Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a bad ‘nigger minstrel’.

1893

P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 9: You can guess what a troupe of hambones we were.

2. a second-rate actor.

1949		Collier’s 27 Aug. 26: A pampered hambone living in Hollywood [HDAS].
1990		National Lampoon Apr. 37: Could spell death for the Oscar-hustling hambone [HDAS].
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 129: Give us all your money, hambone!

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 575: He put tears into his voice that would have embarrassed the worst hambone Pagliacci.
2008		T. Wolff ‘Deep Kiss’ in Our Story Begins 376: What he did feel was embarrassment at this hambone attempt to create sorrow by imitating it.

4. a second-rate performance; thus hambony adj.

1936		in Mencken American Lang. (1948) Supplement II 690: [note] I suppose it [‘ham’] is an abbreviation of what used to be called hambone.
1983		R. Price Breaks 331: Half-wishing I was sitting back at the table goofing on the hambony bravura of the place.

5. (US) a show-off.

1952		in Wentworth & Flexner DAS (1975).
1960		Keaton & Samuels Slapstick 13: Because I was also a born hambone, I ignored any bumps...I may have got at first on hearing audiences gasp.
1970		Current Sl. V:3 8: Ham bone, n. A sarcastic person; a ‘wise guy’.
1983		R. Price Breaks 22: We were both histrionic hambones.
1989		48 Hours [CBS-TV] What a bunch of hambones!