More “Obits of People You’ve Never Heard Of,” courtesy of Eve (via the Daily Telegraph):
Lady Littler, widow of the theatrical impresario Sir Emile Littler, who has died aged 102, was best known between the world wars as Cora Goffin, one of the leading musical stars and principal boys. After playing her first principal girl at Cardiff in 1922, she had a wide variety of theatrical and film parts throughout the 1920s. She took over the lead role in No, No, Nanette from Binnie Hale in 1926 and toured in Princess Charming before graduating to principal boys in Jack and the Beanstalk. In 1931, Cora Goffin scored an even greater success as Colin in Mother Goose. This further fuelled the publicity machinery which had been placing her picture on cigarette cards and boxes of chocolates since the mid-1920s; when she played Colin on the wireless, she received so much fan mail that, for the first time, the BBC had to hire a secretary to handle a singer’s post. With her legs insured for £20,000, Cora Goffin continued to tour the provinces and Ireland in her husband’s productions until she finally retired from the stage in 1940 after a final appearance in Aladdin.
Her first starring role was in Alice in Wonderland in 1913, which prompted Haydon Coffin, who played the Mad Hatter, to recall years later how she had looked and acted as though “she had stepped down from the pages of the book”. She appeared in the silent film Down Under Donovan (1922) when she threw herself under a horse. She later recalled falling under a car in another film, which was made on the streets of Paris; when the gendarmes arrived they were annoyed to find that they had appeared in a film without their permission being sought.
Here is a photo of her.