Clayton peg leg bates biography
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Peg Leg Bates
American entertainer ( )
For the basketball coach, see Clayton Bates (basketball).
Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (October 11, &#; December 6, ) was an African-American entertainer from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States.
Life and career
[edit]Early life
[edit]Peg Leg Bates was born Clayton Bates on October 10, , in Fountain Inn, South Carolina,[2] the son of Rufus and Emma W Stewart Bates.[3][4] His mother was a sharecropper.[2] bygd the age of five,[2] 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 accident.[5] His uncle, Wit, made his crude first "peg leg"[5] after returning home from World War I and finding his nephew disabled. Bates subsequently taught han själv to tap dance with a wooden peg leg.[1][5] By the time he was 15, Bates was again adept enough at dancing to enter amateur talent s
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The Peg Leg Bates Country Club
HVNY: History
The Peg Leg Bates Country Club broke barriers in the Catskills
Like many young kids, Clayton Bates began dancing when he was five years old. But when he was 12, he was working in a cotton seed gin mill when his leg got caught and mangled in a conveyor belt. His leg had to be amputated, and they did so on his kitchen table, according to records with the Library of Congress. When he was 15, his uncle carved him a wooden peg leg and he left home to continue dancing.
"It somehow grew in my mind that I wanted to be as good a dancer as any two-legged dancer," Bates recalled. "It hurt me that the boys pitied me. I was pretty popular before, and I still wanted to be popular. I told them not to feel sorry for me."
That tenacity led him to vaudeville stages in Paris, then Broadway, the Ed Sullivan Show, and eventually, right here in the Hudson Valley.
In Bates invested his earnings with his wife, Alice, and purchased a
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Clayton &#;Peg Leg&#; Bates: The One-Legged Dancing Legend
In this live episode of the Kaatscast podcast, recorded at the Emerson Resort & Spa on November 8, and hosted by Brett Barry engages in a detailed discussion with Elinor Levy, Folk Arts Program Manager at Arts Mid-Hudson, about the life and legacy of Clayton &#;Peg Leg&#; Bates ().
The show explores Bates&#; inspiring journey from losing a leg in a cotton gin accident at the age of 12 to becoming one of the most celebrated tap dancers, performing on Broadway and appearing on &#;The Ed Sullivan Show&#; at least 21 times.
He owned and operated an interracial resort in the Catskills, Peg Leg Bates Country Club, in Kerhonkson from to , along with his wife Alice E. Bates.
Bates was a beloved member of his community, both in Ulster County and his childhood home of Fountain Inn, South Carolina. He loved entertaining and often used his talents to raise funds for the less fortunate.
Elinor Levy shares insights from her res