Posted on 11/21/2006 3:50:48 PM PST by Lorianne
ON Nov. 1, just two months shy of its 50th birthday, the plastic pink flamingo went extinct. Or more accurately, it stopped reproducing, when its manufacturer, Union Products, shut down the factory in Leominster, Mass.
That’s sad news, but hardly surprising. The flamingo’s glory days were behind it. Union Products cited the rising cost of plastic resins and of electricity, along with financing woes. Yet while the bird reigned as an icon in the late 20th century, it was bound to succumb to the very different tastes — or the absence thereof — in the 21st.
In 1957, the flamingo that would become lawn-art king was invented by a young Union Products designer with the fitting name of Don Featherstone. Sears sold the bird for $2.76 a pair: “Place in garden, lawn, to beautify landscape,” the 1957 catalog read. Working-class homeowners readily planted it on their modest lawns — a nod to the marble or bronze sculpture on vaster properties — and art critics promptly pegged it as a prime example of the despicable spread of kitsch. In the 1960s, the suburban lawn flamingo — cheap, mass-produced, artificial and unusually neon pink — was widely reviled as the dregs of bad taste.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have to get me a pair before they are gone.
PING
Wow, they are only one month older than me! Now I know what I want for Christmas - "but honey they look soooo much better in the front yard!"
Well, back to the lawn jockey then...
Someone tell Al Gore. I hear he personally tried to save the Texas Eagle (an Amtrak train for those who don't know the story).
>>The gay male subculture made it a mascot,<<
I thought that was Tinky-Winky.
I'll never look at those pink birds the same way.
They make an excellent pre-dawn housewarming surprise for friends who move to gated subdivisions.
This is a cultural travesty! I'm getting a couple before they're all gone.
They are still on E-Bay
http://cgi.ebay.com/Don-Featherstone-Pink-Plastic-Flamingos-One-Pair_W0QQitemZ130050222691QQihZ003QQcategoryZ10813QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I thought exactly the same thing. They could remind me of the glory days at Hialeah!
ML/NJ
Both of my sisters in law are antique dealers...I'm calling them right away - my wife loves those things!
I've gotta get two of those flamingos(you didn't really think I would say"I need to get a pair"?)AND one of those reflecting balls on a pedestal!
GOOD RIDDANCE!
Hee hee, I like how you think ...
You'll know when flamingos have bought a house in the neighborhood, concrete mexicans will appear on the lawn instead of flamingos!
"You'll know when flamingos have bought a house in the neighborhood, concrete mexicans will appear on the lawn instead of flamingos!"
Didn't take too long for someone to inject Mexicans into the discussion.
ping
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