Most people in the theatre are familiar with the term ham meaning an actor who overacts. They may also be used to the phrase "ham it up" to mean to (usually purposely) exaggerate emotions and actions on the stage while acting. However, the origin of the word ham is not readily known. Does it come from the meat product or possibly Shakespeare's play
Hamlet?
Ham, referring to an actor, used to only be applied to actors that were unskilled or inferior that would overact. It seems that such actors were called hamfats. There are many theories as to why this was the case, but there is one prevailing theory. During the 19th century, before cream makeups were invented, powdered makeup had to be combined with oils or grease. Professional actors had higher quality oils that they used. Amateur actors who could not afford these oils used some type of grease, often ham fat. Thus, amateur actors became known as hamfatters and the word was shorted to ham.
The word may also come from an 1863 minstrel song known as "The Ham Fat" man. The lyrics to the song are "Ham fat, ham fat, zigga zolla zan, / Ham fat, ham fat, Tickle olla tan; /oh! Walk into de kitchen, as fast as you can,/ Hoochee Koochee Koochee, says the Hamfat Man." It is also thought that both reasons may be combined and thus the term was created.
In the November 6, 1879 edition of the
Nashville [Tennessee] Union and American in an article called "Spangles and Sawdust," the following conversation took place between a flying trapeze artist and the reporter:
”This is the first [circus] show I ever left in this way. I traveled with Forepaugh’s establishment four seasons, and never had any trouble. I’ve been with this show since the 12th of June last, having joined it at Clinton, Iowa. When DeHaven proposed this concert business, I told him I was no ham-fatter, and—“
“Ham-fatter?”
“Yes, ham-fatter. That’s the name we give a man in our profession who is a poor performer. I’ve been in the business since I was ten years old, and I’m a little over twenty-five now.”
By 1882, the term "ham" appeared alone and not as "ham-fatter" or "hamfatter." This was in
Illustrated Sports and Drama News in a letter that was printed when the writer referred to himself as "no ham, but a classical banjo player." By April 1884, the term hamfatter was also being used by performers in the circus and on April 8, 1884, there was an ad in the
San Antonio [Texas] Light for the Vaudeville Theatre which specifically referred to an actor as a hamfatter.
In the 1886 book
America Revisited, From the Bay of New York to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Lake Michigan to the Pacific in a chapter titled, "All Fun of the Fair," George Augustus Sala used the term "ham-fatter" to refer to any person who did not want to appear as if they were not handsome or pretty by writing, "Every American who does not wish to be thought 'small potatoes' or a 'ham-fatter' or a 'corner loafer,' is carefully 'barbed' and fixed up in a hair-dressing saloon every day."
In the July 29, 1888 edition of the
New York Herald, the following text appeared:
"HAMFATTER. —A recent name in some quarters of New York, for a second-rate dude or masher, and more especially applied to the habitués of the Rialto in that city."
[Example:] I’ll warrant that these ladies who complain have, if the truth were known, strolled up and down Broadway by the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Hoffman, and were they so fortunate as to receive an admiring glance from the well-dressed and more prosperous professional brother of the HAMFATTER, they were not offended, forsooth."
A less likely but plausible theory appears in a 1966 edition of a
New Yorker article which claims jazz musicians used ham fat as part of their equipment. It stated, "Most of the musicians playing in these clubs are old men…. They’re hamfat musicians. In the old days, the rough musicians kept pieces of ham fat in their pockets to grease the slides of their trombones."
Less like theories are:
- A shortening of the name of act, "The Hamtown Students," a vaudeville act that was a black-face quartet known for exaggerated movements and overblown nature of the act owned by the manager Tony Pastor. This was done by Pastor himself, who would refer to any actor overacting as a ham.
- Tony Pastor had a poster that advertised "sixty hams distributed on Monday evening" at his Opera House in New York. The offering of free hams had a bad reflection on actors until they were known as ham actors.
- It comes from all actors claiming to have played Hamlet or wishing to play the role of Hamlet to great applause.
- That it comes from the name Hamish McCullough who toured "pig-sticking" town of Illinois since his nickname was Ham and his troupe was called "Ham's actors."
You can read more about ham acting (especially in television) at
TV Trope's "Large Ham" article and more about theatrical actors and theatrical roles known for being hams at
TV Trope's "Large Ham - Theatre" article.
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