Pigmeat Markham

Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham (April 18, 1904 – December 13, 1981) was an American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor.

Early life and career

Markham was born in Durham, North Carolina. Later, he claimed he originated the Truckin' dance which became nationally popular at the start of the 1930s. In the 1940s he started making film appearances. In 1946 he recorded "Open the Door, Richard".

Markham was a familiar act at New York's famed Apollo Theater where he wore blackface makeup and huge painted white lips, despite complaints the vaudeville tradition was degrading. The book Showtime at the Apollo suggests, "He probably played the Apollo more often than any other performer." Starting in the 1950s Pigmeat Markham began appearing on television, making multiple appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.

His boisterous, indecorous "heyeah (here) come da judge" schtick, which made a mockery of formal courtroom etiquette, became his signature routine. Markham would sit at an elevated judge's bench (often in a black graduation cap-and-gown, to look more impressive), and deal with a series of comic miscreants. He would often deliver his "judgments", as well as express frustration with the accused, by leaning over the bench and smacking the accused with an inflated bladder-balloon. He had hit comedy recordings in the 1960s on Chess Records, and saw his routine's entry line become a catchphrase on the Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In NBC television show, as did his phrase "Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls."

Markham's most famous routine was "discovered" by the general public only after Sammy Davis Jr. had performed it as a guest on the March 25, 1968 episode of Laugh-In. Due to the years of racial segregation in the American entertainment industry, he was not widely known by white audiences, and had almost exclusively performed on the "Chitlin' Circuit" of vaudeville, theatres, and night clubs Archie Campbell later adapted Markham's routine, performing as "Justus O'Peace," on the country version of Laugh-In, Hee Haw, which borrowed heavily from the minstrel show tradition.

Thanks to his Heyeah come da judge routine, which originally was accompanied by music with a funky beat, Pigmeat Markham is regarded as a forerunner of rap. His song "Here Comes the Judge" peaked at number 19 on the Billboard and other charts in 1968. He published an autobiography, Here Come the Judge!, in the wake of his Laugh-In success.

The song "Here Comes the Judge" was prominently sampled by Big Audio Dynamite II in the song "Rush".

Death

Markham died of a stroke at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx on December 13, 1981 at the age of 77. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

Discography References:

"Blues Before Sunrise"

"See See Rider"

"My Wife? No, I Ain't Seen Her"

"Here Comes the Judge"

"Sock It to 'Em Judge"

"Pig's Popcorn"