The late 1950s also witnessed the solidification of a commodity-driven suburban way of life, along with a host of new anxieties over class and status. The year 1957 was the year of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock and the ‘57 Chevy, of popular plastic toys like Wham-O’s hula hoop and the Frisbee – all icons of midcentury nostalgia. A product of its timeĪll three of the ornament’s basic elements – plastic material, pink color and the flamingo design – have a particular relevance to the late 1950s. While many are quick to label the plastic ornament as the epitome of kitsch, the flamingo has actually taken a rather tumultuous flight through an ever-changing landscape of taste and class. In 1957, a 21-year-old art school graduate named Don Featherstone created his second major design for the Massachusetts-based lawn and garden decoration manufacturer Union Products: a three-dimensional plastic pink flamingo propped up by two thin, metal legs that could be plunged into soft dirt.įeatherstone’s duck and flamingo ornaments sold in pairs for US$2.76, and were advertised as “Plastics for the Lawn.” They became simultaneously popular and derided in the late 1950s and remain a recognizable species of American material culture.įeatherstone died this past June, but over five decades after he submitted his design, the plastic pink flamingo continues to grace American lawns and homes.
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