History of the Plastic Pink Flamingo

They've been around so long, adorning the front yards of American homes for over half a century, that we've grown to take them for granted. Because they're such an iconic part of American pop culture, we never stop to think - where did the plastic pink flamingo come from?

In the 1950s, there was a confluence of trends in America. Home ownership was peaking in the decade following World War II. Americans were moving to the suburbs in droves. The design style of the day featured consumer products - from tail-finned cars to kitchen appliances - in bright colors that reflected the optimism of the age such as orange, aqua and, especially, pink. Newly-affluent families suddenly had the time, and money, for vacations - and Florida was the destination of choice for millions of families up and down the East Coast.

In this environment, the plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament was born.

But the vibrant bird was hardly an instant success. The Union Plastics company in Leominster , MA introduced its first plastic pink flamingo in 1952. But the design was too flat, and sales were slow. A revised model, made from construction foam, proved to be less durable than desired. In 1956, the company asked one of its designers, Don Featherstone, to try again.

Featherstone studied photos from National Geographic magazine, and sculpted two flamingos from clay. One stood upright, the other bent as if to feed. From Featherstone's original mold the company began stamping out a new generation of plastic pink flamingos, and this time the kitschy birds took off. Millions were sold throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.

With the success of his best-know creation, Featherstone's career began to rise as well. He eventually became an executive with the company, watching sales trends soar and, eventually, crash back to earth. As the environmental movement gained steam in the 1970s, plastic pink flamingos fell out of favor. A new generation of homeowners shied away from the tastes of their parents' day and age.

But the 1980s brought two events that revived the plastic pink flamingo trend - the retro/nostalgia trends that celebrated the pop culture icons of the 1950s, and the hit television program "Miami Vice." Suddenly, it was once again cool to have your own plastic pink flamingo. They didn't always remain staked to the front lawn on metal rod legs. Millions of people took the birds on the road, photographing them in incongruous locations around the world - a counter-culture homage to the plastic pink flamingo's pop culture past.

After the turn of the 21^st century, rising oil prices took a toll on Union Plastics. Raw materials, electricity, and other production costs were eating at the profit margin of the iconic lawn ornaments. In 2007, the company sold its assets and the last of the Featherstone plastic pink flamingos was turned out of the Massachusetts factory.

Today a new company, based in Westmoreland, NY, is producing plastic pink flamingos from the original Featherstone mold. There are plenty of imitations on the market - primarily imported from overseas. But the original can still be identified easily. After all, they've got Don Featherstone's signature embossed on the bird's backside.