PPF’s sighted in NH…
Flying in the Face of Convention!
by Kathy Greer

If individuality holds its own reward, then Don Featherstone must be wealthy many times over. In 1957, he sculptured the first three-dimensional pink plastic flamingo, thereby making affordable bad taste accessible to the
American public.

This quote from The Original Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass, his new book tells all: an interesting tale of a wonderful bird: named by his creator phoenicoptertis rubber plasticus; a new avian species, now known to all
as the PPF or "Pink Plastic Flamingo."

Right about now many of you are either laughing or getting ready to turn the page, but don’t!, for you’ll also miss a sort of rags to riches tale of the Plastic Capital of the World.

The more than one hundred pictures and text in this book are the result of Featherstone’s request that adoring owners of the pink birds send original photographs and demonstrate their affection for phoenicopteris on it’s
40th birthday in 1997. Back in 1997 we talked with Don and his wife Nancy while they visited at one of the Holt’s Sunday morning antiques shows in Hudson, NH. Dressed in similar clothes (Nancy makes all of their outfits, right
down to Don’s shirts, and the couple has over 300 matching outfits!) this couple is a common sight at Holt’s. This winter you’ll get to meet with and talk to them during a book signing at Holt’s, but more on that later.

Anyway, the response to Featherstone’s request for pictures of people with their birds was almost overwhelming (1800 pictures) and included such masterpieces as: "Biker Birds," "What a Pear," "The Wedding Party," and
"Flamingo Honeymoon," all pictured in this book.

By trade, Featherstone is a sculptor. In 1957, Union Products in Leominster, Mass., hired the Worcester Art Museum School graduate directly out of school. Leominster, formerly known as Comb City because of the volume
of plastic combs made there, is now home to the National Plastics Museum, right down the road from Union Products.

Of course, in the 40’s there had already been one flamingo "boom". Following World War II, America’s love with the automobile blossomed. It was a time of prosperity and building, a time of road- side stands and honeymoon hotels, and as Florida became a tourist mecca to many, it was a time of flamingo shower curtains and bathroom mirrors. There was even a flamingo lawn ornament, but it was flat. It took Don Featherstone’s experiments at Union Products to transform the American landscape and American kitsch.

Union Products was experimenting with 3-D plastic ornaments. There was a 3-D toadstool, a 3-D cat, even a fake fire hydrant. Then there was Charlie the duck, Featherstone’s first 3-D creation.

Featherstone, who truly gets into his work, went out and bought a white duck and lived with it for six months doing life studies before sculpting it in clay. Charlie the Duck was a huge hit, but Featherstone was now faced with a challenge from Union Products, create another bird, a flamingo. Featherstone knew he couldn’t live with one, so he spent a month researching the bird through pictures and then in a week of frenzied creative fervor, like a Phoenix from the ashes, rosy breasted and ebony beaked, rose the PPF. Union turned out the first one, four months later.

Union Products went on to make white "swan" lawn planters one of their big financial hits, but of course, the PPF developed an almost cult following, eventually becoming mainstream, landing on lawns around America by the
millions. Of course, if you ask Don Featherstone about those people who complain about this American phenomenon he’ll probably tell you they should get a life. "The flamingo has brought a lot of joy to a lot of
people," he says. "At least I made something that was fun."

He also made something that made a lot of money. In the 70’s, flamingo sales virtually flew. PPF societies were formed; college campuses were "flamingoed" with hundreds of pink avians; master of the bizarre, filmmaker John
Waters named a movie after them; and hundreds of thousands of Americans stuck them in their lawns.

In 1996, Featherstone and two other employees bought out Union Products. While he continues to create new product designs, Featherstone’s duties are sometimes more mundane these days — as president of the corporation. In 1998 he unveiled the Realmingo, twice as tall as the original, with one wooden leg. It is one of only a couple of regular deviations in the company’s four decades of producing PPF’s, joining the Snomingo (white), introduced in 1996. However, the company has been known to produce special runs, like black flamingos for divorce parties, even blue flamingos, for a neighborhood which took PPF’s too seriously and banned all pink plastic yard art. Union Products regularly sells upwards of half a million PPF’s a year; that’s a lot of kitsch!

While Featherstone is the first to call his creations "tacky", he is also the first to fight for anyone’s right to own and display them.

"Everyone is so serious," he told me recently. "Nancy and I are just trying to have some fun. Life is too short to go through it without laughter."

Nancy and he have been featured in People magazine and numerous other publications like USA Today, along with being featured on over 30 television shows like "48 Hours", "Inside Edition", "Chronicle" and of course,
"Maury Povich".

Four decades and 20 million flamingos later, Featherstone is pleased when you tell him his legacy will be the PPF. "It’s an American icon; our national backyard bird," he said. "That’s not bad. Before plastic, only rich people
could afford to have bad taste. We brought poor taste to poor people."

Perhaps the only thing that can get Featherstone’s "flamingo" is another flamingo, that is, one that his company didn’t make. "Fake" fakes, u’betcha. There are repro PPF’s out there, so watch for them. "It is annoying to see
these knockoffs," Featherstone said, "but only mine have my signature on their butts."

While Union Products’ PPF’s generally sell in the $10 to $20 range, some "antique and collectible" shops sell early originals for upwards of $150 in certain parts of the country, something that Featherstone never anticipated.

But when you look at the pictures in Featherstone‘s new book, you begin to understand why someone might pay $150 for a PPF. These folks truly love their birds! After all, "Every pink flamingo tells a story," said Featherstone.

Setting Trends One PPF at a time…

Still not a believer? Maybe even a skeptic…

Well, New Hampshire has a long history of non-believers. It also is home to the SPA, Society for the Preservation of Artificial Wildlife (not to be confused with Society for the Preservation of the Plastic Lawn Flamingo). Back in 1994 the NH Department of Transportation removed one of Northfield, NH’s hills next to Exit 19 (off I-93) and put water in its place to compensate for wetlands it destroyed while rebuilding the exit. Many folks in Northfield thought creating an acre of wetlands next to a highway exit was a waste of money and someone decided to add "artificial wildlife" to the "artificial wetlands" - PPF’s soon appeared and have been reappearing every spring in Northfield’s PPF "park". Because some of the avian flock have been stolen over the years some town residents formed the SPA and drafted the Northfield Artificial Wildlife Preserve Act of 1996, which outlaws the removal of artificial wildlife from the artificial wetlands without the written consent of the SPA, and an artificial trapping/capture permit. Northfield selectmen passed the ordinance several months later. Don’t laugh! Over 10,000 people from around the country have joined the SPA to date and the group has shipped PPF’s as far north as Alaska.

Would you like to meet the inventor of the PPF, that great culturally tolerated symbol of bad taste gone awry? Don and Nancy Featherstone will be at Holt’s Antiques & Collectibles Show on Sunday, January 16th for a book signing from 10 a.m. to Noon. (Snow date, Sunday, January 23rd). Get your own personally autographed copy of "Splendor on the Grass." It's great fun! Holt’s Antiques & Collectibles Show is held at the Lion’s Club Hall on
Adelaide Street, just off Rt. 111, near the Dairy Queen in Hudson, NH. For more information call Jane & Don Holt at 603-434-7398.

Unable to attend? Check out the Plastic Capitol’s website at:

http://www.unionproducts.com/factory.html

Is This NH’s Premiere Collector?

Most people entering Log Cabin Antiques & Collectibles in the Tower Hill Plaza at 182 Rockingham Road, Rt. 28 North in Londonderry, NH, would ever suspect they were entering a business owned by a flamingo fanatic. But
talk with shop owner Sue Carpenter about her passion (or watch her hunting for them at Brimfield) and you soon come to understand these collectors are very serious about their acquisitions.

"My flamingo collection began about fifteen years ago.....quite by accident," Sue told us recently. "I had made a comment to a friend that these pink birds looked quite tacky mixed in with the typical New England "yard art" and we used to laugh whenever we saw them. As a joke, he gave me a flamingo lamp that he found when going through his mother’s things when she passed away. That lamp....the "joke gift"...was the start of what is now my collection of over 500 flamingo items. In the beginning, when it was still a "joke" my friends would send me flamingo postcards and give me all kinds of flamingo items that they found at yard sales etc. to keep the "joke" going. Well, it didn’t take long for me to become a "flamingo fanatic" and start looking myself for things for my growing "collection"!

"In the beginning, I concentrated on figurines...Lefton, Brad Keeler,
Will George and Maddux of California did some wonderful flamingo pieces and I am happy to say that I bought those "way back then" when the prices were quite cheap !! (These signed pieces now are quite expensive.) I have
a flamingo planter/TV lamp made by Lane of California in 1956 that is truly unique and hard to find.

Over the years, I branched out to collect just about anything with flamingos on it. Prints, mirrors, clocks, coasters, snow globes, drink stirrers and straws are plentiful. Some of the more unique items I have are a cigar box and an ad for Flamingo Cigars, the cool vinyl "lunch bag", a Turner print in the original frame, and a fantastic set of "nodder" salt and pepper shakers. Even my bathroom is decorated in flamingo style with a toothbrush holder and soap dish among other things. My collection used to be housed on one bookcase. Now it spreads through every room of the house and out into the yard! OF COURSE, I have some "Featherstone Flamingos" in the back yard.....those are the staple of any good flamingo collection. A couple of years ago at Holts Antiques Show, I was introduced to the Featherstones and in talking with them was quite excited to learn where I could get some fabric with flamingos on it. (I’d been looking for years) I now have a vest and curtains from this fabric and have had numerous comments on them (from "how tacky" to "how cool!") In that I am running out of space to display the figurines, I have started concentrating on wall pockets showing flamingos. I only have four at this time as they are very hard to find! But, I’m always looking for older, unusual items! So.....in a "nutshell" that is the "saga" of this flamingo collector!!!

Sue added, "See you at Holt’s on January 16th, for the book signing, You’ll be able to spot me in the crowd as I’ll be the one wearing a pink flamingo vest and earrings!"

If you think you have a flamingo item Sue might be interested in, you can reach her at Log Cabin Antiques at 603-434-7068 or email: Logcabinan@aol.com

Check out this one too
http://www.ospsitecrafters.com/home.html