HOW TO ENTER VAUDEVILLE by LaDelle, F. C. [i.e. Frederic La Delle, i.e. Frederick Clifford Kirkpatrick] - 1910

[S.l.: s.n., ca. 1910]. [2],20,[2] pp. Early 20th-century red cloth, manuscript paper label, original pink pictorial wrappers bound in. Author's notice pasted on front wrapper verso. Sticker label of Chanin's Studio of Magic on front pastedown. First publisher's advertising page inscribed, "No 42," in upper margin and, "Leo Keller," in lower margin in contemporary blue ink. Cloth worn, label chipped. Soft vertical fold in leaves, light abrasion to front wrapper in upper margin, small stains in final leaves. Good.

A guide to aspiring vaudeville performers, containing various bits of practical advice, lists of booking agents and dealers in theatrical goods, a lexicon of stage terms, a brief history of vaudeville, and an autobiographical sketch of the author. Frederick LaDelle (stage name of Frederick C. Kirkpatrick, 1866-1941) began his career performing a trapeze act at an event in Newark, New Jersey provided for the benefit of striking Hatters' Union members. His success at the performance launched him into a professional circus career, working primarily as an aerialist, until he fell 35 feet during a show with the Adam Forepaugh circus, leaving him relatively unharmed but shaken. He then moved to the "less hazardous" work of a magician and vaudeville manager. In 1913, LaDelle would publish a longer work with "A Complete Illustrated Course of Instruction" appended to the title in Jackson, Michigan through the "Frederic LaDelle Co." The end of his memoir in the present edition mentions having performed an act with his family as the "LaDelle Troupe" since 1907. Those two dates suggest this pamphlet was published around 1910.

Rare, with OCLC recording two copies, at Harvard and Brown.