Your friends the stars – 7

Two business men, by chance encounters in their daily work, turned a suburban housewife into a top-line singing star. The housewife was Joan Regan, and the first man to change her life was her bank manager. She told him she loved singing and was really a bit stage-struck.

Among the bank manager’s clients was a theatrical impresario. An introduction was arranged, and Joan went to the impresario’s office and sang. He was impressed enough to have a record made.

Now on to the scene comes the second business man. He was Bernard Delfont, agent and manager of many top variety stars. In the course of business one day, he walked into that impresario’s office.

A record was being played, and a young woman, her back towards him, was listening to it. It was Joan Regan’s one recorded song. Bernard Delfont said: “I like that — who is it?” The impresario said: “Meet the owner of the voice,” and the young woman turned round, and Joan Regan was introduced to Mr. Delfont. As a result, her record was sent to a recording company and Joan was given a contract. She recorded “Till I Waltz with You, Again” and “Sad, Sad Day.”

For months the recording studio was the only studio she knew. But Jack Jackson started playing her records on the radio. They became popular—so popular that Joan became a recording star, a radio broadcaster, and was asked for in America. There she built up a great following, her record of “Till They’ve All Gone Home’’ becoming a best-seller.

When Richard Afton first asked Joan Regan to sing in the Quite Contrary series, she was too far away from town on tour. She entered the series in the second programme. This was her first-ever TV appearance.

Joan Regan is Irish, and twenty-five years of age. She has two growing boys, Danny and Russell.