On 15 October 1906 Le Diabelo appeared at the Empress Theatre of Varieties in Hartlepool. The content of his act is a bit of mystery. He’s billed as “Looping the Devil’s Wheel”, but as he is “riding on the outside of the wheel” we have to assume that it’s some kind of acrobatic apparatus, and the similarity of the name to our diabolo is coincidental.
The extra treat that comes with this performance is the programme as well as the poster:
While the outside is a strange mixture of adverts the inside gives us a really nice picture of what we could expect to see at the a provincial variety theatre in 1906 – click on the picture to see the detail:
