Stars of Vaudeville #317: Pigmeat Markham

Born this day in 1904, Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham’s most famous tagline and routine was “Here Come De Judge!”, popularized by Sammy Davis Jr. (and later, himself)  on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In in 1968. By that time he had been in show business 50 years, and was an African American entertainment institution as well as an occasional face in the mainstream (chiefly on Ed Sullivan). He started out in carnivals as a teenager in native Durham, North Carolina, then graduated to all-black minstrel shows, black vaudeville and white burlesque. (He was to wear blackface until the 1940s). he became a major fixture at the Apollo Theatre in his later years. He passed away in 1981.

To learn more about vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.