Wayland Parrott Flowers Jr. (November 26, 1939 – October 11, 1988) was an American actor, comedian and puppeteer.^[1] Flowers was best known for the comedy act he created with his puppet Madame. His performances as "Wayland Flowers and Madame" were a major national success on stage and on screen in the 1970s and 1980s.

Flowers is frequently cited as a ventriloquist despite the fact that he made no effort to conceal that he was voicing his characters (Madame's infamous opening line was, "You may have noticed Wayland is no ventriloquist and I'm no fuckin' dummy"^[2]). He instead preferred to be called an "illusionist,"^[1] because onlookers tended to focus their attention on his animated puppets, who seemed to do all the talking.

Wayland Parrott Flowers Jr. was born November 26, 1939, in Dawson, Georgia, the second of three children.^[3][4] His father soon shipped off to World War II and was killed, leaving him to be raised in a devoutly religious^[5] all-female household,^[6] save for his younger brother.^[7] There was a neighborhood girl with whom he liked to play with dolls; however, this was socially unacceptable for a boy in 1940s Georgia, so he would wrap up the dolls in paper bags, bring them to her house, and they would play with them in her garage.^[8]

As he reached adulthood, his mother pushed him to go to college,^[8] so he spent a year-and-a-half at Young Harris College, transferred to Rollins College,^[3] and then dropped out^[8] and enlisted in the Coast Guard.^[3] While stationed in Connecticut, he traveled to New York City, saw the Broadway productions of Gypsy and West Side Story, and fell in love with the city.^[3] He briefly returned to Atlanta, decided he was unhappy there,^[3] hitchhiked to New York City with $5 in his pocket,^[9] and began living the life of a struggling artist.

Flowers was shy and lived vicariously through Madame, who became his constant companion everywhere he went.^[34]

Although he has been posthumously cited as one of the first mainstream entertainers who was openly gay,^[35] this is untrue.^[36] He was well-known for performing on the gay circuit,^[37][38] but feared that publicly saying the words "I am gay" would "cost him a million dollars a year."^[9] When the Bay Area Reporter's Steve Warren asked about his sexuality in a 1982 interview, Flowers lashed out, asking, "What's the point anyway? Why does everyone have to have a label? I don't know what I am. I've tried everything, although I have my preferences."^[10]

In the years since his death, there have been claims of promiscuity,^[39] temperamental behavior,^[40] and a snowballing drug habit that led him to alienate friends and associates,^[32] but he lived his life outside of the spotlight, which was generally shining on his alter ego.

In September 1987, Flowers was diagnosed with HIV,^[31] but he did not publicly announce his diagnosis^[41] and continued to perform. He eventually developed Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer. On September 2, 1988, he collapsed onstage while performing at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe. After a brief hospitalization, he returned to his hometown of Dawson, Georgia, where he visited family.^[42] Upon returning to Los Angeles, he moved into the Hughes House hospice for palliative care.^[43] On October 11, 1988, Flowers died at Hughes House of complications from AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma at the age of 48.^[44][45] His remains were cremated at Grand View Memorial Park & Crematory in Glendale, California, and shipped back to his hometown of Dawson, Georgia, where they were interred at Cedar Hills Cemetery.^[46] He went on to be memorialized on The AIDS Quilt, although his name was misspelled as Waylon Flowers.^[47]

Following Flowers' death, the Star tabloid reported that Madame was buried with him,^[48] a lie that's frequently been repeated. Flowers bequeathed the puppets and his estate to his friend, manager, and ultimately, his caregiver, Marlena Shell.^[48]

Debbie Reynolds, a friend of Flowers' who did an impersonation of Madame in her nightclub act,^[49] urged Marlena Shell to let another puppeteer take over soon after Flowers' death, but Shell was too devastated to consider it.^[48] Over a decade later, Shell caught wind of impersonators and initially tried to stop them, but ultimately decided to combat them by bringing Madame out of retirement.^[48] "I think I waited too long," she remarked, "[but] if I didn't bring [Madame] back, eventually no one would know who she is."^[50] Shell had been so close to Wayland that she became overprotective of the character^[34] and blew through a succession of performers, claiming that they were each trying "to morph Madame into what was comfortable for them,"^[48] rather than staying true to Flowers' vision.

First was Thom Fountain, the puppeteer for Salem the Cat on Sabrina the Teenage Witch,^[51] who appeared with Madame on a 2003 revival of The Hollywood Squares^[52] and at the 25th anniversary of the Center for Puppetry Arts^[53] (where one of the Madame puppets has been permanently on display^[25]). Then she hired Jerry Halliday, who featured Madame in his show "Famous Women,"^[51] which made Shell unhappy because she perceived Madame as a solo headliner.

Next, she hired Joe Kovacs, who spent a year practicing with the puppet and even went to a vocal coach in an attempt to sound more like Flowers before concluding that years of drinking and drugging had lowered Madame's voice.^[51] Kovacs debuted the show "It's Madame with an E!" at The Empire Plush Room, a defunct cabaret in San Francisco's York Hotel, in November 2006.^[34] The next year, Kovacs appeared with Madame on VH1's I Love the '70s: Volume 2 and the live show "A Comeback from Abroad," which played in San Francisco and New York^[54][55] before he had a falling out with Shell,^[51] who hired entertainer Rick Skye to take over. At the same time, Shell sent a cease-and-desist letter to Mark Paquette, a performer who alleged that he was the boyfriend of Flowers and was given the rights to the character.^[56] Paquette countered with a $10 million trademark infringement suit against Shell^[48] that was later thrown out.

After appearances on several television shows, Skye's performances of "It's Madame with an E!" began November 15, 2008, at Resorts Atlantic City,^[48][57] and later toured the US in 2010.^[58] In 2013, Madame found herself on the arm of Gary Holland for a "White Carpet Commentary" in Palm Springs,^[59] and the live show "Madame's Back."^[60]

Shell made two attempts at crowdfunding, both of which were dismally unsuccessful. In 2012, she proposed the semimonthly "Madame Show" (AKA "Madame for President"), a YouTube series that was to have featured Madame on the streets of New York, in a studio and on tour. The Kickstarter campaign had a $56K goal but only attained a paltry $345 in pledges.^[61] The following year, an IndieGoGo campaign was set up to fund a national tour of "Madame's Back," which fared slightly better but still fell very short, with a $50K goal and $4,855 in pledges.^[33]

Several years later, Shell suffered a debilitating stroke^[51] and sold Madame's rights to Ken Horgan and his husband, Scott Bente, owners of The Pilgrim House in Provincetown,^[17] where Wayland and Madame found their first major taste of success. Shell also provided them boxes of Flowers' belongings that had been packed away for decades, which included lost performances on videotape, scripts, notes, puppets, and much more.^[17]

In 2021, Madame made her triumphant return to Provincetown on the arm of Matt W. Cody in "Madame: ALIVE!"^[62] Audience members complained that they preferred Kovacs' interpretation of the character.^[51] The following year, Horgan pleaded with Kovacs to team up with Madame again, so Kovacs, his life partner, and their cat moved to Provincetown.^[51] A new performance of Madame: ALIVE!^[63] was staged in July 2022, followed by Madame's Face-for-Radio Holiday Hootenanny in December.^[64]

Flowers spent the end of his life in L.A.'s first AIDS hospice, Hughes House, and left money in his will for another to be opened, called the Wayland Flowers House.^[65] The funds went directly to Hughes House, which was renamed^[66] and closed a few months later because its county contract was not renewed,^[67] although it was briefly reopened in the early '90s.^[68]

Wayland carried numerous Madame puppets on tour with him^[69] in case there was a problem or so he could do a quick costume change.^[70] In 2015, a puppet that had been in the care of Flowers' former stage manager sold at Julien's Auctions for $12,500.^[69] An earlier puppet, who didn't have arms, was featured on a 2022 episode of Antiques Roadshow, and estimated to be valued at $15-$20K.^[70]

A third puppet was auctioned off in 1990 by Butterfield's in San Francisco,^[71] and sold to an anonymous buyer for $11,000.^[72] In 1991, this same puppet went on permanent display at The Museum of Modern Art^[25] in a piece by artist Nayland Blake titled "Magic,"^[73] which featured Madame in an open steamer trunk surrounded by dead flowers.^[74]

Flowers inspired the first name of Waylon Smithers, a fictional character on the animated TV series The Simpsons, who later came out as gay.^[75]

American drag queen Raja Gemini performed as Madame on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 7) on the show's Snatch Game, a game inspired by the TV game show Match Game.^[76]