Pink Flamingos
http://tinyurl.com/qdo2pr9
Tropical elegance in a box': how the pink flamingo became an American icon
Edward Helmore in New York
Wednesday 24 June 2015 11.29 EDT
Sculptor Don Featherstone, who died on Monday aged 87, was the inventor of the plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament that became an icon of aspirational suburban values of the 1950s and, later, a symbol of postmodern, ironic detachment that more than hinted at a sense of cultural superiority.
For Featherstone, who designed the bird for Union Products’ Plastics for the Lawn line from pictures in a National Geographic magazine spread, the bird was a surprise hit – and the start of a cultural craze.
The company had tried marketing ducks, geese, swans, even ostriches, but nothing came close to the success of the flamingo, with its echoes of Florida exotica, that went on to sell 20m pairs.
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Featherstone’s contribution was recognised in his home state in 1987 when the governor of Massachusetts proclaimed the plastic bird “an essential contribution to American folk art”. That’s certainly the way Waters, who received dozens of them as gifts from fans, would like to see the pink flamingo garden ornament. “After they became a hipster thing and people would put a hundred of them on their lawn, I gave mine away.”
http://tinyurl.com/qdo2pr9
Tropical elegance in a box': how the pink flamingo became an American icon
Edward Helmore in New York
Wednesday 24 June 2015 11.29 EDT
Sculptor Don Featherstone, who died on Monday aged 87, was the inventor of the plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament that became an icon of aspirational suburban values of the 1950s and, later, a symbol of postmodern, ironic detachment that more than hinted at a sense of cultural superiority.
For Featherstone, who designed the bird for Union Products’ Plastics for the Lawn line from pictures in a National Geographic magazine spread, the bird was a surprise hit – and the start of a cultural craze.
The company had tried marketing ducks, geese, swans, even ostriches, but nothing came close to the success of the flamingo, with its echoes of Florida exotica, that went on to sell 20m pairs.
============
Featherstone’s contribution was recognised in his home state in 1987 when the governor of Massachusetts proclaimed the plastic bird “an essential contribution to American folk art”. That’s certainly the way Waters, who received dozens of them as gifts from fans, would like to see the pink flamingo garden ornament. “After they became a hipster thing and people would put a hundred of them on their lawn, I gave mine away.”
http://tinyurl.com/qdo2pr9
