Royal Magnet Company

The Royal Magnet Company was an vaudeville style company.

Also billed as the Royal Magnet Combination Troupe (e.g. when performing in in February, 1876) or simply the Magnet Company

The company was a joint venture between the Australian performer/manager George Loyal and the American Samuel Owens Abell, and also included the acrobat Ella Zuila, also an Australian, who became Loyal’s wife, English-born acrobat James Klaer (who also acted as stage manager) and other performers from Japan. The director of ballets was Monsignor Ibanez.

The Magnet Company toured the South African British colonies and Boer republics (including the Cape and the Orange Free State) for more than a year in 1875-76.

In some places, the company built its own performance halls e.g. in Pietermaritzburg (where some so-called "kaffir" shows were held expressly for the local Zulu population, with the permission of the then Maritzburg police superintendent,

Loyal and Zuila had previously performed extensively in Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia – then went on from South Africa to tour other parts of the world.

Sources

Correspondence from journalist and writer Lindsey Arkley (Melbourne)[1]

The Natal Witness, 22 February, 1876

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