Dates

• Existence: Active c1943 - 2009

Biography

The Beverley Sisters were an English female vocal harmony and light entertainment act formed by real life sisters, Joy and twins Teddie and Babs Chinery.

The sisters were born in Bethnal Green, London, to music hall performers George Arthur Chinery and Victoria Alice Miles, aka Coram and Mills. The eldest daughter, Joy, was born Joycelyn Victoria on 5 May 1924 and the younger ones Babette Patricia aka Babs and Hazel aka Teddie were born on the same day three years later.

The sisters’ singing career started when they featured in an advertising campaign for Ovaltine during the Second World War with a style of singing similar to the already popular Andrew Sisters. In 1944 they successfully auditioned for BBC Radio as the Berverly Sisters and started to make regular appearances in programmes for the Allied Expeditionary Forces to entertain and raise the morale of British troops posted overseas.

After the war they toured the UK and USA with big orchestras including Eric Winstone’s and Glenn Miller’s and performed with some of the biggest names of the time including Danny Kaye and Nat King Cole. The sisters made regular appearances on music halls, radio and television for the BBC and while in America for NBC. Their success won them a contract with the BBC for their own television series, which ran for seven years and on which they gave live performances of popular songs of the day.

During the 1950s and 1960s the Beverly Sisters signed recording deals with UK Columbia, Philips and Decca labels and were widely credited as being the highest paid female entertainers in the UK for more than twenty years. They appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in 1952, 1958 and 1978 and featured on This Is Your Life in 1969. In 1977, they appeared on the BBC's variety show The Good Old Days, although by then their fame had diminished. In the 1980s, their career was revitalised with an appearance at the London Hippodrome after which they started to perform once again for British troops and in the British gay club scene.

In 2002, they performed as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations and toured with Max Bygraves and entered the Guinness World Records as the world's longest surviving vocal group without a change in the original line up. In 2004, the sisters took part in the D-Day 60th anniversary memorial concerts and as late as 2009, they were appearing in concerts and matinee shows.

In the 2006 the Beverly Sisters were awarded an M.B.E. for their contribution to entertainment.

Found in 11 Collections and/or Records: