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Stars ’n Stripes Girdle

In 1965, the New York firm Treo introduced a new line of girdles called Pop Pants.  They came in four different designs: Crying Eyes, The Big Zip, Hamburger ‘n Soda Pop, and Stars ‘n Stripes.

Freeport, Long Island resident Mrs. W. Carl Crittenden spotted an ad for these garments in her local newspaper and immediately sent a letter to the manufacturer asking them to remove the Stars ‘n Stripes design from their offerings.  

As the national chairman of the Daughters of the Revolution’s American Flag of the United States Committee, Mrs. Crittenden considered this design to be a “shocking caricature” of the U.S. flag and asked the company to remove it from the market. Surprisingly, they didn’t dismiss her as a crazy woman and agreed to do so.

A spokesman for the manufacturer gave this statement: “We will burn the darn things or send them to some foreign country where our flag isn’t involved.”

The four different styles of Pop Pants.
The four different styles of Pop Pants. Image appeared on page 21 of the August 31, 1965 publication of the Herald Statesman.
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