The Sears catalogue carried them, with the instructions, “Place in garden, lawn, to beautify landscape.įeatherstone once said they appealed to people living in subdivisions with identical homes. Sold in pairs, they went on sale in 1958 for $2.76. He designed the pink flamingo based on photographs in National Geographic Magazine.

His inaugural efforts included a boy with a dog and a girl with a watering can. His job: designing three-dimensional animals. He then anticipated the career advice immortalized in the 1967 film, The Graduate: Plastics.įeatherstone went to work for plastics manufacturer Union Products Co. He grew up in Berlin and graduated from the Worcester Art Museum’s art school. 25, 1936, in Worcester, Mass., which is also, by the way, the home of the smiley face. “Part of the attraction of Don’s flamingos is that it’s hard to explain why they are fascinating or special,” Abrams told the BBC.įeatherstone was born Jan.

Marc Abrams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research magazine, tried to explain their appeal. But somehow the plastic pink flamingo caught people’s attention in ways that nothing else did. The plastic pink flamingo wasn’t the only widely used product to come out of Leominster’s plastic factories (think Tupperware). Little did he know that the eye-catching lawn ornament would sell 20 million copies, inspire several films and become a cultural icon both loathed and revered. Don Featherstone made landscape history in 1957 when he designed the plastic pink flamingo for a Leominster, Mass., plastics company.

Featherstone flamingo