Anya Taranda (January 1, 1915 – March 9, 1970)[citation needed] was an American model, showgirl, and actress and the wife of composer Harold Arlen.
Born in New York City to Catholic Russian parents, Anya Taranda became a Powers Agency model where she was signed as one of the original Breck Shampoo models.
In 1932, she met composer Harold Arlen in New York City during the Broadway theatre production of Earl Carroll's Vanities.
They eventually married on January 6, 1937, over the objection of their parents, because she was a Gentile and he was Jewish.
[citation needed] In 1951 she was institutionalized in a sanatorium for seven years after repeatedly threatening her husband and others with physical harm.