Who's there in The Old Shoe, heading off for Charleston? (10)
I believe the answer is:
attendance
'who's there in the old' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'shoe heading off for charleston?' is the wordplay.
'shoe' becomes 'patten' (I've seen this before).
'heading off' means to remove the first letter.
'for charleston?' becomes 'dance' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'patten' with its first letter removed is 'atten'.
'atten'+'dance'='ATTENDANCE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for attendance that I've seen before include "People present" , "Number at gathering" , "Act of being present" , "Service" , "Presence; gate" .)