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Historical records matching Benjamin Edward Woolf
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About Benjamin Edward Woolf
Benjamin E. Woolf (February 16, 1836 – February 7, 1901), was a British-born American violinist, composer, playwright and journalist. His best known works were the comic operas The Mighty Dollar and Westward Ho.
biography
From Wikipedia
Benjamin Wolf was born on February 16, 1836 in London, England, the first of ten children raised by Edward and Sarah Woolf.[1] In the late 1830s Woolf’s family immigrated to America [2] where his father, a former orchestra conductor at London’s Pavilion Theatre, would lead orchestras in Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Louisiana, St. Louis, Missouri and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1841 Woolf’s family had settled in New York where his father would become a noted orchestra leader, artist, novelist and humorist.[3] Woolf was trained on the violin by his father and received his early practical experience performing in theater orchestras.[4]
Woolf later rose to be become first violinist under the direction of Julius Eichberg at the Boston Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Woolf and Eichberg would later collaborate on the comic opera Doctor of Alcantara, that was first produced at the Boston Museum in 1879.[5] At some point Woolf left Boston to conduct orchestras in Philadelphia and New Orleans, but returned in 1871 to accept the position of music editor for the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. Woolf would remain with the Gazette for twenty-three years, where he was eventually elevated to editor and chief. In 1894 he left the Gazette to take charge of the music desk at the Boston Herald, a position Woolf held for the remainder of his life.[4]
Woolf worked on some 62 plays over his career. The Mighty Dollar, was written for William J. Florence and debuted at the Park Theatre in New York City on September 6, 1875. The idea of the play, originally titled The Almighty Dollar, came from Malvina Florence’s humorous observations of wealthy Americans abroad. Though much maligned by the critics, by 1886 Florence and his wife had performed the play over 2,500 times [6] [7] In 1880 Woolf’s comedy, Lawn Tennis, debuted at the Park Theatre in Boston to positive revues. It was with this play that actress Marie Jansen first appeared on the professional stage. [8] In 1894 Woolf collaborated with Richard Darwin Ware in Westward Ho, a comic opera about an English aristocrat posing as a Wild West gunslinger and a town in Wyoming run by women. The play opened on December 31, 1894 at the Boston Museum where it was well received.[4] [9] [10]
Woolf married Josephine Orton (c. 1841–1926) in Boston on March 5, 1862.[11] Known on the stage as Josie Orton, she was for a number of years a leading actress at the Boston Museum starring in plays such as Arrah-na-Pogue,[12] The Colleen Brawn [13] and Rosadale.[14][15]
Woolf died in Boston on February 7, 1901, aged 64.[16]
Sources - see Wikipedia
notes
From page 559 of The Jewish Encyclopedia: Talmud - Zweifel
WOOLF, EDWARD : American musician and novelist; born in London, England, Sept., 1803; died in New York March 14, 1882. After acting as a musical conductor in his native city, he emigrated (1839) to New York, where his abilities were soon recognized, and where he was engaged as orchestral leader, musical instructor, and choirmaster. He contributed many novels to “The Jewish Messenger” during the early part of the existence of that periodical; among these may be mentioned “The Jewess of Toledo,” “The Vicomte d'Arblay,” and “Judith of Bohemia.” Woolf’s sons all attained more or less prominence: Solomon, as a professor of art and drawing for forty years in the College of the City of New York; Benjamin E. (born in London Feb., 1836; died in Boston, Mass., Feb. 6, 1901), as a dramatist and composer (“The Mighty Dollar” and “The Doctor of Alcantara”); Michael Angelo (born in London 1837; died in New York March 4, 1899), famous for his street caricatures; Philip (born in New York Feb. 7, 1848; died in Boston 1903), as a physician and novelist; and Albert Edward, as an inventor.
Bibliography: Isaac S. Isaacs, Edward Woolf, in Publ. Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. 1904. A. - A. S. I.
From Grande Musica: Musical Biographies - W, 2 Woolf, Benjamin Edward
Musical critic and composer; born in London, and descended from a line of operatic conductors. His father, Edward Woolf, came to New York when the boy was three years old and identified himself as a teacher, composer and orchestral leader. He received instruction from his father in the elements of music and on various instruments. Later he studied the organ under William R. Bristow of New York. He became very successful as a conductor of theatre orchestra in the cities of Boston, Philadelphia and New Orleans. At this time he was also composing overtures, choruses, incidental music to plays and music to numerous ballets. In 1870 he gave up his orchestral work and joined the staff of the Boston Globe, shortly after leaving for the Saturday Evening Gazette, a weekly paper of some social influence, and in his later years he was musical critic of the Boston Herald. He died in Boston. Woolf wielded much influence through his musical ability and at one time was bitterly opposed to Wagnerian music. His comic operas Pounce and Co. and Westward Ho are among the best of their class. He wrote the libretto of Eichberg's Doctor of Alcantara. His play, The Mighty Dollar, written for Mr. and Mrs. Florence, was popular for many years though undergoing changes from time to time. He composed the operatic comedietta, Lawn Tennis, or Djakh and Djill and others which were not given, also madrigals, overtures, string quartets and symphonies, though the last named have remained in manuscript and were never publicly performed.
- Updated from Ancestry Genealogy via sister Rosenah Woolf by SmartCopy: Dec 21 2015, 16:52:24 UTC
- Updated from Ancestry Genealogy via Josephine Orton by SmartCopy: Dec 21 2015, 23:46:20 UTC
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Benjamin Edward Woolf's Timeline
| 1836 |
February 16, 1836
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London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
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| 1844 |
1844
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New York, United States
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| 1901 |
February 7, 1901
Age 64
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Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States
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