Mid2Mod: vintage Tupperware

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Saturday, December 1, 2012

Back in the day: Tupperware

My mother was a huge Tupperware fan. She probably had every piece of Tupperware available in the 1950s, so I grew up surrounded by celery keepers, cake takers and popsicle makers. I was "burping" Tupperware like a champ before I hit puberty.

Not long ago, I watched a PBS American Experience documentary about Tupperware, which is well worth a look if you haven't seen it.

Earl Silas Tupper founded the Tupperware Plastics Company in 1938 and introduced Tupper Plastics to hardware and department stores in 1946. In 1947 he designed and patented a liquid-proof, air-tight lid by duplicating the lid of a paint can, except in reverse. Tupperware was not a success at first, because consumers didn't understand how to operate the lids.

In 1938 Brownie Wise was 24 years old, had an infant son and was trapped in a bad marriage. She took night classes and got a job as a secretary and later worked for Stanley Home Products, becoming a star giving home demonstrations. She and a co-worker left Stanley to start their own Tupperware party business. After several late shipments, she called the company headquarters to complain and demanded to speak to Tupper himself. She told him that he would improve his business if he sold his product only through home parties.

Tupper hired Brownie Wise on the spot to design the Tupperware direct selling system. The concept grew to be a household phenomenon, the Tupperware Party. Almost immediately Wise talked Tupper into buying one thousand acres in Florida that she could turn into a fantasy land and a pilgrimage site for her sales staff. She lavished gifts on her top sellers, and they idolized her for it. In 1951 there were eight distributors; by 1956 there were more than 100, some making millions.

Wise started the Tupperware Jubilee, a four-day extravaganza that brought dealers and managers to the Florida headquarters, and she spared no expense making the Jubilees as glamorous and exciting as possible. By 1957 Wise's dealer force was selling more than Tupper could produce. When Wise demanded that Tupper keep up, he was annoyed, thinking that she had forgotten who actually owned the company. Their disagreements escalated, and he raised questions about the cost of Jubilees, prizes, clothing and landscaping.

In 1958, Tupper fired Brownie Wise. Officially, Tupper used Wise's expenditures as an excuse for letting her go. However, the real reason was that Tupper had been approached by several companies interested in buying him out; he felt that he would not be able to sell with a woman in an executive position. Wise had no employment contract. She didn't even own her clothes. At first, Tupper did not want to give her any severance pay, but he eventually gave her $35,000.

In 1958, less than a year after firing Brownie, Earl Tupper sold his company to Justin Dart, of Rexall Chemicals, for $16 million. Earl also divorced his wife, gave up his U.S. citizenship, and bought himself an island in Central America.

As Tupper and Wise disappeared from the company, the Tupperware ladies took Tupperware across the globe. Tupperware became the biggest and most successful international party plan company of its time. Earl Tupper died in 1983. The patent on his burping seal expired the next year and his design idea was widely copied. Wise lived modestly and died in 1992, just a few miles from Tupperware headquarters. The marketing techniques she perfected were copied by every successful home party company.

From pbs.org