The Five Sherry Brothers continued until the summer season of 1941, 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 the war known simply as Dan and Jim Sherry.
Dan and Jim performed throughout the war both as civilian entertainers and as part of ENSA. The latter were often particularly arduous and sometimes somewhat risky. Stages were frequently a few planks balanced on oil drums with an out of tune piano dredged up fromheaven knows where.
The brothers travelled all over the UK, and latterly into Europe as the war progressed.
When hostilities ceased, Dan and Jim continued to make a living from the by then much reduced variety circuit.
They developed the ability to turn their hands to anything, perhaps as a result of their work during the war. The photograph shows the one of range of sketches they performed.
They had various acts such as “This is the Show” in the summer of 1946 and “Mine’s a Sherry” from about October 1946 to the summer of 1948. In the spring of 1949 they teamed up with Peter and Sam for a family revue at the Theatre Royal, Barnsley – “Sherry Go Round” although this appears to have been short-lived. They also performed in what was in effect a family pantomime, “Little Red Riding Hood” written by Dan Sherry. This is first recorded at Wilmslow, in January 1947, with performances at The Empire, Oldham (with Peter and Sam as “Horris the Horse”), in December 1947, and later at Lowestoft, when the show also featured Harry Sherry’s son John and in December 1952 at the Palace Theatre, Huddersfield.
Dan and Jim appear to have retired in about 1954.