Virgil Fox was born in Princeton, Illinois on May 3, 1912. He began playing organ as a youngster and made his concert debut as a 14 year-old. After studying in Chicgao, Fox carved out a long, successful career that spanned over 40 years. His varied career made him one of the truly original live spectacles in music and brought him to stages like the The Ed Sullivan Show and The Mike Douglas Show. Virgil Fox had established a reputation as a flamboyant guru of classical organ music.
He made his concerts not only audio experiences, but visual ones as well, featuring light shows and screen projections not unlike the psychedelic bands that crisscrossed the country. His shows made him a controversial figure among his peers in the classical music world. For these gigs, a Rogers Touring Organ was installed in the venue. Installation was quite the ordeal, as this instrument weighed in at two tons and featured 144 speakers. This gave it the ability to reproduce the sounds made on the massive pipe organs. It was also fitted with early digital equipment capable of replicating sounds made by various European pipe organs. Fox continued playing until he finally lost a long battle with prostate cancer in 1980.