Project Gutenberg 2012-04-14 Public domain in the USA. 222 Thorpe, Fred Ahead of the Show; Or, The Adventures of Al Allston, Advance Agent E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by the Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com) "Ahead of the Show; Or, The Adventures of Al Allston, Advance Agent" by Fred Thorpe is a novel written in the late 19th century. The story revolves around Al Allston, a determined and resourceful young man who aspires to become an advance agent for a theatrical company. Set against the backdrop of the vibrant and often chaotic world of theatre during this period, the narrative explores themes of ambition, adventure, and the challenges faced by those in the performing arts. At the start of the narrative, we are introduced to the frustrated manager Gus Wattles, who is dealing with an absent advance agent while trying to salvage a nearly empty house for a performance in Boomville. Seizing an opportunity, Al approaches Wattles, advocating for himself as a potential advance agent. Despite his youth and lack of experience, Al proposes an audacious plan to draw an audience, which includes enlisting the help of the mayor's stage-struck wife. The opening portion sets the tone for Al's clever and persistent nature, as well as his determination to prove himself in the competitive world of theatre, all while laying the groundwork for the various challenges and adventures that are set to unfold. (This is an automatically generated summary.) file:///public/vhost/g/gutenberg/html/files/39454/39454-h/images/cover.jpg Reading ease score: 84.8 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Performing arts -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction PS Text Browsing: History - American Browsing: Literature Browsing: Performing Arts/Film Browsing: Fiction Category: Adventure Category: Novels 290130 2025-06-16T06:25:03.421613 text/html 296117 2012-04-14T17:25:00 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 179196 2012-04-14T17:27:25 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 192841 2025-06-16T06:25:09.756556 application/epub+zip 194853 2025-06-16T06:25:04.474627 application/epub+zip 180577 2025-06-16T06:25:03.934643 application/epub+zip 322743 2025-06-16T06:25:13.847584 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 275520 2025-06-16T06:25:09.177767 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 258268 2022-09-18T06:12:13.666553 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 252617 2025-06-16T06:25:02.286595 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 252147 2012-04-14T17:21:26 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 92187 2012-04-14T17:21:26 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 252154 2012-04-14T17:21:26 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 92176 2012-04-14T17:21:26 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20481 2025-06-16T06:25:14.003548 application/rdf+xml 30556 2025-06-16T06:25:04.039585 image/jpeg 4349 2025-06-16T06:25:03.988632 image/jpeg 176415 2025-06-16T06:25:03.458591 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog