'''Joe Bennett''' (1889 – August 31, 1967) was an American vaudeville eccentric dancer.<ref>{{cite news |title=Joe Bennett Dies. Vaudeville Dancer |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C00E1DF163FE43BBC4A53DFBF66838C679EDE |newspaper=New York Times |date=September 2, 1967 |access-date=2015-02-03 }}</ref> Harland Dixon described him as "[having] legs of iron ... He only had a few routines but they were gifts from heaven – the greatest comedy dancer I ever saw."<ref>{{cite book |author=Marshall Winslow Stearns and Jean Stearns |title=Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance |year=1968 |page=53 |publisher=Hachette Books |isbn=978-0-306-80553-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGs1DDtMVL8C&pg=PA53 }}</ref> Bennett was also said to have been an "able singer".<ref name="SDT">{{cite web |year=1926 |title=The Stage |publisher=The South Bend Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/514462097/?match=1&terms=%22joe%20bennett%22%20%22dancer%22|access-date=13 March 2023}}</ref>
==Biography== He was born in 1889 in Charleston, South Carolina. He started his dancing career with the William S. West Minstrels. He debuted in vaudeville in 1917 at the Colonial Theatre in an act with Edward Richards. The two were said to have "walked away with the entire show". The two were headliners at the Palace Theatre within the next year. Bennett performed in the 1937 movie, ''Something to Sing About'', alongside James Cagney.<ref name="HDV">''Historical Dictionary of Vaudeville'', publisher: ''Rowman & Littlefield Publishers'', published: 2023, url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historical_Dictionary_of_Vaudeville/Y_XDEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Joe+Bennett+vaudeville+dancer&pg=PA60&printsec=frontcover</ref> He died on August 31, 1967, at Our Lady of Consolation in Amityville, New York, at age 78.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Joe}} Category:1889 births Category:1967 deaths Category:Eccentric dancers