Clayton Bates

At the age of eleven, Clayton got sick of his job in the cotton fields. He claimed that the job “wasn’t 9 to 5, it was can to cant”. He pleaded with his mother to let him go to work in the cottonseed mill, but she wouldn’t let him because she felt he was too young to be working in a dangerous factory. After enough reasoning his mother agreed to let him go to work in the cottonseed mill, where he worked on top of a cottonseed pile. His job was to push the cottonseed so that it flowed down into the conveyor, where it was ground into meal. On only his second day at the job, Clayton slipped and fell into the conveyor with the cottonseed and fell into the auger, which crushed his leg and 2 fi

Clayton refused to let this slow him down, and with a wooden peg leg his uncle made for him, he ran five miles every day, jumping over ditches and whatever obstacles he met. After close to a year and a half, Clayton was able to run and dance just like he used to, and he refused to let anyone pity him for his disability.

By 1936 Bates owned 13 different colored artificial legs, one to match every suit he owned. In 1938, “Peg Leg” headlined a performance at the infamous Cotton Club. He also performed with many orchestras at big clubs, and even performed with Duke Ellington at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York. Bates’ tap dancing style was so unique he was also invited to dance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” 22 times, where he would perform “challenge dances” with another tap dancer. “Peg Leg” would do novelty moves any dancer with two legs couldn’t do. He would do such moves as a five foot leap into the air with a turn. Or Bates’ infamous move, “Jet Plane”, in which he would run and leap into the air and then land on his peg leg and continue to hop on it while the orchestra accented each hop, with a loud blast of music. These moves weren’t always easy for “Peg Leg” though, there were times when he would be found sitting in his dressing room literally crying from the pain his moves caused him

Some topics in this essay:
South Carolina, Sullivan Show”, Moulin Rouge, Kerhonskon York, Joint Jumpin’, Lew Leslie, “peg leg”, York Bates’, Cotton Club, Clayton Bates, , peg leg, “peg leg” returned, extra money, cotton fields, country club, leap air, cottonseed mill, leg” returned, harlem york,