Butler "String Beans" May (August 18, 1894 – November 17, 1917) was an American vaudeville performer, singer, pianist and comedian.

By the age of fourteen he had become an accomplished performer, and he joined Will Benbow's "Chocolate Drops Company" on the vaudeville touring circuit.

[3] When interviewed by Alan Lomax in 1938, Morton recalled May as "the greatest comedian [he] ever knew", describing him as "a very, very swell fellow, over six feet tall, very slender with big liver lips, and light complexioned.

In 1911, they played in Chicago at the Monogram theater, one of the top black vaudeville venues in the city, and, according to writers Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, "opened the floodgates for other Southern acts, and ensured a prominent place for the blues in American entertainment.

Before he submerges, he is executing the Snake Hips..., shouting the blues and, as he hits the deck still playing the piano, performing a horizontal grind which would make today's rock and roll dancers seem like staid citizens.

[4]Although their relationship was punctuated by occasional acrimonious separations during which May performed with other partners, Stringbeans and Sweetie toured together intermittently until the end of 1915.

It is believed that his death was the result of a botched initiation ceremony at a Freemasonry lodge, after a rope was put round his neck.