Frank de Jongh
Frank de Jongh ()[] was a Cape Town based impresario.
Biography
Contribution tolm South African theatre
He leased the Cape Town Opera House almost continuously from 1896-1937, where he housed his Gaiety Companies, consisting of well-known overseas performers and artistes, including Zena Dare, Matheson Lang, Sybil Thorndike, Lewis Casson, Irene Vanbrugh and Kate Vaughan in a variety of plays, operas and ballets. 1896-1937
In 1899 he and Herbert Flemming brought the Arthur Rousbey Opera Company to South Africa to perform a season of operas in Cape Town's Opera House.
Sources
D.C. Boonzaier, 1980. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)
F.C.L. Bosman, 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.
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