Singer whose sister act made her a star
Joy Beverley, singer: b London, May 5, 1924; m Roger Carocari (diss), Billy Wright (dec), 1d, 2s; d August 30, 2015, aged 91. were accosted by Stringfellow who told them, ‘‘I’ve had the daughters, now I want the mothers. Name your price.’’
Their ‘‘comeback’’ appearance before a predominantly gay audience was so successful that they spent the next decade appearing in gay and straight nightclubs. It even led to a disco version of their theme song, Sisters.
The Beverleys claimed never to have spent more than a few weeks apart. ‘‘But although we have always lived next door to each other, we did have our own personal lives,’’ Joy said.
She was briefly married at the end of World War II to Roger Carocari, an American musician, and gave birth to a son, Vincent, who became a journalist. She was courted by Peter Sellers and Bob Hope was said to be ‘‘a bit sweet’’ on her before she married for a second time in 1958 to the Wolverhampton Wanderers and England football captain Billy Wright.
‘‘He had his eye on me for a while and always used to bring the England team to the Palladium to see us before a match at Wembley,’’ Joy said. ‘‘Eventually he invited me to see his England caps. I knew nothing about football but went along anyway and fell in love with him.’’
Like the David and Victoria Beckham of their day, their ‘‘secret’’ wedding at the register office in Poole, Dorset, stopped the town with thousands jamming the streets. Fans shook football rattles and several girls fainted.
‘‘The press were hanging from trees and lampposts or on window ledges and hundreds of police were holding everyone back,’’ Joy recalled. She later learnt that the registrar, unable to contain his excitement at officiating at a celebrity wedding, had let the news slip. Her sisters wore identical dresses to the bride.
At the time Joy and her sisters were reputedly earning £1000 per week but the maximum wage cap was still in place in football and Wright, despite being England captain, was on £24 per week. The couple spent the first few weeks of married life in a £5-per-week flat overlooking Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Molineux ground.
Wright retired the following season and the couple moved to London, where Joy was reunited with her sisters. They were married for 36 years until Wright’s death from cancer in 1994.
‘‘We were boringly well behaved, and loyal,’’ Joy once said. ‘‘In marriage you have to keep telling yourself that your husband is very important. That is not fashionable now, is it?’’