Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (October 11, 1907 – December 6, 1998) was an African-American entertainer from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States.

Life and career

Early life

Peg Leg Bates was born Clayton Bates on October 10, 1907 in Fountain Inn, South Carolina, the son of Rufus and Emma W Stewart Bates. His mother was a sharecropper. By the age of five, Bates was dancing on the streets of Fountain Inn for pennies and nickels; he lost a leg at the age of 12 in a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

accident. His uncle, Wit, made his crude first "peg leg" after returning home from World War I and finding his nephew handicapped. Bates subsequently taught himself to

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perf ...

with a wooden peg leg. By the time he was 15, Bates was again adept enough at dancing to enter amateur talent shows, working his way up to employment through the

Theater Owners Booking Association Theatre Owners Booking Association, or T.O.B.A., was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s. The theaters mostly had white owners, though there were exceptions, including the recently restored Morton Theater in Athens, ...

, which booked entertainers for African-American theaters in the US.

Career

541211-Peg Leg Bates Backstage- Denver MD Marathon

At 20, Bates was dancing on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

. In the early 1940s, at the Paradise Club in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

, his "Jet Plane" finale, in which he leaped over the stage, landed on his wooden leg, and then executed a series of backward hops accompanied by trumpet blasts from the band, saw his leg puncture the wooden stage floor. It took half an hour to pull him out. After that, the stage floor was reinforced with metal sheeting. Bates performed on ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...

'' at least 22 times, and had two command performances before the King and Queen of the United Kingdom in 1936 and then again in 1938. During a USO hospital tour, he partnered with

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

tap dancer Dixie Roberts, who said "he danced better with one leg than anyone else could with two." He was part of the first

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and Singing, vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and se ...

tour of Britain in the mid 1950s.

Peg Leg Bates Country Club

He owned and operated the Peg Leg Bates Country Club in Kerhonkson, New York, from 1951 to 1987, along with his wife Alice E. Bates. This made Bates the first black resort owner in Ulster County in the Catskill Mountains, the famous

Borscht Belt The Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster counties in the U.S. state of New York, straddling both Upstate New York and the nort ...

of Jewish resorts, hotels, and bungalow colonies. He began with four rooms at his country club resort; by 1985, there were 110 units for guests. He leased the resort in 1989, due to the death of his wife in 1987.

Later life

Though Bates retired from show business in 1989, he still performed for various groups, including senior citizens, children and disabled individuals. He was also active in the local

Ellenville Ellenville is a village within the town of Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York, United States. Its population was 4,135 at the 2010 census. Geography The village of Ellenville is about 90 miles northwest of New York City and 90 miles southwest ...

Lions Club The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, by Melvin Jones. It is now headquarter ...

, and during the last 10 years of his life he traveled regularly to schools, senior citizen centers, and nursing homes showing a video about his life and talking about his life experiences. He also helped found a local Senior Citizens Center in the Ellenville / Kerhonkson area. Bates was the subject of the 1992 documentary ''The Dancing Man: Peg Leg Bates'', produced by Hudson West Productions, directed by Dave Davidson, and broadcast on PBS.

Death

He collapsed on his way to church a day after performing at an award ceremony in his honor at Hillcrest High School and to receive the Order of the Palmetto, on December 6, 1998, at the age of 91.

Family

Wife: Alice E. Bates had a daughter, Melodye Bates-Holden.

Legacy

The citizens of Fountain Inn erected a life-size statue that can be viewed in front of the city hall and Robert Quillen's library. There are signs at the entrance of the city saying "Peg Leg Bates' home town." U.S. Route 209 in

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

has been named the "Clayton Peg Leg Bates Memorial Highway". He was the subject of the children's book ''Knockin' On Wood: Starring Peg Leg Bates'', written and illustrated by

Lynne Barasch Lynne Barasch is an American children's book illustrator and author. Work Lynne Barasch was born in New York City and grew up in Woodmere, New York. She studied at Rhode Island School of Design for one year. Barasch holds a BFA from Parsons S ...

, and published in 2012.Lynne Barasch's promotional webpage for ''Knockin' On Wood: Starring Peg Leg Bates''
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Honors

In 1991, Bates was awarded the

Flo-Bert Award The Flo-Bert Award honors "outstanding figures in the field of tap dance".Egan, BillFlo-Bert Awards florencemills.com History Named for eminent African-American performers Florence Mills and Bert Williams, the awards began in 1991. Flo-Bert, Ltd, ...

for being an outstanding figure in the field of tap dancing. In December 1998, Bates performed at an award ceremony at Hillcrest High School in his honor for receiving the Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian awarded by the state in his hometown of Fountain Inn, South Carolina. Bates was inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2005.

References

External links

*
Statue of Peg Leg Bates, Fountain Inn, SC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Peg Leg 1907 births 1998 deaths American tap dancers People from Fountain Inn, South Carolina People from Ulster County, New York American amputees People from Ellenville, New York 20th-century American dancers African-American dancers