Benjamin Edward Woolf

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Benjamin Edward Woolf
The Universal Library of Music; 1913
Born(1836-02-16)February 16, 1836
London, England, UK
DiedFebruary 7, 1901(1901-02-07) (aged 64)
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Other namesB. E. Woolf
Ben Woolf
Occupation(s)Composer, playwright and journalist
SpouseJosie Orton

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[edit]

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 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 reviews. 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[edit]

  1. ^ Edward Woolf, New York City, 1850-1860 US Census Records, Ancestry.com
  2. ^ Benjamin Woolf, Boston, Massachusetts, 1900 US Census Records, Ancestry.com
  3. ^ American Jewish Historical Quarterly, Volume 12 By American Jewish Historical Society; 1904; pg. 173 accessed June 25, 2012
  4. ^ a b c Klauser, Karl – The Universal Library of Music; 1913; pg. 627 accessed June 24, 2012
  5. ^ Benjamin E. Woolf (book), Julius Eichberg (music) The Doctor of Alcantara: Comic Opera in Two Acts accessed June 24, 2012
  6. ^ The Mighty Dollar.- The Indiana Democrat; February 18, 1886; pg. 4
  7. ^ Stadman, Arthur – A library of American Literature; 1892; pg. 418 accessed June 24, 2012
  8. ^ The Nation; October 7, 1880; pg. 255 accessed June 24, 2012
  9. ^ Bordman, Gerald, Norton, Richard, American Musical Theatre, 2010; pg 1017 accessed June 24, 2012
  10. ^ Woolf, Benjamin E., Ware, Richard Darwin, An Original Comic Opera in Three Acts Entitled Westward, Ho! 1894 accessed June 24, 2012
  11. ^ Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620–1988 about Josephire A Orton, Ancestry.com
  12. ^ Dion Boucicault Arrah na Pogue 1862 accessed June 24, 2012
  13. ^ a play by Dion Boucicault – The Simmons Brand (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 6, Ed. 1, Saturday, October 24, 1931 accessed June 24, 2012
  14. ^ A play by Lester Wallack, Johnson, Rossiter, Brown, John Howard – The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans 1904] accessed June 24, 2012
  15. ^ Josie Oeton, Actress, New York Times; Jun 2, 1926; pg. 25
  16. ^ DEATH LIST OF A DAY. New York Times; February 8, 1901; pg. 9;4 accessed June 24, 2012
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