In this Vitaphone soundie, Roy Fox and His Orchestra are simulating a radio broadcast of the Roy Fox and HIs Montemarte Cafe Orchestra Program from the studios of Warner Brothers Radio station KFWB (Four Warner Brothers) 980 in Los Angeles. Many orchestras did broadcast live from KFWB which went on the air in March 1925. The three pieces being performed are Louisiana by J C Johnson; Sally of My Dreams composed by Wm. Kernell and My Window of Dreams composed by John Klenner. Archive fotage from the 1927 movie Don't Tell the Wife was used during the Louisiana performance.
Roy Fox and His Orchestra, The Whispering Cornetist, March 1929, Vitaphone Reel 2819, 300 meters, 9 minutes.
Roy Fox was a British, American, Australian band leader who was born in Colorado USA and raised in Hollywood, California with his musician sister Vera in a Salvation Army Family. He was playing cornet at 11, most likely in a Salvation Army band, was in the Los Angeles Examiner's newsboys band at 13 and at 16, joined Abe Lyman's Sunset Inn Orchestra in Santa Monica. There he played with Gus Arnheim, Miff Mole and Harry Halstead. In 1920, at age 19, he put together his own orchestra and began recording with them in 1925. Fox and his band made this Vitaphone in March 1929. In 1930, Fox was invited to play in London. He recorded for the BBC and when the band returned to the US in 1931, Fox remained in England. He fell ill for two years and spent 1931-32 in a hospital in Switzerland. While he was in the hospital his contract in London at the Monseigneur Club expired and was awarded to his backup conductor. Fox had to form a new orchestra but did secure a better contract at the Cafe Anglais on Leciester Square in London. He also had time to make appearances in Belgium. His vocalist was Mary Lee but not the same Mary Lee from the singing act of Billie and Mary Lee in the US who can be seen on a Vitaphone film titled \"Billie and Mary Lee, Mean to Me, w/ Jack White, '29 Vitaphone, Forgotten Singers of the 1920s Pt 10\" on this YT channel. As of March 2021, singer Mary Lee, born Mary McDevitt in Glasgow, was still living at 100 being the only surviving British dance band performer from the 1930s.
Fox appeared in several films in the early 1930s and in '36 moved to the HMV label, and toured Europe in 1938. Fox then moved to Australia in the late 30s but when WWII broke out, his British passport was taken away and he had to return to the US. He played in clubs in New York during WWII. During this period he was conducting an orchestra at the Riobamba Club where a young Frank Sinatra was making his debut. Sinatra told Fox that he was the worst conductor he had ever worked with and Fox returned the favor by remarking of Sinatra's amateur vocals. They became best friends. In 1946 Fox returned to England and started recording for Decca. Fox retired around 1952 and opened his own booking agency. He died in Twickenham, England in 1982.
