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PIGMEAT MARKHAM

“HERE COMES THE JUDGE”

(Billy Jean Brown, Suzanne DePasse,

Frederick “SHORTY” LONG)

Chess 2049

No. 19   July 27, 1968

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The late Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham (b. 1904, Durham, NC) began performing in 1917 in Southern

carnivals and medicine shows.   He would dance and do a come­dy bit with George Wilshire, his

buddy and straight man of many years.   In the late ’20s, Markham and Wilshire came to New York

City, making appearances at the Apollo and Alhambra theaters.

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For years, Pigmeat would appear “under cork,” that is, he would perform with burnt cork applied

to his face (an oddity and variation of the white performers going black-face).   After World War II,

Markham and other vaudevillians ceased to employ this device.   Many of Pig’s plentiful fans were

surprised to see that he was just as dark without the cork as he had been using.

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He traveled the ‘race circuit’ with blues legend Bessie Smith and appeared on burlesque bills with

Mil­ton Berle, Eddie Cantor, and Red Buttons.   By the 1950s, Pigmeat was one of black America’s

most successful acts.

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Before his death in December 13, 1981, Pigmeat traveled the world, and made numerous TV appear- ­

ances on shows like “The Tonight Show,” “The Ed Sul­livan Show,” and “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.”

“Judge” was born of a reoccurring gag line, Mark­ham made on the latter TV program.