Irving Foy, 94; Last Member of His Family’s Vaudeville Act

Irving Foy, the youngest and last survivor of the famed “Seven Little Foys” vaudeville act, has died. He was 94.

Foy fell March 31 and broke his collarbone. He died April 20 at an assisted living center in Albuquerque.

Foy joined his parents, brothers and sisters in the act “Eddie Foy Sr. and the Seven Little Foys,” which crisscrossed the country from 1912 to 1928. His father had been a famous solo entertainer for years before bringing his family into the act.

The other six siblings were Bryan, Charley, Richard, Eddie Jr., Mary and Madeline. Madeline died in 1988, leaving her brother as the act’s only remaining survivor.

The Foys performed their singing, dancing and slapstick comedy from New York City’s Palace Theater to the Los Angeles Orpheum Theater. They shared billing with such luminaries as Milton Berle, Red Skelton, Jack Benny and Jimmy Durante.

The family’s story was retold in the 1955 film “The Seven Little Foys,” starring Bob Hope as Eddie Sr. and James Cagney as showman George M. Cohan.

Eddie Foy Sr. died in 1928, but Irving and several of his family members continued their entertainment careers, said Frank Foy, Irving’s son. The best known were Eddie Jr., who was in a number of films, sometimes playing his own father in biographies such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”; and Bryan, who was active as a producer and director.

Irving Foy moved to New Mexico in 1944 to recover from tuberculosis. He ran three movie theaters in Albuquerque until 1952, when the family moved to Taos. There, Foy managed a drive-in movie theater and later operated an ice cream parlor. He returned to Albuquerque in 1958, working as a maitre d’ at a supper club and as a bartender.

“He was very proud of the family and their early working career, but he downplayed it constantly after he moved to Albuquerque,” Frank Foy said.