records place her living with her mother in Manhattan. Details of her later life remain largely uncertain, though she reportedly appeared on Groucho Marx's television program You Bet Your Life in 1952, an appearance that has been described as the first performance of the blues on television. Her date of death is unknown.