Harry Roy

HARRY ROY d1971. British dance band leader and clarinetist of the 1920-60s. By the early 1930s, Harry Roy was fronting the band under his own name and broadcasting from the Café Anglais and the Mayfair Hotel. In 1931, he wrote (along with Anthony Fanzo) and sang "My Girl's Pussy"  which has since been the subject of many cover versions 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 WW2 he toured 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, he travelled to the USA, but was refused a work permit. Returning to Britain he reformed his band and scored a hit with his recording of "Leicester Square Rag". By the early 1950s, the big band era had come to an end and his band split up, but he still drifted in and out of the music scene. During the 1950s, he ran his own restaurant The Diners' Club, but it was destroyed by fire. In 1969, he returned to his music, leading a quartet in London's Lyric Theatre show "Oh Clarence". He was by then in failing health and died in London aged 71 in February 1971.