A pink
flamingo is a three-dimensional
plastic figure of the flamingo
bird, most often with
metal sticks for
legs, often seen in
people's
yards. They originated in
1952 as a flat yard
decoration by Union Products; four years later, the company hired Don Featherstone to make three-dimensional versions of their flat decorations. The type he made first was made of
foam plastic and proved too easily
chewable for dogs and other animals, so a hard plastic version debuted in
1957. He modeled their poses -- a pair with one bird's head raised and the other lowered as if feeding -- on photos in
National Geographic magazine. The birds became extremely popular yard ornaments, and Union Products manufactured three-quarters of those sold before 2006 when Union Products closed. (That
brand had Don Featherstone's signature under their tails after
1986, and has a yellowish beak with a black tip.) In 2007, HMC International LLC bought the rights and the molds to continue manufacturing Union Products' flamingo.
In the 1970s, an attempt was made to give the birds more realistic yellow legs, but these hardly sold at all; the metal stick legs were brought back and even retained in a white version of the ornaments known as the "snowmingo."
The birds have gone up and down in popularity at different times, but they have a sort of
kitschy cool now after more than 50 years, leading to all kinds of variations -- different not-found-in-nature colors and patterns (including a
blue flamingo intended specifically for neighborhoods that had prohibited having pink flamingos on the lawn),
holiday flamingo statues, lighted versions of the bird, and other flamingo products; even businesses such as "The Original Flamingo Surprise" and "Flamingos by the Yard," which specialize in surprising people by filling their yards with the statues. Don Featherstone wrote a
tongue-in-cheek 1999
coffee-table book about his creation called
Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass; he had become the president of Union Products by that time, but retired the next year. The band
Love and Rockets have a song called "Pink Flamingo" and
Rebecca Lynn Howard has one called "Pink Flamingo Kind of Love."
Pink Flamingoes is also the title of a really freaky 1972 John Waters movie about two families competing for the title of "the filthiest people alive," featuring sexual acts with chickens and Divine eating dog shit. Presumably the movie uses the title to imply the tackiness some people associate with the lawn birds.
Sources:
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/features/97/03/16/pink.html
http://earthdude1.tripod.com/pink_flamingo/index.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15515764/
http://www.forbes.com/business/2006/11/26/don-featherstone-flamingo-cx_mk_1124autofacescan03.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-06-01-flamingo_N.htm
http://sculptureceramics.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_pink_flamingo_as_american_icon
http://ezinearticles.com/?Extinct-Don-Featherstone-Pink-Flamingo-to-be-Resurrected&id=946050
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-hg20flamingooct20,0,4474139.story
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069089/