As her reputation for her anti-gay views waned, she returned to television in 1980 with a two-hour variety show special, “The Anita Bryant Spectacular,” all smiles, but one media review For my family, the shock was like a huge wound on my shoulder. . In his New York Times review of the show, John J. O’Connor wrote, “Ms. Bryant’s cause is less clearly defined, but it seems to be aimed at people who differ from her particular notions of piety and cleanliness.” I can see it,” he wrote.
O’Connor added that despite “cautious projections of sanity and benevolence,” Bryant’s messages appeared to be “consistently hostile and aggressive.” The feature was sponsored by her religious organization, which supports “conversion therapy” for gay men.
Two months after the special, Bryant ended her marriage to her manager, Robert Einar Green. She is a New York-born former disc jockey who was married in Oklahoma in 1960. Some conservative Christian fans were shocked by the divorce and turned away.
Bryant later publicly said that he had considered suicide in the late 1970s. “I was in hiding,” she said in a 1990 interview on the TV show “Inside Story.” “Today, I can honestly say that this amount of peace, confidence, and maturity came from a time when I was so depressed and depressed that I thought about taking my life.”
Ms. Bryant became an author with books such as “Amazing Grace” and “Celebrate This Food: The Anita Bryant Family Cookbook,” but her most talked-about title was “Anita Bryant’s Story: Our Nation’s Cookbook.” The survival of the family and the threat to humanity.” Militant Homosexuality” (1977).
She was always the subject of teasing. When her wallet was stolen in 1974, a Times column cast her as “a singer who sells orange juice on TV.” So it was probably inevitable that she would be skewered on TV shows like “Saturday Night Live.” In 1977, Jane Curtin, co-host of the show’s news section, screened the pie incident and said, “Mr. Bryant, who was fortunately uninjured, burst out laughing and said it was okay for her attacker to date her husband.” “I spoke,” he reported.
