Inabout 1928 the Sherry family were taken up by George Black, a West End theatre impresario, under the name of “Straight 8 Sherry Family” to perform in a show devised by Black called ‘Pageant on Parade’. Unfortunately this was not a success and was taken off after a short while. They were owed six weeks work and George Black wanted to play ‘Dan Brothers and Sherry’ in their original act, the ‘Sherina Sisters’ in their act and Peter and Sam in heir speciality dancing act, but Dan and Harry insisted
that they should play as only two acts ‘The Five Sherry Brothers’ and ‘The Sherina Sisters’. There was an argument with George Black ,
who was perhaps the most powerful man in Theatre Land in those days, however the “The Five Sherry Brothers“ act was formed and
became one of the best-known music hall acts of the 1930s.
After forming the ‘Five Sherry Brothers’ Dan and Harry insisted that one of the weeks out of that six was at the Holborn Empire which, next to the Palladium, was the most important variety theatre in England. Black grudgingly allowed this, but like so many people in high places he didn’t forgive the family. It was really too soon to go to the Holborn Empire – they should have toured first but even so they were a great success and from then on became a star act, top of the bill. Black however didn’t renew their contract after that six weeks but there were still plenty of other theatres they could play – there was still Moss Empires which hadn’t at that time, joined with Variety Theatres Consolidated which was Black’s circuit. That was in about 1930.
The ‘Five Sherry Brothers’ act opened with Dan on the piano, Peter and Harry on violin and Sam on guitar. Sam started to play guitar when he was about 15 years old. He first learned Hawaiian guitar and then went on to Spanish or plectrum guitar. They started with the four of them on stage in a musical number, to which Jim came in whistling, something like ‘Love’s Old Sweet Song’. For the second number, Dan and Jim would do a comedy act. Then Harry, Peter and Samdid an acrobatic fiddle dance. Harry specialised in pirouettes whilst playing the violin. Peter and Samdid the acrobatics. Whilst they were getting their breath back Jim did his bird impressions to a tune like ‘In A Monastery Garden’ as a background. He started with a thrush, then a blackbird, a canary and finished with a nightingale.
The finale was an acrobatic dancing act. They started with a three handed step dance. They carried a large slatted maple dancing mat made by Le Fre, which measured 20 ft by 6 ft. This dance was apparently similar to the Lancashire steps which Sam used in his Exhibition Routine and ran for about two and a half minutes. They stopped for applause and then went into the acrobatic routine which used the same style of music, in which they fitted acrobatics.At the end of the acrobatic routine they stopped, took the applause again, and then went into a fast ‘winging’ routine. This only lasted about two choruses because it was such hard work. It is reputed to be the hardest thing to do in dancing and they made a big show of it.
They did it in competition-style dancing, the first ‘wing’ step together, then they danced in turn each doing a progressively more difficult step. For the last eight bars, Harry and Dan left their instruments to join the other three on the dancing mat, to dance the big ‘double wing’ in unison. It lifted the act right up, and was a tremendous success. Wherever they went they were what was called a ‘show stopping act’. They wore evening dress and tap shoes.
They then decided to run their own shows instead of depending on getting work through agents and managers. And so the brothers started what they called a ‘Road Show’ or ‘Combination’. It wasn’t a revue as such, the act took over the theatre for a week and booked the acts themselves through agents. They ran a variety combination and would have perhaps 50% of the take at the door. Of course they took their chances on whether they made or lost money. If business was good they could make more than their variety salaries. All the time theatres were tending to close because of the take over by the talkies and many music hall artistes left the profession. The Sherry family were having an uphill fight and because of the problems over the ‘Pageant on Parade’ fiasco they found themselves restricted more or less to the ‘number two halls’ which were the small halls in places like Huddersfield, Halifax and Manchester, but they made a reasonable living. Then the war came along.
The act continued until the summer season of 1940, but then Sam, as the youngest, was called up first and after him Peter. Harry died during the war and that was the end of the Five Sherry Brothers although Dan and Jim continued to run a road show during and after the war known simply as Dan and Jim Sherry.