Cora Tanner
{{Short description|American stage actress}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Cora Tanner
| image = Cora Tanner.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = c. 1861
| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, US(14 November 1887). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1887-11-14/ed-1/seq-3/ Miss Cora Tanner], St. Paul Daily Globe
| death_date = March 1945
| death_place = Grand Rapids, Michigan, US
| restingplace =
| othername = Cora S. Tanner, Cora Tanner Reed
| occupation = Actress
| yearsactive = c. 1870s-1902
| spouse = C. Fred Farlin (1879-83, divorced), William E. Sinn (1886-93, divorced), {{marriage|Charles S. Reed|1903}}
| children =
| website =
| relatives = Amy Louise Reed (sister-in-law)
| awards =
}}
Cora Tanner (c. 1861–1945) was an American stage actress who was most popular in the mid-1880s through her retirement from the stage in 1902.
Biography
Tanner was born in Cleveland, Ohio around 1861. She first appeared on stage at McVicker's Theater in Chicago; she reported she was 14 at the time.(May 1896). [https://archive.org/details/sim_munseys-magazine_1896-05_15_2/page/238/mode/2up An Artist in Melodrama], Munsey's Magazine, p. 238 She first appeared in London in 1880. She was the first American Princess Ida in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera of the same name in 1884.{{cite book|last=Gänz l|first=Kurt |year=1986 |title=The British Musical Theatre: Volume I, 1865–1914 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=247}} The 1901 book Players of the Present opined that "since the beginning of the season of 1885-86 she has been constantly before the public more or less prominently as a star," reporting her first success was the role of Annie Meadows in Robert Buchanan's Alone in London (playing the role from 1884 to 1888), and then in 1888 in the same author's play Fascination. In 1895-96 she appeared in the Broadway hit The Sporting Duchess. In 1900 she portrayed Aurora Borealis in Broadway musical A Million Dollars. She appears to have retired from the stage in 1902.
As typical of a stage star of her day, her personal life was occasionally news fodder, including her public divorce from Colonel William E. Sinn, a Brooklyn theatre manager. Sinn tried to claim that Tanner's first marriage to Fred Farlin had never been ended, making their marriage invalid, but lost that claim. Occasionally there were comments in the news about her weight, which tended to be a bit on the heavier side. In 1899, reports ran that she almost died from eating poisoned candy that was left at her hotel by a messenger. In 1903, Tanner married Charles S. Reed in New York, and public coverage of her essentially ceased.(7 August 1903). [https://www.nytimes.com/1903/08/07/archives/cora-tanner-married.html?searchResultPosition=1 Cora Tanner Married], The New York Times[https://books.google.com/books?id=5S4uAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA359 Players of the Present, Part III], p. 359 (1901)(15 April 1899). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059523/1899-04-15/ed-1/seq-1/ Poison in Roses - Desperate Attempt Made Upon The Life of Cora Tanner, The Actress], Saint Paul Globe(27 June 1893). [https://www.nytimes.com/1893/06/27/archives/cora-tanner-col-sinns-wife-a-brooklyn-court-decides-the-marriage-of.html Cora Tanner Col. Sinn's Wife], The New York Times(5 October 1890). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016373/1890-10-05/ed-1/seq-3/ Cora Tanner at Albaugh's], Sunday Herald, p. 3, col. 1(24 September 1896). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85029677/1896-09-24/ed-1/seq-3/ Miss Tanner a Fixture], Phillipsburg Herald(12 April 1902). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1902-04-12/ed-1/seq-6/ Footlights], New York World, p. 6(16 October 1886). [http://www.robertbuchanan.co.uk/html/aloneamerica.html Talks With Travelers], Omaha Daily Bee[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/mohi_marmaduke_ver02/data/sn89066695/00415661757/1893041301/0083.pdf Cora Tanner's Woes], Marble Hill Press(25 February 1893). [https://archive.org/details/sim_national-police-gazette_1893-02-25_61_808/page/6/mode/2up Cora Tanner's Husbands], National Police Gazette, p. 7
Tanner died in March 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at a reported age of 84.[https://townbroadcast.com/?p=34211 Bygone Days: A look at the past in NE Allegan County], under heading "75 Years Ago — March 30, 1945", "(Taken from the archives at the Then & Now Historical Library in downtown Dorr)", retrieved 5 January 2022(22 December 1945) [https://books.google.com/books?id=phgEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Cora+tanner+reed%22+obituary&pg=PT3 Coburn Spiels at Episcopal Actors' Guild Memorial], Billboard (mention of "Cora Tanner Reed" as among actors who died that year to be included in an annual commemorative service of the Episcopal Actor's Guild)
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
{{Commons category|Cora Tanner}}
- {{IBDB name|61833}}
- [http://www.robertbuchanan.co.uk/html/aloneamerica2.html Collection of news clipping about Cora Tanner, focused on Alone in America], at robertbuchanan.co.uk
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanner, Cora}}
Category:Actresses from Cleveland
Category:19th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century American actresses