Story Behind the Card - Baltimore and the Pink Plastic Lawn Flamingo
As a Baltimore-based stationery brand, celebrating the city’s quirks is kind of our thing. So this year we launched two new holiday cards starring everyone’s favorite tacky lawn ornament. But how exactly did the plastic pink lawn flamingo end up becoming such a Baltimore thing?
Like another of Baltimore’s unlikely claims to fame—Edgar Allan Poe—the pink plastic lawn flamingo actually hails from my home state of Massachusetts. Yup, Poe was born in Boston. But today we’re talking about the tropical inspiration behind our newest holiday cards: the gloriously kitschy lawn flamingo that’s become a true Baltimore icon.
Origin of the Pink Plastic Lawn Flamingo
The idea for the plastic lawn flamingo hatched in 1957. It was the invention of Donald Featherstone, a trained artist who sculpted the flamingo as a designer for Union products in Leominster, Massachusetts. (for those of us from the Bay State that's pronounced Lem-in-stah) Since there weren't any flamingos wading in lakes in Western Mass, he used photos from National Geographic as inspiration for his design. Back then the flamingos were produced in two halves, injection molded and then glued together.
Back in the post-war ’50s, babies were arriving, (okay boomers), suburbs were exploding, and new houses lined every street. Enter mass-produced plastic—suddenly, lawn ornaments were the go-to way for homeowners to add a dash of charm to their tidy new yards. And the plastic lawn flamingo took flight! They came in a box, nestled in a pair because you couldn't just have one, with detachable wire legs for instant tropical elegance. The original pair sold for $2.76, a true bargain.
How did the Lawn Flamingo become a Baltimore thing?
Fast forward to 1972. The plastic flamingos had gone out of fashion until Baltimore's own John Waters introduced a little movie called Pink Flamingos. The movie was really not about the lawn flamingo but featured Towson's own, drag queen Divine who decorated the entrance to her trailer with a flock of lawn flamingos and the connection to Baltimore was cinematic history.
Moore fun facts about Lawn Flamingos
While Featherstone designed over 650 lawn ornaments, people flocked to the flamingo like no other. In 1987 he even updated the mold to include his autograph on the rump to distinguish a Featherstone design. Fun Fact! In 1996 he was even awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Art for his design which has stood the test of time. Baltimore isn't the only city obsessed with the plastic lawn flamingo. Madison, Wisconsin also has a connection with the birds, which started with a UW-Madison prank that involved 1008 flamingos showing up one day covering a hill on campus. At the 30th anniversary of the prank, Madison named the Pink Plastic Lawn Flamingo their official city bird.
To send a little Baltimore kitsch this holiday season check out our Lawn flamingo cards below and of course we have Moore holiday greetings. Have a lawn flamingo story you would like to share? Let us know in the comments below. Seriously let us know someone is reading this stuff. I actually thought my mom was reading them but then I realized she thought our Instagram account was a blog, so apparently Mom is not reading.
