By 1930, the Sherry family were touring with an act known as “A Sherry Cocktail”. Unfortunately the talkies came in about that time and where they had been playing to good audiences, they found they were playing to mediocre business.
Happily at that point the family was ‘discovered’ by George Black who ran the big theatre circuit in those days, Palladium, Holborn Empire, the Finsbury Park. He thought that they were quite unique and decided he would like to put the family into a show so in September 1930 “A Sherry Cocktail“ was disbanded, and the family formed a show called ‘Pageant on Parade’ where they were known as the “Straight 8 Sherry Family.”
was in this show that they reintroduced dancing in clogs to the variety theatres. It was modelled on an act which Black had seen by the Americans King, King and King. He said ‘They’re the greatest thing on Earth’. The family had some special shoes made by a man called Le Fre from Kennington in London, who specialised in making dancing shoes. He made big dancing boots like Little Tich used to wear. Le Fre made them dancing shoes with patent leather uppers, wooden soles and a leather instep. Jim, Peter and Sam did a speciality dance dressed as bell boys in page boy uniforms and little military hats. It was a great success. It was the first time they had danced the traditional clog steps with heel clicks on the stage. This style had disappeared to a certain extend from tap dancing. They danced to a Randolph Sutton song ‘I Told Them All About You’. It was a fairly fast 2/4 tune. They used to ‘wing’ as well. To wing in clogs is very difficult but they managed it.
Pageant on Parade opened during the second week in October 1930 at the Empire, Penge, London. Subsequent performances are known at The Hippodrome, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire (23/10/1930), New Theatre, Northampton (6/11/1930) and The Empire, Leeds, Yorkshire (11/12/1930). Unfortunately, ‘Pageant on Parade’ was not a success and was taken off early in 1931.
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 their 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 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.