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163:, he engaged Fox to play the leading role, her first professional engagement. Thomas had the play expanded from one to a three-act play which gave Fox more prominence. From 1883 through 1885, the play toured the U.S. Midwest and Canada, and Fox was chaperoned by Nellie Page (a leading lady) and tutored by Thomas. Although her parents wanted her to attend boarding school, Fox was determined to become an actress. In the late 1880s, she appeared with Comley Barton and the Bennett and Moulton Opera Company, with which she played
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flippancy of a comedienne. She carries mirth in her face and has laughter hidden away in her eyes. She only has to move her foot and the house feels happy, she has only to wink her eye and it laughs, she has only to faint on a barrel and hundred of people are carried away by convulsions of laughter. She has a sort of personal magnetism of mirth about her. There is nothing really pretty in her face, yet she was bewitching as a blond, fascinating as a brunette, and because of her vivacity altogether lovely.
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her fleecy little mental efforts are always silvered with a laugh.... Miss Fox has no voice to brag upon, but her personality and piquancy, her earnestness and fund of natural
American humor make her an enjoyable singer of tuneful ditties and chic airs. She dances with fairy grace, and turns a joke into laughter with a snap of her fingers or flash of her eye. She is a great pet of boys and girls; they believe in Della blindly, and adore her for fooling them.
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In describing her first supporting role with DeWolf Hopper, Strang wrote: "Her success in this larger field was remarkable, and before the summer was over she was sharing the honors with Hopper and was just as strong a popular favorite as he. Her
Blanche was a delightful creation throughout, but best
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Disagreeable qualities in the customary performance of Miss Fox were not nearly so much in evidence as in some of her other characters. She was not so deliberately affected, she was not so brazen in her assurance. Even her vocal mannerisms were not so conspicuous. She almost played with discretion,
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Lewis
Clinton Strang described seeing Fox at various stages of her career. Writing after 1900, he summarized: "Her appealing, unsophisticated girlishness had gone, and in its place was self-possession and authority. She was charming in her daintiness, provoking in her coquetry, a tanalizing atom of
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She is a delightful little fairy with whom to be cast upon desert places. She has a continual childish sparkle of humor, never failing under trials submerging the usual woman, and her distresses are as comic as her escapades of fun. She doesn't think deeply, but she thinks often, and the result of
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reviewer wrote that "gets a peculiar sort of assistance from Miss Della Fox, who can neither act nor sing and who is not pretty, but who rejoices in a marvelous popularity." Yet a subsequent reviewer (also unnamed) wrote: songs and dances are encored until the little woman is forced from sheer
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was rash enough to publish her picture they sold out all their issue and by the constant demand of the public were forced to reprint the picture in the next issue. Many actresses have elements of success, but Della Fox has success, which is quite a different thing. She has the dash and natural
369:, Strang wrote: "This was, perhaps, the most artistic of all her roles. She was cute, impish, and jaunty in turn as the Crown Prince, and, in addition, was a picture never to be forgotten in her perfect fitting white flannel suit, worn in the second act."
138:, Missouri, the daughter of Andrew J. Fox, a leading St. Louis photographer who had a specialty of theatrical subjects, and Harriett Swett. She made her first appearance on stage at age 7 as the Midshipmate in a St. Louis production of
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which played with success from
December 26, 1898 through March 1899. The diminutive, plump Fox became known for her childlike persona and her bobbed hairstyle: the "Della Fox curl" was later imitated by girls across America.
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and often she was delightful. Her self-introduction to her father was one long to be remembered. No wonder that the audience insisted on seeing it again and again. All in all, Miss Fox appeared greatly to her advantage.
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Miss Della Fox is indescribable as she is audacious and as delicious as she is audacious. She is little, very little beside Mr. Hopper's awful bigness, and captivating, and in the fullest sense of the word, she is
230:, singing the song "Fair Columbia". Conried also provided Fox with the only acting lessons she received. When the newly formed DeWolf Opera Company was seeking a supporting cast, George W. Lederer of the New York
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feminity. Her archness was not bold nor unwomanly, and her vivacity was well within the bounds of refinement and good taste. Her singing voice, too, was musical, though not over strong."
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remembered is the "athletic duet" in which she and Hopper gave amusing pantomimic representations of games of billiards, baseball, and other familiar sports." Of her role in
118:(October 13, 1870 – June 15, 1913) was an American singing comedian, whose popularity peaked in the 1890s when the diminutive Fox appeared opposite the very tall
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Beginning in 1899, Fox suffered from ill health and the effects of alcohol and drug abuse, and on
October 28, 1899, she was reported to be dying of
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and subsequently played children's roles with Marie
Prescott's company. In 1880 she appeared as Adrienne in
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houses. In 1904, she was committed to an institution, the
Brunswick Home on
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547:"Della Fox in a Retreat; Actress a Patient in a Long Island Institution",
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The World and the Parish: Willa Cather's
Articles and Reviews, 1893–1902
398:. She is undoubtedly the most popular woman on stage just now. When the
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At the turn of the century, this description summed up Fox's talent:
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Pioneer
Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide
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In
February 1889, she appeared for the first time in New York, at
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277:, continuing to play in comic opera and operetta. Also in 1895,
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Stars of the American Musical Theater in Historic Photographs
639:(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970), p. 14.
218:. Her operetta roles brought her to the attention of
126:. She also toured successfully with her own company.
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in New York City in 1913, aged 42. She is buried in
508:, pp. 177–178, B. W. Dodge & Co, New York, 1908
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321:. She recovered and made two more appearances on
381:weariness to decline further responses." Author
285:to Fox, as did Franc L. Grannis with his song
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697:Appelbaum, Stanley and James Camner (eds).
664:(New York: H. S. Stone, 1900), pp. 566–567.
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701:361 Portraits from the 1860s to 1950
635:, April 7, 1894, p. 2; reprinted in
265:In 1894 she starred as Clairette in
798:19th-century American women singers
613:"De Wolf Hopper's Latest Success",
504:Browne, Walter and E. De Roy Koch.
466:Susan F. Clark, "Della May Fox" in
311:The Rogers Brothers in Central Park
778:American musical theatre actresses
468:American National Biography Online
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788:Burials at Bellefontaine Cemetery
538:online, accessed January 12, 2009
407:Philip Hale wrote of her role in
16:American comic actress and singer
763:19th-century American actresses
662:Some Players: Personal Sketches
222:, who had her play Yvonne, the
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793:19th-century American singers
152:and his Dickson Sketch Club.
148:and came to the attention of
329:(1904), and her final show,
293:and Jefferson De Angelis in
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234:suggested Fox. In May 1890,
470:, accessed 12 January 2008.
204:Fox, possibly costumed for
167:roles in operettas such as
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719:Internet Broadway Database
687:, 1906), pp. 192–207.
389:and wrote of its co-star:
109:Jacob David Levy (m. 1901)
734:Della Fox's photo gallery
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783:Actresses from St. Louis
773:American child actresses
768:American stage actresses
344:in St. Louis, Missouri.
738:New York Public Library
677:Strang, Lewis Clinton.
535:Encyclopædia Britannica
457:, June 17, 1913, p. 11.
182:The Pirates of Penzance
157:Frances Hodgson Burnett
155:When Thomas dramatized
632:Nebraska State Journal
506:Who's Who on the Stage
452:"Della Fox Dead Here,"
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342:Bellefontaine Cemetery
336:Fox died at a private
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91:Bellefontaine Cemetery
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260:The Lady or the Tiger
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685:L. C. Page & Co.
600:"Broadway Theatre",
582:Strang, pp. 200–201.
573:Strang, pp. 194–195.
488:Strang, pp. 199–200.
327:The West Point Cadet
281:dedicated her song,
680:Famous Prima Donnas
604:, May 2, 1893, p. 5
283:I Want Yer Ma Honey
615:The New York Times
602:The New York Times
549:The New York Times
455:The New York Times
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271:The Little Trooper
244:Castles in the Air
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385:was delighted by
348:Critical response
176:The Bohemian Girl
146:A Celebrated Case
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228:The King's Fool
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758:1913 deaths
753:1870 births
360:Fox in 1894
319:Long Island
307:peritonitis
170:Fra Diavolo
122:in several
93:, St. Louis
747:Categories
672:References
658:Amy Leslie
387:Panjandrum
374:Panjandrum
338:sanatorium
315:vaudeville
255:Panjandrum
238:opened in
210:, ca. 1893
207:Panjandrum
194:The Mikado
98:Occupation
71:1913-06-16
49:1870-10-13
715:Della Fox
683:(Boston:
262:in 1894.
224:soubrette
159:'s story
136:St. Louis
130:Biography
56:St. Louis
23:Della Fox
333:(1913).
331:Rosedale
323:Broadway
226:part in
124:musicals
717:at the
165:soprano
69: (
47: (
236:Hopper
106:Spouse
430:Notes
325:: in
396:chic
367:Wang
249:Wang
191:and
81:, US
64:Died
38:Born
372:Of
269:'s
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