Today we learn that Don Featherstone , creator of the formative pink flamingo , exit yesterday at the old age of 79 . From the plastic bird ’s birth to its modern rod atop the Pyramids of Egypt of campy Americana , here ’s how the hot pink fag of kitsch win over our affectionateness ( and lawns ) .
The Birth of a National Icon
Perhaps not shockingly , the pink flamingo lawn ornamentation was invented in the same tenner that polyester pants , pinkish washing machines , vinyl wallpaper , and Naugahyde lounge chairs were nerveless . Featherstone , a carver , was hired by Leominster , Mass.-based Union Products to make three - dimensional lawn ornaments . He produce the first pinkish flamingo lawn ornament , his second assignment , in 1957 .
accord to Smithsonian , he used aNational Geographicphotospread as a reference , and it " took about two workweek to model both half of the hoot , make for into the third dimension by then - radical injectant - stamp applied science . "
When they first hit storage , the blushing birds cost $ 2.76 a duo and were an straightaway strike in workings - course branch from the Redwood Forest to the Gulfstream waters .
A (Brief) Fall from Grace
The 1960s were a decade of backlash against conformity , false experience , and all thing Parental — including , manifestly , Mom and Dad ’s lawn décor . Hippies rallied against the plastics industry , cultural critic chastised all thing “ un - innate , ” and home and garden magazines pleaded with people to empty the gnomes , lawn jockeys , and flamingos of past in favour of classier , more natural yard décor . By 1970 , even Sears had stopped selling the pink flamingo , interchange the breach hole in their garden section with natural - look outpouring and rocks , writes Jennifer Price in her bookFlight Maps .
And She’s Back!
jubilantly for flamingo buff , the ‘ seventy were a carnival of shlock , and by the other part of the decade , the pinkish flamingo had become so un - cool , it was coolheaded again — this sentence as a self - witting symbol of rebellion , outrageousness and all thing Bad Taste . By the time John Waters ’ pic , Pink Flamingos , hit theaters in 1972 , the hoot had fully transition to the kingdom of ironic kitsch . Gay bar used them as mascots , transvestites sported them on earring and platform pumps , and in 1979 , educatee from the University of Wisconsin - Madison embed 1008 of the two - legged puppet in the grass in front of the James Dean ’s billet , earning them — and the bird — a place in Wisconsin ’s State Historical Society .
Pink is the New Art
By the 1980s , the pinkish flamingo had made the ultimate giant leap for mankind : it had , like Andy Warhol ’s Campbell ’s Soup cans , become art . In 1987 , the governor of Massachusetts proclaim the plastic snort “ an essential contribution to American folk art , ” Leontyne Price compose , and new clubs like the Flamingo Fanciers of America and the International Society for the Preservation of Pink Lawn Flamingos bound into existence in time to celebrate the birdie ’s thirtieth birthday . In 1998 , the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles began to sell charge card pinkish flamingo in its bookstore for $ 19 a set .
Long Live the Queen of Camp
In 2009 , in honour of the students ’ 1979 prank , the Madison , Wisconsin , metropolis council discover the credit card pink flamingo the prescribed shuttlecock of the city . And the esteemed lawn ornament endure on in Americana opprobrium , lend its name to bars , restaurants , casinos , and hotels from ocean to shine sea ; they ’re even included in the Smithsonian ’s aggregation . The birds currently go for about $ 16 a set online .
This narration earlier be given in 2011 .
