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Imro Fox (May 21, 1862 - March 4, 1910) was German-born American chef who became a headlining stage magician billed as the “comic conjuror.” He was active between 1880 and 1910 and was known for the line, “Mahvelous! Everything I do is mahvelous.” 〔(''The Moving Picture World'', vol. 29, September 16, 1916, pg. 1873 ) accessed June 10, 2012〕 ==Early Life and Career== Isidore Fuchs was born in Bromberg, Germany (today Bydgoszcz, Poland) and immigrated to America seventeen years later aboard the steamship Suabia. Fuchs eventually settled in New York City where he became a citizen in 1888.〔Isidore Fox, US Passport Application, April 21, 1906, Ancestry.com〕 He began working as a chef at hotels in New York City and later at a hotel in Washington D.C. popular with vaudeville players engaged at the nation’s capital. It was at the latter that one day in 1880 he was approached by the head of a vaudeville company in need of a magician. Theirs was unfit to take to the stage and the hotel management had recommended Fuchs, then an amateur magician with no stage experience. The engagement proved satisfactory and within a short while Fuchs began performing as Imro Fox.〔(Evans, Henry Rigely - ''Some Magicians I Hav Met - The Open Court, a Monthly Magazine, Volume 19, Issue 8 edited by Paul Carus, 1905, pg. 454 ) accessed June 8, 2012〕 Fox became known as the “comic conjuror” with the unique talent of performing rapid-fire sleight of hand tricks as he peppered his audience with a string of fast paced, often self-deprecating, one-liners such as: "Why is my head like heaven?—because there is no parting there." 〔(Evans, Henry Ridgely Magic and Its Professors, 1902, pg. 81 ) accessed June 8, 2012〕〔Advertisement - ''Trenton Evening Times'' (Trenton, NJ); March 4, 1896; pg. 4〕 In ''Some Magicians I Have Met,'' Henry Ridgely Evans described Fox’s opening act as follows, ''His entertainment is quite original. The curtain rises on a gloomy cavern. In the middle is a boiling caldron, fed by witches à la Macbeth. An aged necromancer, dressed in a long robe with a pointed cap on his head enters. He begins his incantations, whereupon hosts of demons appear, who dance about the caldron. Suddenly amid the crash of thunder and a blinding flash of light, the wizard's cave is metamorphosed into a twentieth century drawing room, fitted up for a conjuring séance. The decrepit sorcerer is changed into a gentleman in evening dress—Mr. Fox—who begins his up-to-date entertainment of modern magic. Is this not cleverly conceived?'' 〔(Evans, Henry Rigely - ''Some Magicians I Hav Met - The Open Court, a Monthly Magazine, Volume 19, Issue 8 edited by Paul Carus, 1905, pg. 454 ) accessed June 8, 2012〕 By 1888 Fox was a member of Hyde’s Big Specialty Company at such venues as Chicago’s New Olympic Theatre 〔Multiple Classified Advertisements-The Daily Inter Ocean, (Chicago, IL),March 12, 1888; pg. 8; Issue 352; col C.〕 and the following year a performer with Reilly and Woods on their West Coasts tour that included engagements at the Bush Street Theatre in San Francisco and the Los Angeles Theatre in LA.〔Amusements- Daily Evening Bulletin, (San Francisco, CA) April 02, 1889; pg. 2; Issue 150; col D.〕〔Amusements- The Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1889; pg. 4; col C.〕 A high water mark in his career came in 1890 with a successful engagement at the Trocadero Palace in London. In 1896 Fox was a member of Frank Dumont’s, ''The Rainmakers'', a traveling variety show, and a year or so later joined fellow magicians Servais Le Roy and Frederick Powell in an act called ''The Great Triple Alliance'', dubbed by the press as “the three crowned princes of the mystic world.” 〔The Great Triple Alliance - ''The Daily Review'' (Decatur, Illinois); September 6, 1898; pg. 3〕 Later Fox would tour North America with his own company of magicians and vaudeville acts.〔Advertisement-''The Marion Daily Star'' (Marion, Ohio); 29 Aug., 1896: pg 5〕 In 1896 Fox made at least three silent films for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, ''Imro Fox, Conjuror'', ''Imro Fox Rabbit Trick'' and ''The Human Hen.'' 〔(Imro Fox - Internet Movie Database ) accessed June 11, 2012〕 In December, 1908, ''Billboard Magazine'' wrote of Fox's first tour (in recent memory) of the American West, ''Imro Fox, comic conjurer and "deceptionist," is in a class by himself. He turns the problems of legerdemain into a happy pastime and entertaining half-hour. His personality is perhaps the most striking part of bis performance, although his natural humor and the inimitable way in which he says, "marvelous," is irresistibly funny. Mr. Fox is a favorite in Europe, although he is an American, and this is his first tour in the West.''〔(Vaudeville Notes-''Billboard Magazine''; December 26, 1908; pg. 41 ) accessed June 10, 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Imro Fox」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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