Monday, September 03, 2007

To Bill and Dave


Scan000010094, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

PEG LEG BATES

Posted by Buckles at 9/03/2007 10:26:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thankfully, there is an absolutely incredible "youtube" video of Bstes from an Ed Sullivan show appearance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H62Xsxziiw&mode=related&search=
but be sure you have your sound turned on to get the full and amazing effect of his tap dancing! The following bio is patched together from a number of sources:

Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates was born in 1907 in Fountain Inn, SC, to sharecroppers. He danced for coins on local street corners and at age 12 took a farm job but within days his leg was mangled in a cotton gin accident. With no hospital nearby for black people, his leg was amputated on the table in his mother's kitchen.

He started to dance again using two broomsticks under his arm until an uncle made his peg leg. Later, Peg Leg and his mother moved to Greenville where he danced at carnivals and county fairs until he was discovered at Greenville Black Liberty Theatre by a New York producer in 1927. By this time, he could leap five feet in the air and perform almost every known tap dance step. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Peg Leg played vaudeville but in 1951, Mr. Bates and his wife, Alice, transformed their 60-acre turkey farm in the Catskill Mountains of New York into a resort for African-Americans. For many years of his professional life, he had been denied the opportunity to sleep in hotels at resorts where he performed.

Peg Leg Bates made at least 22 appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and retired in 1989 but kept performing for youth, handicapped and senior citizen groups. In 1998 he traveled to perform at a fund-raiser in his native Fountain Inn, South Carolina, and then collapsed on his way to church the next day, December 8 at age 91. He never considered himself handicapped: "God showed me what to do with one leg. God blesses us differently."

Dick Flint
Baltimore

03 September, 2007 12:37
Unknown said...

Your timing couldn't be better! I am posting a video of Peg Leg Bates performing on The Tap Dance Blog at http://www.TapDanceMan.com/blog next week and will also be linking to this photo and brief description of Mr. Bates history.

Thanks so much for posting this wonderful resource.

Terrence Taps

12 October, 2007 06:25
R Butler said...

I used to work for Mr. Bates in the 70's at the Country Club. I am trying to get the dvds of him performing on the Ed Sullivan show June 3, 1951 or 64 can anyone help? My email is plb133@yahoo.com

22 January, 2010 15:29

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