Cora May Folsom Salisbury Aulmann (February 12, 1868 — April 16, 1916), sometimes billed as C. Folsom Salisbury, was an American musician and composer of piano music, including works in the

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that had its peak from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its Syncopation, syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers ...

genre. She was also the first vaudeville partner of violinist Benjamin Kubelsky, later known as comedian

Jack Benny Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky; February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success as a violinist on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with ...

Early life

Cora May Folsom was born in

Oshkosh, Wisconsin Oshkosh () is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the western shore of Lake Winnebago and had a population of 66,816 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List o ...

, the only child of James Harrison Folsom and Eliza Ann Knofsker Folsom. Her father and his brother ran a sawmill. In widowhood, her mother ran a boarding house. Cora studied piano as a girl.Bill Edwards
"Cora May Folsom Salisbury Aulman"
''Ragpiano.com''.

Career

After her first marriage ended, Cora Folsom Salisbury helped her mother run boarding houses, tried her hand at sales, and returned to music, earning a living as an accompanist and stage pianist. Around 1907 she started a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

act as a "pianologist" ("pianologue" was her own invented word for piano performance with interspersed comedic observations), and began touring the American midwest and publishing her original compositions. Works published under the name "C. Folsom Salisbury" included ''Paula'' (1906, a valse caprice for piano solo, dedicated to Paula Edwardes), ''Poodles Parade'' (1907, a march and two-step), ''My Light Guitar'' (1908), ''Lemons and Limes'' (1909, a ragtime piece), ''Arbutus Blossoms'' (1910), ''Ghost Dance'' (1911), and ''Love's Embrace''. She was the house pianist at a theatre in

Waukegan, Illinois Waukegan ( ) is a city in Lake County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located north of Chicago, Waukegan is a satellite city within the greater Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, its population was 89,321, makin ...

, when she was not touring. There, in 1909, she met a young violinist who was in the theatre's orchestra. Benny Kubelsky eventually partnered with Cora Folsom Salisbury on tour, as they both had a knack for mixing music and humor. As "Salisbury and Benny" they presented both classical and popular music, along with some of Salisbury's original compositions. The act succeeded enough to play the Palace Theatre in New York City, and launched the show business career of Jack Benny.

Personal life

Cora Folsom married Charles P. Salisbury, a newspaper editor and theatrical manager, in 1888. They divorced in 1903. Cora left performing and touring to care for her mother in 1914. She married again, to a naval officer, George L. Aulmann."Mrs. Cora Salisbury Weds"
''Oshkosh Northwestern'' (October 14, 1914): 3. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

Cora's mother died in 1915, and Cora died the next year, aged 48 years. Her remains were buried near her mother's in Oshkosh.

References

External links

*
Sheet music for Salisbury's "Ghost Dance" (1911)
downloadable from Historic Sheet Music Collection, Greer Music Library, Connecticut College. {{DEFAULTSORT:Salisbury, Cora Folsom 1868 births 1916 deaths 20th-century American composers People from Oshkosh, Wisconsin 20th-century American women composers 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century American pianists Musicians from Wisconsin Ragtime composers