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19
Sept
How the Fox theatrical family is still connected with Harrogate – through Elvis
Lucy Fox is in town to publicise A Vision of Elvis, the show featuring her friend and business partner Rob Kingsley, one of the world's best Presley impersonators.
But Lucy is not just here as a PR expert or theatrical agent 'doing the tour' – her roots in Harrogate run deep.
The Stray Ferret met her in the Royal Hall – a fitting venue, since she is vice-president of the Royal Hall Restoration Trust.
Lucy Fox and Russell Davidson, chair of the Royal Hall Restoration Trust.
Born in Sussex in 1960, Lucy is a member of the famous Fox family of actors. Her father is Edward Fox, perhaps best known for his leading role in the 1973 thriller The Day of the Jackal, and her late mother was actress Tracy Reed, whose most famous role was as Miss Scott in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr Strangelove.
Half-siblings Freddie and Emilia, uncle James and cousin Laurence are all in the business too.
As a result, Lucy and her siblings grew up going on set with their parents. She told us:
That’s their job, that’s what they do for a living, so it was normal for me and now looking back at it, it wasn’t normal at all but that’s just what life was.
In a family full of actors, you don’t know anything else. You think that’s what you’ve got to do, there’s no other option.
When Lucy’s dad asked her what she wanted to do when she was older, she replied that she wanted to be an actress, because she would be rich and famous. Without hesitation, her father said, “Well, you won’t” – and that was her decision made.
The Royal Hall in Harrogate.
The family’s connection with Harrogate and the Royal Hall goes back well over a century, to their ancestor Samson Fox, who played a major role in Harrogate's Victorian development.
Samson was a self-made man, having invented the corrugated boiler flue, an innovation that was adopted as standard by the Admiralty and major steamship lines.
Having made his money from that, he built high-quality railway trucks that he sold all over the world.
Samson Fox and family.
A hugely wealthy man, he was the Mayor of Harrogate for a record three successive years from 1889 to 1892, and became well known for his philanthropy.
He provided most of the funding for the Royal College of Music in London and, happily for Harrogate, also built the Royal Hall which opened as the Kursaal in 1903, the year he died.
Less than a century later, the building was experienced serious structural problems, and in 2001 it was closed down. It was only after a major £10.7 million restoration project that it reopened in 2008.
The funds to rescue the building were raised through the Royal Hall Restoration Trust, with Edward Fox as its president. He said at the time:
From time to time, we all need to be taken out of ourselves and uplifted in a place of beauty and inspiration. That is what restoring the Royal Hall is all about.
Rob Kingsley as Elvis
As vice-president of the trust, Lucy is clearly very aware of her family's roots in Harrogate, and is passionate about the legacy her great-great-grandfather left behind.
She said:
The Royal Hall is such an important part of my family history, so bringing Rob’s Elvis production there feels incredibly special.
Samson Fox believed passionately that people should have access to great entertainment, and I think he would have loved the spectacle, energy and music of this show.
A Vision of Elvis will be running at the Royal Hall on October 2 and ticket prices start at £31.
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