Puppeteer Wayland Flowers (11/26/1939-10/11/1988) made Paradise Palms his home base while performing in Las Vegas between 1982 and 1987, in a home on Ottawa Drive that was
once owned by the Sahara Hotel to house it's top entertainers, including Buddy Hackett.
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| Wayland Flowers' Las Vegas home, a modified Palmer & Krisel Model 11a on Ottawa Drive |
Flowers, most notably known for his creation of the Madame
puppet, was born in Dawson, Georgia and began his career performing in gay bars
and nightclubs after moving to New York City in 1963. Shortly after arriving to New York, Flowers found
work as an assistant puppeteer on a children’s television show, where he began
to hone his craft.
In 1971, he created the off-Broadway show Kumquats, the
world’s first erotic puppet show, which marked the first on-stage appearance of
his most famous creation, Madame. Madame, who was rumored to be based on
Washington, DC gay icon Margo MacGregor, was a bawdy, grande dame with a sharp
wit and trademark cackling laugh, the alter ego of Flowers.
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| Flowers during his Provincetown performances |
In 1972 Flowers debuted the cackling, crass, sharp-tounged Madame as a stand-alone lounge act
in Provincetown, MA, and quickly began attracting enormous crowds. ″This was an
underground act that took root and shot up out of nowhere,″ Flowers once said
in an interview. Around Provincetown, he could be seen unexpectedly
riding down Commercial St. in a convertible, Madame hanging out the side or
jumping over the windshield, screaming obscenities at passersby. Other times,
Flowers and Madame would hang their heads out of Provincetown balconies and carry
on with whomever was fortunate enough to walk by. Flowers’ sudden popularity led
to appearances in New York nightclubs. He was known as a comedian, illusionist
and puppeteer, rather than a ventriloquist. Flowers would appear on stage with
his puppets, “I’m right out there on stage beside Madame, but within two or
three minutes it seems that I disappear,” he said in an interview.
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| Flowers (just above Redd Foxx) on the movie poster for Norman...Is that You? |
Flowers’ act began to pick up steam throughout the 1970s,
and by the mid 70s Flowers appeared on the variety show Keep on Truckin’, The
Mike Williams Show and had numerous appearances on Andy, Andy William’s mid 70’s
variety show. In 1976, he appeared in the Redd Foxx/Pearl Bailey film, Norman… Is
That You?, a film about a Los Angeles couple coming to terms with their son’s
sexuality.
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By 1979 Flowers began appearing as a regular at the Casbar Theater
at the Sahara. In 1981, he debuted Madame Goes to Harlem at the Sahara, which
ran intermittently throughout the year. It was also in 1981 that Flowers and
Madame were cast in Solid Gold, appearing through 1984. In 1982, Flowers and
Madame acquired their own syndicated television show, Madame’s Place, which ran
for 150 episodes. The show, which featured racy dialog, was often broadcast after 11:00 PM due to the content, and featured a slew of well-known entertainers, including
Corey Feldman and guest appearances by fellow former Paradise Palms residents Phyliss
Diller, Debbie Reynolds and Rip Taylor.
It was during this time that Flowers acquired his Paradise Palms home on Ottawa Drive from The Sahara Hotel, taking title (of course) as Madame, Inc. Flowers continued his Las Vegas engagements with shows at the Sands and Desert Inn throughout the early 1980s, and used Paradise Palms as him home base during that time. As the showrooms on the strip began to revamp their show lineups, Flowers’ act fell by the wayside, and in February 1987, he sold his home.
Sometime
during his appearances on Solid Gold, Flowers was diagnosed with HIV. By 1988,
he was suffering from Kaposi's sarcoma, an AIDS-related cancer. Despite
his illness, Flowers continued to perform until his sudden collapse on stage at
Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. After a final trip back home to Dawson, Georgia, Flowers
passed away in hospice care in Los Angeles on October 11, 1988. At the time of
his death, his family refused to provide any details as to the cause, and
Flowers bequeathed his estate to his manager. His beloved sidekick Madame was
interred with him in Dawson, GA.
Flowers' work continues to live on posthumously, with Madame being revived by Rick Skye in 2009, and appearing on Family Guy Season 2. Flowers was also the namesake inspiration of beloved Simpsons character Waylon Smithers.
