Jonas B. Phillips. The Evil Eye: A Melo-drama, in Two Acts the Minor Drama.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

E.B. Clayton

New York

1831

A member of an illustrious American-Jewish family, especially prominent in New York and Philadelphia, and tracing its descent back to the first Jonas Phillips, who emigrated from Germany to England in 1751 and thence to America in 1756. The Evil Eye was the first drama Philadelphia-born Jonas B. Phillips (1805-69) created. Indeed it was co-authored with actor George Jones who in his later years gained notoriety as the eccentric Count Joannes. In later life Jonas B. Phillips turned to law and became assistant district attorney for the county of New York, holding that appointment under several successive administrations (see Daly, l.c. p. 145).