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104 SAG-AFTRA | Spring 2025 | sagaftra.org B orn in Missouri in January 1886, Cora Youngblood and her family moved to Anadarko, Oklahoma, in 1901. The following year, at age 15, she formed the Anadarko Ladies Cornet Band, which included her sister Eula and 16 others. She soon met a member of her father's band, Charles Corson, a graduate of the Carlisle Indian School, who she would marry in June 1904. She was now Cora Youngblood Corson. By the end of 1915, 29-year-old Corson was a 10+ year veteran of professional vaudeville, heading her own traveling troupe of all-female musicians. She was a loyal and outspoken member of the Associated Actresses of America, formed in 1910 as the female branch of vaudeville's White Rats Actors Union of America. A musical master of multiple brass instruments, from the petite cornet through the gargantuan tuba, she and her band thrived in the ever-competitive world of live entertainment. The Billboard magazine of Nov. 20, 1915, bore her photo on the cover, describing her as "one of the few women in the profession making and deserving repeated success as a musical directress" and announced she and her act would begin a new "season of 22 weeks." But it was not to be: Corson soon ran afoul of the all-powerful vaudeville trust that controlled bookings in all top theaters in the country by finally rejecting their extortionate booking fees. The trust blacklisted her from their theaters — a tremendous career blow. On Jan. 4, 1916, Corson told the newspapers she was returning to Oklahoma: "I shall play the large towns and the small ones. The trust evidently wants a fight. They shall have it." She joined the White Rats' organizing campaign, working toward an Oklahoma State Federation of Labor bill, attempting to achieve a union shop requirement for all vaudeville acts. The vaudeville trust had enough of the Rats and, by May 1916, an approved "company union" rival emerged to help break it: the National Vaudeville Artists. In early June, Corson was appointed a White Rats deputy organizer for Oklahoma to fight for a union shop and a fair contract. By mid-July, a theatrical strike broke out there when local IATSE stagehands, seeking a $3-a-week raise and other improvements, struck the Oklahoma City Theatrical Managers Association. Over the next five days, the IA was joined in sympathy strikes by the projectionists, musicians and the White Rats. The Metropolitan Theatre became the town's sole all-union house. Corson spent weeks on theater picket lines until leaving on tour with her band at non-trust theaters. By early 1917, the White Rats were faltering, and the United States declared war on Germany, entering World War I. The Rats called off all strikes. Corson and her band went overseas in December 1917 to entertain U.S. troops, remaining until late 1919. The vaudeville trust blacklist against her was never lifted, and she returned home to a far more modest American career. She passed away July 12, 1943. Patronize Fair Theaters! Cora Youngblood Corson in the 1916 Oklahoma City Strike ALL PHOTOS SAG-AFTRA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Cora Youngblood Corson, a popular vaudeville performer, is surrounded by her all-female band in 1910, far left. An outspoken member of the Associated Actresses of America union (card at left), above she holds a "Patronize FAIR Theatres" sign in front of the only union theater in Oklahoma City, the Metropolitan. Below, Corson on the cover of the The Player, Aug. 30, 1912.