Wayland Flowers Madame Puppet, ca. 1972
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APPRAISER:
Dave, I feel like we're thrown back into the 1980s in an episode of "Madame's Place," the sitcom that, you know, Wayland Flowers created.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Um, you brought something really cool today. Why don't you tell me about it?
GUEST:
Well, when Wayland Flowers was first starting out, one of his first jobs was in Provincetown at the Pilgrim House, and, um, my friend Dana found out that, uh, it was Wayland Flowers' birthday. So he threw a surprise birthday party. So Wayland Flowers gave Dana one of his Madames. He, he, I don't know how many he had, but he had enough so that he never had to do a costume change. He did a puppet change, because each one had a different costume on. This was one of the original ones, because she doesn't have any hands. The later ones, she has hands, and he has sticks in each of his hands, so he could give her a lot more animation.
APPRAISER:
And how did you get it?
GUEST:
Well, Dana is a longtime friend of mine, and I kept eyeing her at his house and I said, "Boy, Dana, I sure would like to have that Madame." He said, "Well, I'll leave it to you in my will." So several years went by, and, and finally, I says, "Dana, do I have to wait for you to die so I can get Madame?" He said, "Oh, for cry..." Well... So he gave it to me. He's 88, and he still lives in Provincetown.
APPRAISER:
That's a great story, and we're looking at a piece of TV history.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Um, I think a lot of people may not realize how many ventriloquists and ventriloquists' dummies, so to speak...
GUEST:
Yup.
APPRAISER:
...were so famous in TV.
GUEST:
Except that Wayland Flowers wasn't a ventriloquist.
APPRAISER:
No.
GUEST:
He mouthed all the words, but the camera was always on her and the spotlight was on her, so you didn't see him.
APPRAISER:
Correct, and, and one of his famous things was having Madame say, "He's no ventriloquist, and I'm no dummy."
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
That was, he was known for saying that.
GUEST:
Well, she didn't say exactly that, but...
APPRAISER:
Well, I'll leave out the expletives.
GUEST:
Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
His shows...
GUEST:
She was quite a dirty-mouth girl.
APPRAISER:
Oh, yeah, the shows that he did onstage, not on TV...
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
...were quite spicy, quite racy.
GUEST:
They were, very spicy, yeah, yeah, they were.
APPRAISER:
X-rated. Yeah, but he was a pretty impressive guy. He was one of the early actors who came out as openly gay, which was a big breakthrough.
GUEST:
Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
And he did incorporate that into a lot of his humor...
GUEST:
Yup.
APPRAISER:
...as he went through his, his, his career.
GUEST:
Yeah, he did.
APPRAISER:
And he made the puppets himself.
GUEST:
Yup.
APPRAISER:
Madame, I'm saying, is probably gonna be circa 1970s. And I'm sure you're interested in finding out a value on Madame?
GUEST:
Yeah, I mean, she has a lot of value to me, but I don't know.
APPRAISER:
Correct, correct. So I have found records for two of them that have come to auction. Uh, one of his originals in the mid-'90s sold at a major auction house in New York City for around $4,500.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
But that's 20-some-odd years ago.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
or more, actually. Um, and another one sold fairly recently at an auction house on the West Coast for $12,500.
GUEST:
Holy Moses.
APPRAISER:
Uh, yeah, and, and, and quite honestly, the way the market's going now, with people just striving to buy back their childhood, and looking to buy iconic pieces of memorabilia...
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
...at auction, I would probably estimate it somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000.
GUEST:
(laughs): Holy Moses!
APPRAISER:
So it's a nice gift.
GUEST:
Madame!
APPRAISER:
You had a good eye.
GUEST:
You're quite the girl. (chuckles)
APPRAISER:
Yes, she is.
GUEST:
Just walking in here, so many people came up and, and, uh, introduced themself to Madame!
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
That's Madame, yeah, they recognize her.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
Isn't that something?
APPRAISER:
For sure.
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