Anita Jane Bryant (March 25, 1940 – December 16, 2024) was an American singer and anti-gay-rights activist. She had three top 20 hits in the United States in the early 1960s. She was the 1958 Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and a brand ambassador for the Florida Citrus Commission from 1969 to 1980.
From 1977 to 1980, Bryant was an outspoken opponent of gay rights in the United States. In 1977, she ran the Save Our Children campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Throughout the country, supporters of gay rights condemned Bryant for her campaign. Assisted by prominent figures in music, film, and television, they retaliated by boycotting the orange juice that she promoted. The campaign ended on June 7, 1977 with a 69% majority vote to repeal the ordinance (which Dade County restored in 1998). Though this was a victory for Bryant, her public image was irreparably damaged and she found herself blacklisted. Her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission was terminated three years later. This, as well as her later divorce from Bob Green, left her financially insolvent and she filed for bankruptcy twice.
Early life
Bryant was born in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, on March 25, 1940, the daughter of Lenora Annice Berry and Warren G. Bryant. After her parents divorced, her father went into the U.S. Army and her mother went to work as a clerk for Tinker Air Force Base. She was singing onstage at the age of six, at local fairgrounds in Oklahoma. She sang occasionally on radio and television, and was invited to audition when Arthur Godfrey's talent show came to town, eventually winning the contest.
Bryant became Miss Oklahoma in 1958, after graduating from Tulsa's Will Rogers High School, and was second runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant in September 1958.
In 1960, Bryant married Bob Green (1931–2012), a Miami disc jockey, with whom she eventually raised four children. They divorced in 1980.
Career
thumb|upright|left|Anita Bryant with a sailor during a [[Bob Hope USO show on the USS Ticonderoga in 1965]]
Bryant appeared early in her career on the NBC interview program Here's Hollywood and on the same network's The Ford Show, starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. Bryant was given the Silver Medallion Award from the National Guard for "outstanding service by an entertainer", and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Leadership Gold Medallion.
Between 1964 and 1969, Bryant performed at multiple White House functions, including both the Democratic Convention in Chicago and the Miami Republican Convention in 1968. She was nominated for two Grammy Awards: best sacred performance and best spiritual performance.
In 1967, with I Believe she moved towards gospel which would also characterize the music of her other albums.
In 1969, Bryant became a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission, and nationally televised commercials featured her singing "Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree" and stating the commercials' tagline: "Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine." She recounted her autobiography, appeared in medleys of prerecorded songs, and interviewed Pat Boone. The West Point Glee Club and General William Westmoreland participated.
Anti-gay rights activism
thumb|Fundraising card for the [[Save Our Children campaign]]
In 1977, Dade County, Florida, passed an ordinance sponsored by Bryant's former friend Ruth Shack that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Bryant led a highly publicized campaign to repeal the ordinance, as the leader of a coalition named Save Our Children. The campaign was based on conservative Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and a perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation. Bryant stated:
She also perpetuated the idea of the gay community 'recruiting' children through child abuse to become homosexual themselves. and replaced them with the "Anita Bryant Cocktail", which was made with vodka and apple juice. Additionally, merchandise such as buttons, bumper stickers, and T-shirts with slogans like "A day without human rights is like a day without sunshine" were sold to push the anti-discrimination movement further.
alt=Bob Green has an arm around Anita Bryant as Bryant breaks down into tears. Bryant's face is covered in cream.|thumb|Bryant (right) with face covered in pie, October 14, 1977
While visiting the Iowa Public Broadcasting Network studios in Des Moines on October 14, 1977, Bryant repeatedly stated she "loves homosexuals, but hates their sin". The appearance was interrupted when Bryant became one of the first people to be publicly "pied" as part of a political protest, perpetrated by Thom L. Higgins. Bryant quipped "At least it's a fruit pie", a pun on the derogatory "fruit" for a gay man and a reference to her work as a sponsor for fruit companies. and Vincent Price (he joked in a television interview that Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance referred to her). Johnny Carson also made Bryant a regular target of ridicule in his nightly monologues. In 1978, Bryant and Bob Green told the story of their campaign in the book At Any Cost. The gay community continued to regard Bryant's name as synonymous with bigotry and homophobia. However, at the same time, her name became a call to action for gay rights activists, and motivated many to picket her events, host anti-Bryant protests across the country, and increase attendance in and frequency of pride marches.
In 1978, while a member of a Baptist church, she ran for vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, but lost. Several leaders disagreed with how she rejected civil rights for gay people.
Bryant's marriage to Bob Green also failed at that time; she divorced him in 1980, citing emotional abuse and latent suicidal thoughts. Green refused to accept this, claiming his fundamentalist religious beliefs did not recognize civil divorce and that "in God's eyes", she was still his wife.
Many Christian fundamentalist audiences and venues shunned Bryant after her divorce. Because she was no longer invited to appear at their events, she lost a major source of income. The Florida Citrus Commission also allowed her contract to lapse after the divorce, stating that Bryant was now "worn out" as a spokesperson.
Bryant rapidly became the butt of jokes, as her image shifted. The decline of her reputation was aided by Tonight Show host Johnny Carson, and other comedians and talk-show hosts as they regularly mocked her to the general public. This led to her endorsements being cancelled and sponsors dropping her, as she was now viewed as a liability. In a 2012 interview, her son Robert Green, Jr. said "she would be putting a lot more energy into fighting gay rights if she still felt as strongly."
Bryant appeared in Michael Moore's 1989 documentary film Roger & Me, in which she is interviewed and travels to Flint, Michigan, as part of the effort to help revitalize its devastated local economy.
Bryant married her second husband, Charlie Hobson Dry, in 1990. The couple tried to reestablish her music career in a series of small venues, including Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where they opened Anita Bryant's Music Mansion. The establishment combined Bryant's performances of her successful songs from early in her career with a "lengthy segment in which she preached her Christian beliefs". The venture was not successful and the Music Mansion, which had missed meeting payrolls at times, filed for bankruptcy in 2001 with Bryant and Dry leaving several employees and creditors unpaid. They remained married until his death in April 2024, eight months before Bryant's death.
Bryant also spent part of the 1990s in Branson, Missouri, where the state and federal governments both filed liens claiming more than $116,000 in unpaid taxes. Bryant and Dry had also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Arkansas in 1997 after piling up bills from a failed Anita Bryant show in Eureka Springs; among the debts were more than in unpaid state and federal taxes.
Later life
In 2005, Bryant returned to Barnsdall to attend the town's 100th anniversary celebration and to have a street renamed in her honor. In 2006, she founded Anita Bryant Ministries International in Oklahoma City.
Bryant died from cancer at her home in Edmond, Oklahoma, on December 16, 2024, at the age of 84. Her death was announced by her family on January 9, 2025.
In popular culture
Bryant is a frequently portrayed character at drag shows across the United States.
Music
Bryant's name has frequently been invoked as a prototypical example of opposition to LGBT rights. When Elton John was criticized for touring Russia in 1979, he responded: "I wouldn't say I won't tour in America because I can't stand Anita Bryant". In his song "Mañana", Jimmy Buffett sings "I hope Anita Bryant never ever does one of my songs". In 1978, David Allan Coe recorded the song "Fuck Aneta Briant" on his album Nothing Sacred. California punk rock band Dead Kennedys referenced Bryant in their song "Moral Majority" from their 1981 EP In God We Trust, Inc.
In 1977, the Dutch levenslied singer Zangeres Zonder Naam wrote the protest song "Luister Anita" ("Listen Up, Anita") on the occasion of the protest night "Miami Nightmare", organized in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The nightly concert was intended to raise funds for an advertisement in Time, in which the Dutch nation was to call on the American people to protect the rights of minorities. In the song, Zangeres Zonder Naam compared Anita Bryant to Hitler and called on gays to fight for their rights. The song became an integral part of her repertoire and cemented her status as a cult figure among Dutch gays.
Literature
Steve Gerber, in his Howard the Duck for Marvel Comics, made an organization called the S.O.O.F.I. (Save Our Offspring from Indecency) whose leader appears to be Anita Bryant. Although it was not explicitly stated, even The New York Times called the implication "transparent".
Armistead Maupin, in his 1980 novel More Tales of the City, used Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" campaign to prompt a principal character to come out of the closet.
Screen
Bryant was regularly lampooned on Saturday Night Live, sometimes with her politics as the target, sometimes her reputation as a popular, traditional entertainer known for her commercials as the target, and sometimes targeting a combination of the two. Her name was also a frequent punchline on The Gong Show, such as the time host/producer Chuck Barris joked that Bryant was releasing a new Christmas album called Gay Tidings. Some references were less overtly political, but equally critical. In the film Airplane! (1980), Leslie Nielsen's character, upon seeing a large number of passengers become violently ill, vomit, and have uncontrollable flatulence, remarked: "I haven't seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant concert." Designing Women, and The Golden Girls. She was also the target of mockery in the RiffTrax short Drugs Are Like That.
Bryant appears in archive footage as a principal antagonist in the 2008 American biographical film Milk, about the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. She was also portrayed as the principal antagonist in the 2011 play Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins.
In May 2013, producers announced plans for a biographical HBO film based on Bryant's life to star Uma Thurman, with a script from gay screenwriter Chad Hodge. Long languishing in development, as of 2019, Ashley Judd and Neil Patrick Harris have been attached to the project.
Archive footage of Bryant appears in The Gospel of Eureka, a 2018 documentary about the lives of LGBT individuals and evangelical Christians in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Stage
Bryant was lampooned in the 2016 play Anita Bryant's Playboy Interview, based on her 1978 magazine piece.
She is also the subject of The Loneliest Girl in the World, a musical that premiered at Diversionary Theatre in San Diego in mid-2018.
Writing
Mark D. Jordan has written: "Many of her public statements, including her books, were ghostwritten by others, and there is internal reason to conclude that the most political books were pasted together by several hands from various sources."
- Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1970)
- Amazing Grace (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1971)
! Record label
|-
|| 1959
| align="left" | Anita Bryant
| –
| rowspan="3" | Carlton Records
|-
|| 1960
| align="left" | Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight!
| –
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1961
| align="left" | In My Little Corner of the World
| 99
|-
| align="left" | Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
| –
| rowspan="11" | Columbia Records
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1962
| align="left" | Abiding Love
| –
|-
| align="left" | In a Velvet Mood
| 145
|-
| align="left" | The ABC Stories of Jesus
| –
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1963
| align="left" | The Country's Best
| –
|-
| align="left" | Anita Bryant's Greatest Hits
| –
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1964
| align="left" | The World of Lonely People
| –
|-
| align="left" | The Best of Johnny Desmond & Anita Bryant at Jubilee 1964
| –
|-
|| 1965
| align="left" | I Believe
| –
|-
|| 1966
| align="left" | Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
| 146
|-
|| 1967
| align="left" | Do You Hear What I Hear?: Christmas with Anita Bryant
| 25
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1968
| align="left" | Anita Bryant
| –
|| Harmony Records
|-
| align="left" | How Great Thou Art
| –
| rowspan="2" | Columbia Records
|-
| align="left" | In Remembrance of You
| –
|-
|| 1969
| align="left" | Little Things Mean a Lot
| –
| rowspan="2" | Harmony Records
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1970
| align="left" | World Without Love
| –
|-
| align="left" | Abide with Me
| –
|| Word Records
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1972
| align="left" | Naturally
| –
|| Myrrh Records
|-
| align="left" | The Miracle of Christmas
| –
|| Word Records
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1973
| align="left" | Sweet Hour of Prayer
| –
|| Harmony Records
|-
| align="left" | Battle Hymn of the Republic
| –
| rowspan="3" | Word Records
|- .
| rowspan="2" | 1975
| align="left" | Old Fashioned Prayin
| –
|-
| align="left" | Anita Bryant's All-Time Favorite Hymns
| –
|-
|| 1985
| align="left" | Anita with Love
| –
|| BL Records
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! rowspan="2" |Year
! rowspan="2" |Title
! colspan="4" |Peak chart positions
! rowspan="2" |Record Label
! rowspan="2" |B-side
! rowspan="2" |Album
|- style="font-size:smaller;"
! US<br />
! R&B
! AC
! UK
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1959
| align="left" | "Till There Was You"
| 30
| —
| —
| —
| rowspan="11" | Carlton Records
| "Little George (Got The Hiccoughs)"
| A-side: Anita Bryant; B-side: non-album track
|-
| align="left" | "Six Boys and Seven Girls"
| 62
| —
| —
| —
| "The Blessings of Love"
| A-side: Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight; B-side: Anita Bryant
|-
| align="left" | "Do-Re-Mi"
| 94
| —
| —
| —
| "Promise Me A Rose" (A-side)
| Anita Bryant
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1960
| align="left" | "Paper Roses"
| 5
| 16
| —
| 24
| "Mixed Emotions"
| Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight
|-
| align="left" | "My Little Corner of the World"
| 10
| —
| —
| 48
| "Anyone Would Love You"
| A-side: In My Little Corner Of The World; B-side: Anita Bryant
|-
| align="left" | "One of the Lucky Ones"
| 62
| —
| —
| —
| "Love Look Away"
| A-side: Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight; B-side: Anita Bryant
|-
| align="left" | "Promise Me a Rose (A Slight Detail)"
| 78
| —
| —
| —
| "Do-Re-Mi"
| Anita Bryant
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1961
| align="left" | "Wonderland by Night"
| 18
| —
| —
| —
| "Pictures"
| Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight
|-
| align="left" | "A Texan and a Girl from Mexico"
| 85
| —
| —
| —
| "He's Not Good Enough for You"
| Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight
|-
| align="left" | "I Can't Do It by Myself"
| 87
| —
| —
| —
| "An Angel Cried"
| Hear Anita Bryant in Your Home Tonight
|-
| align="left" | "Lonesome For You, Mama"
| 108
| —
| —
| —
| "A Place Called Happiness"
| Non-album tracks
|-
|| 1962
| align="left" | "Step By Step, Little By Little"
| 106
| —
| —
| —
| rowspan="3" | Columbia Records
| "Cold Cold Winter"
| Greatest Hits
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1964
| align="left" | "The World of Lonely People"
| 59
| —
| 17
| —
| "It's Better to Cry Today Than Cry Tomorrow"
| rowspan="2" | The World of Lonely People
|-
| align="left" | "Welcome, Welcome Home"
| 130
| —
| —
| —
| "Laughing on the Outside"
|}
Notes
References
Works cited
Books
External links
- Anita Bryant Ministries International
- Image of Anita Bryant in the 1970s (Available for public use from the State Archives of Florida)
- Belated curtain call, Tulsa World, April 19, 2007
- Readers Forum: Anita Bryant to star in Round-Up 2007, Tulsa World, April 18, 2007
- Celebration draws Anita Bryant back to Barnsdall, Tulsa World, May 28, 2005
- Bryant, Anita, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
- "The Debate over 'Decency:' How Hoosiers Challenged Anita Bryant's Anti-Gay Rights Crusade," Indiana History Blog, October 30, 2020