Born Harry Lipman in Stamford Hill, London, England in 1900, Henry Roy was an early big band leader. He and his brother Sidney formed a band which they called The Darnswells, with Harry playing saxophone and clarinet and Sidney on piano. During the 1920s they performed in several prestige venues such as the Alhambra and the London Coliseum, under names such as the Original Lyrical Five and the Original Crichton Lyricals. They spent three years at the Café de Paris, and toured South Africa, Australia, and Germany. By the early '30s Harry was fronting the band under his own name, and broadcasting from the Café Anglais and the Mayfair Hotel. In 1931 he wrote and sang "My Girl's Pussy", which has since been the subject of many covers and remakes. In 1935 he married Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of the white Rajah of Sarawak, with whom he appeared in two musical films, Rhythm Racketeer (1937) and Everything Is Rhythm (1940).
During the war years, Harry toured around with his band, Harry Roy's Tiger Ragamuffins. He was at the Embassy Club in 1942, and a little later, toured the Middle East, entertaining troops. In 1948 Harry went to the U.S., but was refused a work permit. Returning to England, he reformed his band and scored a big hit with his recording of "Leicester Square Rag".
By the early 1950s the big band era had come to an end. The band split up, but Harry still drifted in and out of the music scene. In the 1950s, he ran his own restaurant, the Diners' Club, but it was destroyed by fire. In 1969, Harry returned to music, leading a quartet in the London Lyric Theatre's show Oh Clarence, but he was by then in failing health and died in London in February 1971.
1 comment:
classic Jew hater..reverend wright anyone!!!!!!
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