Roy Fox

Roy Fox ( born October 25, 1901 in Denver, † March 20, 1982 in Twickenham, London) was an American bandleader and cornet player, best known for dance bands that he led in the 1930s in England.

Fox grew up in Hollywood and first learned cornet. He played in the film studio by Cecil B. DeMille and sixteen years in the orchestra of Abe Lyman in Santa Monica ( with Miff Mole, clarinetist Gussie Miller and the later bandleaders Henry Halstead and Gus Arnheim ). Because of its soft approach ( he had to be playing in the restaurant dampen as he went from table to table ), he was nicknamed The Whispering cornetist.

In 1920 he formed his first band with which he toured and played at Club Royale over the MGM studios in Culver City, until it burned down in 1925. In 1925 he toured with Art Hickman's Orchestra, which then played in Florida. He was for a time in New York and then again directed his own band in Los Angeles, which was also broadcast on the radio. He also worked as a studio musician in the film. In 1930 he went to London with his band and played for BBC radio and recorded for Decca Records. While his band returned, he stayed in London and formed a new band, which played in the Monseigneur Restaurant in Piccadilly.

While he was in Switzerland recovering from a lung disease in 1932, he left the band his pianist Lew Stone, who ausbootete him after his return as a band leader. Fox formed a new band, which played at the Café Anglais in Leicester Square. With it, he also toured in Belgium and the UK. A member of the band was kind of Christmas. He also played in several films soundtrack and recorded with his band. Roy Fox worked from 1924 to 1938 at 56 recording sessions.

In 1938, he had to interrupt because of illness his career again. Later he went to Australia, where he led the Jay Whidden Orchestra, toured in the U.S. with smaller bands and led 1946/47, again a dance band in England, with which he appeared on the Isle of Man and in the Potomac Club in London. In 1952 he retired from active life as a musician and opened a booking agency. 1975 published in London in his autobiography ( Roy Fox - Hollywood, Mayfair and all That Jazz: The Roy Fox Story, Leslie Frewin Publ ).