LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - MARCH 28, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio April 1 is just around the corner, and if there was ever was a year that we needed to see the flamingoes in LeRoy, it certainly is 2021. Last year, a few of them made a quick appearance, as usual, in the front lawn of LeRoy House. But I have a plan afoot. Who would better appreciate a flock of flamingoes on April 1, then the folks at LeRoy Village Green? So, plans are being made to gather the flock from their winter quarters and they will appear bright and early on Thursday morning outside the windows of the residents on Munson Street. We’re also sending over a few “decoys.” People often ask if the stories about the flamingoes are true, and I am hesitant to answer. Alvin Stripp, made a point to tell me that the flamingo stories were not a good idea, because people would believe them. In my mind, it was pretty obvious that the stories were written for April 1. Through the years, the line between fiction and fact has become clouded. Actually, there Is a lot of history in the flamingo stories. For several years, a fellow that I know over near Cooperstown, would gather friends at the local library and read the latest edition of the flamingo stories, but I never got over to join them and it’s been a few years since the group has met. Friends always send me flamingo stories and photos. Thankfully they have stopped sending me flamingoes, but I have to admit that I recently acquired a rather large flamingo clock that will probably go in my office...somewhere. P l a s t i c A f l a m i n g o e s (which I call decoys) were first manufactured in 1958 by Union Products of Leominster, Massachusetts. In fact, in a homage to the origin of the plastic flamingo in Massachusetts, hundreds of plastic flamingoes have been placed in the Commons in Boston. The plastic pink flamingo was designed in 1957 by Don Featherstone. He had been hired to sculpt forms for the Union Products Company of Leominister, Massachusetts which used injection molding for plastic products. (Wonder if they did any of the Jell-O molds? Will have to search that out.) One of Don’s first assignments for Union, was to sculpt a duck. He bought a live duck and used it as his model. (He later released it in a park nearby.) But when it came to the flamingo, he couldn’t get a live flamingo, so he looked at photographs in the National Geographic magazine. In the beginning, the birds were made in two parts and glued together. The first plastic flamingo was named Diego, although Don mentioned that he used the Latin designation, Phoenicopterus Ruber Plasticus, a variation of Phoenicopterus roseus. (Our flamingoes at LeRoy House are all descended from Placido Flamingo.) The early Featherstone flamingoes came in pairs. One was standing upright and the other was dipping down. Featherstone’s signature was on the early flamingoes, on the underside near the tail. Knock offs don’t have his signature. Don eventually became president of Union Products Company. Don Featherstone was awarded the Ig Nobel prize by the Journal of Irreproducible Results in 1997 for his work on the plastic flamingo. ( Jell-O too was awarded an Ig Nobel award.) In 2000, Don retired from Union Products and the company stopped putting his signature on the underparts of the birds. This decision resulted in a boycott of Unions Products organized by the Museum of Bad Art and the successor to the Journal of Irreproducible Results – the Annals of Improbably Research. In November 2006, Union Products stopped production of pink flamingoes. In 2007, HMC International LLC. Purchased the copyright and the molds from Union, and sub- contracted production to Cado Manufacturing and in 2010, Cado purchased the copyright and molds, and according to one article, continues tomanufacture the pin birds today, although there is a lot of confusion as to where they are manufactured. One source said they were made in Westmoreland, New York. (I can’t confirm this.) In nearby Buffalo, the Olmsted Parks Conservancy put on a Guiness-record winning display of 1500 pink plastic flamingoes on Bidwell Parkway. In 2012, the newspaper in Cheektowaga declared that the pink flamingo was as synonymous with the town as bowling. The politicians in Cheektowaga offered an incentive for the flamingo factory to move to their town. “It would become the town bird,” joked Cheetowaga native and then Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz. “And you could get a tax break if you put one on your lawn.” (In one of my early flamingo stories, I mentioned that an explanation of why the flamingoes didn’t come to LeRoy anymore, was because they all flew over to Cheektowaga. Who knew that would be prophetic.) So, as you read through this story, I must assure you that I can’t make this stuff up. Do a fact check, and you’ll see it’s not a April Fool’s story. So, if you have flamingoes, put them out on April 1. Check to see if they are signed by Don Featherstone - - knowing that folks are going to wonder what you are doing, looking at the underside of a plastic flamingo. And if you have a chance, drive by the Village Green and check out the flock. It sounds like they might be standing in snow again this year. You know that’s why LeRoy flamingoes often stand on one leg - - it’s cold standing in the snow. Flocked Waiting for the flock to arrive. Can you find the pair on the cow?