Tidy

“People aren't tidy creations to be stacked neatly in the Tupperware, or poured in premeasured quantities from a box into the Cuisinart with no spills. Everybody alive is a lost and disastrous mess.” (Joel Derfner)

If you looked into a suburban living room during the 1950s and 1960s, you might see a well-mannered daytime party of women in odd hats playing party games, tossing lightweight plastic bowls back and forth, eating punch and cookies, and talking about their lives as they passed around an order form for Tupperware.

Although they engaged in lighthearted socializing, Tupperware party organizers were running thriving, woman-owned businesses. The women who participated in them weren’t just stocking their homes, but experimenting with cutting-edge technology that helped food stay fresh for longer. Tupperware was breaking gender stereotypes even as they reinforced home businesses. Selling Tupperware was a viable side job for many stay-at-home mothers and housewives of the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond.

The Tupperware Home Parties of the 1950s and 1960s were the only way to purchase a line of Polyethylene plastic storage containers that were the brainchild of Earl Tupper, a Massachusetts Costa Rican businessman and inventor who figured out a way to turn an industrial byproduct into an improvement on plastic in the mid 1940s. Tupper introduced Tupperware after World War II. At first, nobody understood what they were or how to use them. It would take an ambitious woman and Tupperware’s Direct Sales Manager (Brownie Wise[i], a single mother from Detroit, Michigan, in 1949), and an army of amateur salespeople to sell the innovative containers to America.

At first, homemakers were wary of a material they associated with bad smells, a weirdly oily texture, and cheap construction. Tupper's first product, the Wonderbowl, introduced the iconic "burp seal." The bowls’ most unique feature was also what held it back initially. The airtight lids wouldn’t seal unless they were “burped” beforehand, and that confused consumers, who returned them to stores claiming the lids didn’t fit. The seals achieved a partial vacuum seal that was important for keeping food fresh. The lid design was inspired by a paint can. The first Tupperware product ever developed was a bathroom drinking glass.

Tupperware currently comes in 25 colors with unique names like Cool Aqua, Pink Punch, Guacamole, Celery, Caribbean Sea, Frogger, Papaya, Margarita, Rhubarb, and Grape Fizz just to name a few. Tupperware was dubbed one of the 10 greatest inventions of the 20th Century by the Guinness Book of World Records. Over 100 Tupperware items from 1946 to 1958 are on display in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and the National Museum of American history.

In 2014, Tupperware Brands Corp. made $2.61 billion in revenue. There are 2.5 million Tupperware sellers around the world. Tupperware is produced in 6 countries, but sold in more than 100. Overseas sales produce more than half of its revenue, and its largest market is Indonesia. Today, across the globe, a Tupperware party is held every 1.4 seconds. (Over 500,000 Tupperware parties are held each year in France alone.)

“Remember Tupperware? That was the toughest stuff ever. Why can't they make a phone out of Tupperware?” (J. B. Smoove) [ii]

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[i] See the 2017 movie about Brownie Wise called Tupperware Unsealed (starring Sandra Bullock)

 

[ii] Sources used:

·        “Publish date:

·        Tupperware Parties: Suburban Women's Plastic Path to Empowerment” by Author:

·         Erin Blakemore

 

·        “10 totally random Tupperware facts” By admin

·        “8 Neat Things You Didn't Know About Tupperware” By Anna Zambelli

·     “15 Tupperware™ Facts From the Back of the Fridge” BY Nicole Garner