African American Dancer Entertainer Clayton Peg Leg Bates Signed Photo 1930-40's

Description

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Estate sale find, vintage original signed photo of
African American dancer and entertainer,
Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates, inscribed to actress
Hattie Noel.
Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (1907-1998) was an African-American entertainer from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States.
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 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 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, which booked entertainers for African-American theaters in the US.
At 20, Bates was dancing on Broadway.  In the early 1940s, at the Paradise Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 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 22 times, and had two command performances before the King and Queen of England in 1936 and then again in 1938.
During a USO hospital tour, he partnered with vaudeville 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 tour of Britain in the mid 1950s.
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 of Jewish resorts, hotels, and bungalow colonies.
Hattie Noel was born on February 2, 1893 in Saint Martin Parish, Louisiana, USA as Celeste Noel. Lively African-American stage and screen character actress. She ran away from home at the age of twelve to join up with a traveling carnival show, where she earned per week singing and dancing.
For the next two decades, she performed in vaudeville, circuses and night clubs before working in Hollywood.
She was an actress, known for I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now (1940), Lady for a Night (1942) and King for a Day (1934). She was married to Antina Parker. She died on November 13, 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Measurement: approximately 11" X 14"
Shipping Weight: approximately 7 ounces.
PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTION AND PHOTOS FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS -  AS IS - The photo is in overall Poor used condition, multiple tears, pieces missing, signs of wear, age toning, creases, some curling, soiling, stains, please see images.
(FOL3-010)