Martin Fox (businessman)
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Martin Fox was a gambling operator and owner of the Tropicana Club in Havana, Cuba.
Fox was born in Cuba, where he got a job working at a sugar mill. However, after an industrial accident injured his left hand he was let go. Subsequently, he got involved in the bolita, rising through the ranks over time.[1] He established a friendship with Santiago Rey, the Minister for the Interior and Defense, who granted him a concession to bring slot machines to Cuba.[2]
In 1950 Fox purchased the Tropicana Club, a major venue in Havana frequented by celebrities and organized crime. Fox began construction on an indoor cabaret for the club, hiring the architect Max Borges Jr., who produced the Acros de Cristal (Crystal Arches).[3] Previously Fox had commissioned Borges to design his Havana home, one of the first Cuban buildings to combine International Style Modernism with Colonial architecture.[4] He also partnered with Cubana Airlines, an airplane the "Tropicana Special" made direct flights every Thursday from Miami to Havana.[5] The pianist Liberace played at the Tropicana on one occasion at Fox's invitation.[6] In 1957 he welcomed the gangster Albert Anastasia, who received the best table at the Tropicana.[7] Fox was also a member of the Cuban Executives Club.[8]
After Fidel Castro took power following the Cuban Revolution, Fox's fortunes changed. In coordination with casino manager Lewis McWillie, he moved significant sums of money out Cuba, depositing them in US banks between 1959 and 1960.[9] Eventually Castro confiscated the Tropicana. Fox was a personal friend of Santo Trafficante Jr., boss of the Trafficante crime family in Florida, who owned the casino at the Tropicana and frequently dined there. Fox visited him in Tampa, Florida.[10][11] When Trafficante was arrested by Castro he made attempts to get him out of prison. Fox also knew Frankie Carbo of New York, who he and his wife dined with in New York.[12]