Whew! Our flamingoes are back!

[donna r]

Today's Houston Chronicle has an article in the Business Section today that a manufacturer has bought the copyright and molds of the original flamingo plans. They will be produced in New York. We are grateful even though they called them "a symbol of kitsch!" Imagine that.

[donna r]

Today's Houston Chronicle has an article in the Business Section today that a manufacturer has bought the copyright and molds of the original flamingo plans. They will be produced in New York. We are grateful even though they called them "a symbol of kitsch!" Imagine that.

[Madame Boomer]

Houston CHRONICLE Sunday, June 03, 2007
By Mark Jewell

"The original pink flamingo lawn ornament, the symbol of kitsch whose obituary was nearly written after its central Massachusetts manufacturer went out of business, is rising phoenix – like from the ashes and taken wing to upstate New York.

A manufacturer that bought the copyright and plastic molds for the original version plans to resume productions in Westmoreland, NY. HMC International will pick up where Union Products left off last year when it shuttered its Leominster, Mass. Plastics factory after 50 years of flaming making.

J. C. Waszkiewicz, head of family-owned HMC, said he expects retailers who buy his company's famingos will appreciate subtle design differences between knockoff versions and the original by Don Featherstone, who studied art before Union Products hired him in 1956 to expand its lawn ornament lineup.

......Waszkiewicz's company expects to resume Featherstone flamingo production by Labor Day. After Union Products ceased production last June, uncertainly surrounding the fate of the original prompted aficionados to snap up remaining stock in retail stores and secondhand Featherstone flamingos, in case those models became unavailable for good.

The ornaments hit the market in the late 1950's when the color pink was in vogue, and America's exploding population of suburbanites sought to add flair to their lawns.

But the birds also came to symbolize bad taste, and some residential developments even banned flamingo ornaments from lawns. The bird also became a target for pranksters, some of whom swiped the ornaments from front yards, took them on the road, and then sent photos to their owners showing the kidnapped birds in front of sites like the Grand Canyon........"�

<span class="ev_code_RED">LONG LIVE THE BELOVED BIRD! </span>
Sandy

[M2Kelley]

I don't think they bought the right molds.

They'll probably look like our Armadingo. I loaded a copy of one as our Avatar. I think it's a much better looking fellow.

[M2Kelley]

Here's a much better picture of the new flamingos.

http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=5100

[Madame Boomer]

Mike -

You're something else! that, my friend, is the weirdest looking thing I've ever seen in my life, but he is kinda cute.


Sandy