Author: Phillips, Jonas B.
Biography:
PHILLIPS, Jonas B. (1805-69: WBIS)
He was born into a large and influential family. His grandfather Jonas Phillips, an immigrant to America in 1756 who began in business in New York, was one of the founders of the first Jewish congregation in Philadelphia. Jonas B., born in Philadelphia, was the son of Benjamin Phillips and his wife Abigail Seixas. Several members of the family were involved in theatre. As a young man, Jonas B. appears first to have tried prose fiction (Tales for Leisure Hours, Philadelphia 1827), and then to have gone to work in New York producing songs, adaptations, translations, and original dramas for the popular stage--notably a melodrama, The Evil Eye (1831), based on Shelley's Frankenstein. As late as 1837 he was said to have been responsible for most of the vaudevilles performed that year at one theatre, and to be the "support of a widowed mother during her declining years." Later he studied law and became assistant District Attorney for the county of New York. He never married. (Adler et al., "Phillips," The Jewish Encyclopedia [1906] online 23 June 2020; The Ladies' Companion 7 [1837]) HJ