Imro Fox

Imro Fox
Born	Isidor Fuchs May 21, 1862 Bromberg, Germany (now Poland)
Died	March 4, 1910 (age 47) Utica, New York
Resting place	Oheb Shalom Cemetery, Hillside, New Jersey

Imro Fox (b.1862-d.1910), born Isidor Fuchs in Bromberg (part of Prussia when he was born, then the German Empire from 1871 until the Great Poland Uprising in 1919) was a highly-skilled sleight of hand artist. He was a staple of the turn of the century American tradition known as Chatauqua.

Biography

Fox introduced the single performer 'comedy magic' act in vaudeville which eventually spawned, among others, Carl Ballantine. One of his stock lines was "I have no hair to deceive you with."

From 1898 to 1900 he toured with Servais Le Roy and Frederick Eugene Powell as "The Great Triple Alliance".

Fox was one of the "Saturday Nighters" that met at Martinka's and would showed up whenever he was working in New York.

His member number in the Society of American Magicians was 66 and would have been numbered as one of the founders had he been in New York City at the time of the first meeting.

Imro Fox passed away on in his hotel in Utica, New York. He had completed his performance and retired to his room for the night. Shortly after, he arose and asked for a doctor, but he passed before medical aid could arrive at 2 a.m. The cause of death was give as acute indigestion. He was buried near his home in Newark, New Jersey, and a dozen members of the Society of American Magicians attended his funeral.

Imro Fox was captured on film back in 1896 performing his Rabbit Trick and Human Hen Trick.

References

• Die Zauberwelt, Vol. 8, No. 2, Februar 1902, Imro Fox, page 17
• The Old and the New Magic, by Henry R. Evans, 1906, Magicians I have Met, by Robert Houdin, Imro Fox, page 271
• The Wizard (P. T. Selbit), Vol. 5, No, 56, April 1910, Death of Imro Fox, page 891
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 12, No. 5, July 1932, AN EVENING WITH IMRO FOX, by W. W. Durbin, President I.B.M., page 408
• The Sphinx, Vol. 35, No. 10, December 1936, Imro Fox, the First Great Comedy Magician, by Elmer P. Ransom, page 282
• The Conjurors’ Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 3, May 1949 (mislabeled as March 1949), ON THE COVER IMRO FOX Born May 21st, 1862 in Germany, page 11
• Photo Genii 1951 March
• M-U-M, Vol. 49, No. 9, February 1960, Looking Backward, The Death of Imro Fox, by Clarence L. Blair, page 422
• M-U-M, Vol. 67, No. 5, October 1977, THE COMIC CONJUROR: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF IMRO FOX by Michael D. Douglass, page 23
• Genii Magazine, Vol. 65, No. 7, July 2002, Imro Fox, the First Great Comedy Magician, by Elmer P. Ransom, page 18 (reprint from The Sphinx, Vol. 35, No. 10, December 1936)
• Bio-bibliographisches Lexikon der Zauberkünstler Edition Volker Huber, April 2002, page 124