Springbok Film Co.

Though Thelma Gutsche assumed that the short-lived Springbok Film Co. was “an overseas production firm”, it was probably founded by the Australian-born entrepreneur and showman Rufe Naylor, initially to produce locally-made “topical shorts” to be shown in his Transvaal-based Tivoli picture palaces, but also to provide a home for The Great Kimberley Train Robbery (1911), a fictional two-reeler made by R.C.E. Nissen that was touted as South Africa’s first home-grown film drama. The company seems to have fallen by the wayside when Naylor’s financially struggling Africa’s Amalgamated Theatre (A.A.T.) was taken over by I.W. Schlesinger’s African Theatres Trust.

Sources

Gutsche, Thelma - The history and social significance of motion pictures in South Africa 1895-1940

Return to

Return to South African Theatre Venues, Companies, Societies, etc

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page