Cora Folsom

Cora May Folsom Salisbury Aulmann, born February 12, 1868, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was an American musician, composer, and stage performer. The only child of James Harrison Folsom and Eliza Ann Knofsker Folsom, she grew up in a household shaped by her father's work running a sawmill with his brother. She studied piano from a young age, a discipline that would anchor her professional life. Folsom died on April 16, 1916, at the age of 48, and was buried near her mother in Oshkosh.

Folsom's career encompassed Broadway, vaudeville, and original composition. In 1902 she appeared on Broadway in the musical A Trip to Buffalo. After her first marriage to Charles P. Salisbury, a newspaper editor and theatrical manager, ended in divorce in 1903, she supported herself by working as an accompanist and stage pianist, having also spent time helping her mother run boarding houses and attempting work in sales. Around 1907 she developed a vaudeville act she described as a "pianologue," a word of her own coinage for a performance combining piano playing with comedic commentary, and began touring the American Midwest.

Folsom published original compositions under the name C. Folsom Salisbury. These works included Paula, a valse caprice for piano solo dedicated to Paula Edwardes, published in 1906; Poodles Parade, a march and two-step from 1907; My Light Guitar in 1908; Lemons and Limes, a ragtime piece, in 1909; Arbutus Blossoms in 1910; Ghost Dance in 1911; and Love's Embrace. She was also billed at times as C. Folsom Salisbury in her stage work.

While serving as house pianist at a theater in Waukegan, Illinois, Folsom met a young violinist named Benny Kubelsky in 1909. The two eventually formed a touring vaudeville partnership billed as Salisbury and Benny, presenting both classical and popular music alongside some of Folsom's original compositions. The act reached the Palace Theatre in New York City and marked the beginning of the show business career of Kubelsky, who later became known as comedian Jack Benny. Folsom stepped back from performing and touring in 1914 to care for her mother, who died in 1915. She subsequently married George L. Aulmann, a naval officer, before her own death the following year.