Mrs. Ballard's Parrots

by Arne Svenson

Book Overview

In the late 1960s, Alba Ballard, a Long Island housewife, decided it would be a cute idea to dress up one of her many pet parrots in a little costume. She sewed a tiny outfit, attached snaps to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810958864
• ISBN13: 9780810958869
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.4" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

amazing book

Mrs. Ballard's Parrots The most amazing book and story. I love it

Fun book to give to your film fanatic friends and to kids

There are photos of parrots dressed as famous actors and actresses. Great little coffee table book. I gave one to my neice who loves dressup as I thought she would really appreciate the costumes on the parrots.

The real thing!

Mrs. Ballard is truly gifted! As an artist, I am impressed with her obsessive devotion to her wacky vision and to producing her costumes and sets. As the owner of two parrots, I am amazed at her ability to enlist their cooperation in her endeavour. We have owned Zeppo, a Mexican Red Head, for almost thirty years, and I can't even get him to wear a hat.

Birds scare me.

But when I saw them dressed as Sonny, Cher, General Patton, Liberace, and/or Little Red Riding Hood I screamed all right, of absolute laughter. Arne Svenson's wonderfully respectful book on Alba Ballard is a view into the world of a unique artist who used her pet birds as the protagonists in fantastic surreal tableaus based on 1970's movie and TV scenes, historical occurances, and fairytales. The photos walk a fine line between humor and pathos and offer somewhat satirical, and I am sure intended, comment on the culture of the time. I am certain that when Mrs. Ballard created these images she was looked upon as a "bit odd" and perhaps even laughed at. I mean, let's get real, she was a housewife in Long Island who designed and created tiny bird costumes, velcroed them onto her pet parrots and made them run around miniature stages while her husband snapped the camera. Not exactly your typical neighborhood gal. However, with this marvelous volume, I think that Mrs. B is having the last laugh. Buy this book, and you will laugh along with her.

Just knowing this book exists makes the world a better place

Alba Ballard was the kind of woman who dressed her various parrots in outfits (astronaut, Batman and Robin) and put them in little scenes (Easy Rider, cowboy saloon) and then photographed or filmed them. In otehr words, Alba Ballard was a GENIUS! Combining her love of birds, theatre and pop culture. she created tableaux that would likely fetch kajillions of dollars and make her the darling of the art world today, but back in the 50s and 60s primarily only garnered her scorn and weird looks. Alba's story is fascinating, funny, and frankly inspirational and touching. Just imagining Mrs. Ballard in her Long Island home, late at night, arranging her parrots in a faux bedroom with little overturned champagne glasses is enough to make one dazzled by the human spirit -- and the forebearance of her parrots! (As a parrot owner myself, I can't imagine trying to get any of my birds in one of these get-ups without losing a finger.)