View Full Version : Pink Flamingos!


Bubba'sGirl
09-29-2004, 12:19 PM
Today I was watching I've Got a Secret on the Oxygen channel.The person with the secret made the pink flamingos.He said they were first made in 1957.There were flat ordements for yards he thought up the idea for doing 3d.There was a book published called flamingos.People sent in pictures of their flamingos dressed up.He has 57 in his yard for the year he made them.the show was on at 7:30 eastern.I do'nt know if they will repeat it later.I thought this was a cool Mama thing. :lol:

Penny Lane
09-30-2004, 09:44 AM
My great -grandma had pink flamingos in her yard back in the 50's!:)


She also had a gazing ball which have made a come-back.:D

MamasFamilyFan2003
10-30-2004, 12:18 PM
THATS NOTHING!!! Theres a company called Flamingo Surprize based out of Chicagoland that dresses the purchasers front yard with 100 of Don Featherstones classic 1960 pink flamingos!!! They are put up at night and taken the next night w/out anyone knowing... except the sneaky customer. The pink lawn flamingo dates back all the way to 1952 when Don Featherstone, an art student in massachusets was asked to create a whimsical animal suitable for lawn ornamentation. His first design was that of a large white duck which was soon turned down as being too boring. After a trip to florida, Featherstone remembered seeing the beautiful flamingos in the zoo he had visited. He also remembered the souveniers people had been snatching up that pictured the exotic creatures in there tropical habitat. He soon had many ideas for creating the lawn flamingo. The first of which was a fluke... it was a flat almost cardboard like figure painted pink and with barely any resemblance to the feather laden creatures. After a week he pondered the idea for a 3D version and then presented the idea as a sort of joke. Everyone loved it though and the very first Don Featherstone original pink flamingos hit the sears robuck catalogue in the spring of 1956. They were sold as a pair, one with its head upright and the other in a halfway feeding position. They flew off the pages and into the frontyards of over 50 million americans for a low price of $3.00 a pair (now $10.00). There popularity started to cease in the late 60's and 70's but in the 80's with the punk pink craze and then the debut of Miami Vice which featured an intro with a stampede of the real birds, they again became popular. But Don's version had slowly became history as plastic mould companies jumped on the surge of sales. Soon 2 new dealers had come out. In 1985 Mama's Family's syndicated version brought a more vintage old lady appearance and a more funny one with that, and 2 of Lawnware's pink flamingos (along with the ever popular Daisy Pinwheel) were stabbed into the astroturf in front of Thelma Harpers porch. They were more upright and had a quick spray of black paint on there wings to symbolize one of the other zoo popular breeds called the Lesser Flamingo. Another company also came out with simalar ones (of the same color and size) called ATI Plastics... this name didnt interest many so in 1990 the name was changed to MoldInc which ment the mold's used to create the wonderful lawn lovers. Recently Lawnware has become extinct and a new company called Artline who before making flamingos excelled in making birdfeeders and dutch windmills has signed on in its place making one of the most realistic looking lawn creatures to date. You can still find Don Featherstone's ATI's and Artline's in stores at spring time along with the popular daisypinwheel.