The History of Tupperware
Earl Tupper and Brownie Wise Invented Food Storage Containers
Tupper's inventiveness and Wises' vision changed how America viewed food storage and leftovers forever. Here is a brief overview of how Tupperware came to be.
From a New Hamphire man of humble origins and a single Flordia housewife, Tupperware was born and became a phenomenon that both defined an era and became a household word.
Until the late 1940's, American housewives stored foodstuffs in naturally made containers, generally made of wood or metal. Plastic containers were not available. However, in 1939, an inventor by the name of Earl Silas Tupper devised an unbreakable plastic storage container from left-over synthetic material (courtesy of Du Pont). Originally, he marketed these containers directly to stores and they were available in clear and pastel colors. Despite improvements to the product (it’s airtightness and patented "burp" feature), Tupper continued to have to jump hurdles to educate the consumer on how to use his product. He found the answer in Brownie Wise, a southern Florida mother who was selling Tupperware on a "party plan".
Wise was made vice president and general manager of Tupperware and became a pioneer in direct marketing. She developed a reward program and management opportunities for participating housewives and from having 200 women in the program in 1951, she grew her sales force to 9000 in 1954. Tupperware had become a suburban revolution. It gave the suburban housewife a sense of community to pull together a coffee party to meet her neighbors and sell Tupperware at the same time. If Tupperware hadn’t been a needed necessity in the American household, the new program would not have been even half as successful. As it was, there was nothing else on the market that would offer the same longevity for leftovers and perishable foodstuff.
Tupper continued to diversify his product line and, even after his departure from the company, Tupperware sales continued to grow exponentially until the 1980's, when sales declined as other products came on the market and many women returned to work, making the afternoon coffee socials less important. Tupperware moved to marketing through direct mail and exports to foreign countries.
In 1958, Earl Tupper sold his company to the Rexall Drug Company for $16 million dollars, and that same year Brownie Wise left the company, reportedly due to conflicts in management style with Tupper. Earl Tupper bought an island (and reportedly divorced his wife) and Brownie Wise was given only a year’s salary as compensation. Tupper died in 1983 in Costa Rica and Wise, despite attempting to launch other companies, died in relative obscurity in 1992 in Kissimee, Florida.
One man’s ingenuity and one woman’s vision caused a cultural revolution that changed how America views food storage and marketing forever.
For further reading:
American Experience: Tupperware!
Five Decades of Change from Tupperware
Why didn't I Think of That? Bizarre Origins of Ingenious Inventions We Couldn't Live Without, Allyn Freemand & Bob Golden, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997; pgs. 10-15.
