May 28, 2015 • 37 mins
Tupperware won immediate design acclaim when it was released in 1947, but it took a pioneering female executive to make a line of plastic food storage into an icon of the American postwar boom. Learn about the surprisingly intriguing history of Tupperware.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
the Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry the Stuff
you Should Know herb. Have you ever heard a tupper
(00:23):
Warrior burp? Yeah, sort of, I mean it, you know,
it doesn't sound like a burb. It's just sort of like,
can you emulate one? Well, it's just like a like
air just sort of it's like a burb. It sounds
like a dude, yeah, something different. Yeah, but I don't
think you could call it a Tupperware bart because it
probably wouldn't sell us. Well, even a burp is a
(00:44):
little you know. Okay, So I guess I have heard
one before when I was a kid, but I thought
like there was like a burb or something like that,
or do you remember that cartoon. It might have been like,
h what was the Droopy I think it might have
been a droopy cartoon, So some sort of cartoon where
like they had a machine that burped radishes. But I
(01:06):
like it. It was a great I think it was
like the Kitchen of the Future, one great cartoon. Bert.
That's what I assumed the Tupperware thing was like, yeah,
that was a big droopy fans I thought I was
missing out. Nope, no, it's just a little air being expelled.
But it was a very very important bit of air,
because Chuck. At the time that Tupperware came out, women
(01:30):
were using like basically a pot that they cooked something in,
maybe a bowl, and putting a shower cap over it
and storing it in the ice box. You know what
they call that primitive? That's primitive food storage. It sounds
like a tuk tuk would have done something like that,
not men and women in the nineteen forties, except he
(01:54):
would have used like some sort of Madagascar type animal
pelt sure them from the movie Madagascar. No, not Madagascar.
I say, that's what I'm thinking of. I say, I
haven't seen it one. So they're very similar. It is
setting like different climbs in different time periods. I've never
seen me either, different animal protagonists. I just I can
(02:14):
get a lot from commercials. Yeah, uh so, yeah, Tupperware,
let's let's talk about it. Um, the original patent. I
love the name of this thing, and you know it
was created. You want to drop this cool little fact
by the name the name of the guy Earl Tupper.
Yeah I never knew that. Yeah, I guess I didn't either.
(02:34):
I didn't didn't think about it. No, you think of
tupper war is nothing but tupper ware, and there's no
Tupper who invented It's crazy talk, right, Yeah, No, there
was a tupper named Earl and that tupper tup tupperware. Yes,
the Earl of Tupper he Uh he has a patent
um call it. Well had he didn't have it anymore. Uh.
The e s tupper open mouth container and non snap
(02:55):
type of closure. Therefore this by the way, Yeah, that's
why I read it like that. But I was explaining
that to the everybody else. Do they know me? This
is going poorly? No, it's not so. Um. Let's you
want to talk a little bit about Tupper himself. Yeah.
He Um was a bit of a reclusive figure, as
(03:18):
we'll find, but he was also like a he was
a pretty sharp guy. I A grouch, I think is
a possible way to describe him. Maybe a bit of
a mad, smart, tinkering grouch. Um. He disliked his father
because he felt his father lacked ambition. And this is
when he was like ten. Right, Um, all you do
(03:38):
is just go to the races and lay around het. Well,
his parents owned a like a farm of sorts, but
I think I get the idea. It was like kind
of a harvest your own farm. And this kid, little
Earl Tupper, when he was like ten twelve, he was
like pitching the idea to to build like a children's
playground on the grounds of his pick your own farm
for you know, to at track tourists and stuff. And
(03:59):
his I was like, it sounds like a lot of work, totally,
just go to school or something. Get out of my hair.
And Arrow was like, you're gonna pay for ignoring me.
But he he was of sharp contrast to his father,
is what I'm trying to say. He was very ambitious.
Big Tinker came up with a lot of different patent
(04:20):
ideas and apparently patents too. Yeah he Uh he had
a book of inventions. Uh. There was a better stocking guarter,
which is a very sexy thing for a child to admit, right. Um,
A better way to remove a burst appendix. Yeah, yeah,
that's for real. Um, a dagger shaped comb to be
clipped to the belt. Um pants that wouldn't lose their crease. Um.
(04:43):
This one of great import. Yeah, the customized cigarettes, I
can't believe that didn't catch on, like for real, you
know how Coca Cola does this stupid cans and bottles
now with names. Oh now I understand. Yeah, there were
cigarettes that said like Sporty or the collegiate on the cigarette,
so it would have like your sports team like emblazoned
(05:03):
on the side. Maybe the problem is none of these
inventions took off. Now this guy literally well he could
give his inventions away, but like he almost literally couldn't
give him give them away. He he ended up manufacturing
these things and giving them away is like premiums for
other stuff like cigarettes and things like that. Yeah. So, um,
(05:25):
he starts a tree uh doctor business, Tupper Tree Doctors
that um failed after um the depression, people were cutting
back on things like tree doctoring. So he went out
of business and in a very fortuitous move, went and
worked um for Visca Lloyd Plant, which is a division
(05:47):
of DuPont making plastics. Right, and this is where things
kind of started taking shape. Yes, yes, yes, so basically
he gets into plastics and this town in Massachusetts that
he ended up in where the Vistalloid plant was, he
was all over New England basically growing up right, this
particular town was kind of like a mad scientists mecca
(06:11):
where like all of this stuff is going on in plastics,
all these little tiny plastic manufacturing outfits are, you know,
start It's like a startup town for plastics in like
the thirties or forties. They're like, we have this new thing,
Like what all can we do with it? Yeah? And which,
by the way, plastic, especially polyethylene. Polyethylene was invented by accident,
(06:31):
and by the forties they had still kind of they
perfected the polyethylene or had come out perfect, but they
hadn't figured out quite how to use it. And Earl
Tupper was one of those guys in the forties on
the cutting edge of taking plastics and figuring out how
to mold them in the right shape, how to keep
him from being oily or sticky or falling apart when
(06:52):
they were sitting out in the sunlight or all this stuff.
This guy is doing all these tests and he ends
up coming up thanks to getting a block of this
pure polyethylene from DuPont, the good stuff, the good stuff,
uncut stuff, um, and he figures out how to make
this bowl, A wonder lier bowl is what he calls it. Yeah,
and um DuPont at the time didn't think that they
(07:14):
could even mold plastic. Like he was smarter than their
guys because he figured out how to do it. And
Um then along with the design the the patented U
tupperware seal that made it so useful and famous, that
made the what sound that made the like the burping
sound or tooting sound. Um he originally got that idea
(07:37):
for the seal from paint cans, apparently, the fact that
you could turn a paint can upside down and it
wouldn't leak paint out all over the place. And he said,
I guess we can do this with food, you know, Yeah,
like put food in here. It's sealed. Look at the demonstration.
It's upside down and I'm shaking it and there's none
of that gravy coming out. What right, the grave is
not coming out. I can drop this bowl and it's
(07:58):
not gonna break because everyone knows how clumsy housewives are
breaking stuff all over And the fact that it, um
is that you burp it right, and it makes that sound,
and you're basically preserving the food for many many days
to come which was huge because a lot of the
(08:19):
people who were um homemakers in the forties and fifties,
they had lived through the depression and they remembered exactly
what it was like. So preserving food was a big deal.
And so this thing was like it's really easy to
take for granted these days, but it was very cutting
edge technology. Well, these days they have all those terrible
(08:40):
cheap oh uh, I was gonna say knockoffs are not
knockoffs are major brands. But you know those little cheap
plastic containers that are sold, they're they're not nearly the
quality of Tupperware. No tupper Warres started all that. Yeah,
and this stuff is garbage. The lids don't fit right ever,
they break, they don't, they don't do any thing that
Tupperware did. Like I have a Wonder bowl from the
(09:03):
nineteen seventies that's still like perfect. I mean it's a
little worn down, but it's still like functions perfectly right. Well,
it's a testament to and that other garbage that stuff,
like I don't have anything from last year. Well, it's
made and it was made during a time of much
more disposable thinking. You know, at the time it was like,
(09:27):
we're gonna make something now will last forever. Yeah, and
I think they still have a lifetime guarantees on everything. Yeah.
Like you could send in a tupperware piece from the
sixties and they'll, you know, if it's broken and it
meets the requirements, like you know, you didn't smash it
with a hammer or something. Um, because they can't prove you,
they'll give you like credits or the equivalent of what
(09:48):
you could get today or something. It's like, well, you
paid for that, but like, let's see what the West
Aid currency calculator has to say about that. So, um,
he formed Upper Plastics. Uh. Thing did not take off though,
um like he thought they would. He put him in
department stores and hardware stores for some reason, not a
(10:08):
good place to sell your tupperware. Yeah. I mean nowadays
I can see that, but back then you probably just
went to hardware stores for nails and hammers and stuff. Yeah,
I'm sure there are home goods and stuff too. It
was probably closer to a general store in the hardware
stores today, but even still, they weren't flying off the
shelves at the point. They were not. Um. So what
he did was there was another timeline going on at
(10:31):
the same time. UM Stanley Home Products was this, uh
basically pioneered the non door to door sales in favor
of hosting a party for lack of a better word,
in home demonstrations where you would gather people together. And
it was a guy named Norman Squires had um garnered
(10:53):
a lot of profits in this kind of sales, and
they had working for them a woman named Brownie Wise
and she was selling all kinds of stuff for Stanley
Home Products and uh they called it the hostess group
demonstration plan and she was a great, great salesperson. Yeah.
So these people at Stanley Home Products basically found tupperware
(11:16):
on their own and started selling it at these hostess parties. Right. Yeah,
she formed her own company called Tupperware Patio Parties. Oh
did she yea before she was hired. Before she was hired,
And she was selling so much of it that Earl
Tupper got in touch with her and was like, I
can't sell this stuff in stores like you're beating like
(11:36):
department stores in New York City sales records, and she yeah,
she really was. She had a lot of charms. She
had um she figured out that this burp thing that
was so essential and made this product so revolutionary, right that, Um,
it wasn't like intuitive, you didn't just understand how to
(11:57):
work it, and so it wasn't helping sale, which again
seems weird today, but back then people like, what is
this weird colored thing? Just go together? And they're just
banging them together in the isle of a hardware store crying. Um.
They She figured out that if you demonstrate this to people,
especially in like somebody's house or whatever and they've had
(12:20):
a couple of martinis and there's or Derv's, people are
apt to buy these things. And yeah, like you said,
she started out selling department stores hardware stores obviously, um,
and she got hired on by Earl Tupper. She was
in Detroit at the time. I think I think she'd
moved down to Orlando when she was hired. Oh really
by that point. Yeah, she was from Beauford, Georgia originally. Yeah,
(12:42):
she was from Earl Georgia. And U ended up, um
being married and divorced, which was pretty unusual at the time.
And she was a single mom. Yep, the little Jerry
Wise that's right. She unfortunately her husband was a violent
drunk that too, so that's not saying that. That's PBS
taken the fall for that. So she was re married
him for about six years and then it was basically like,
(13:03):
I'm gonna make my own way. He only had an
eighth grade education, and she was killing it on the
sales front. Yeah, she she really was. So it took
before we get any further about Brownie Wise. Great name name, yeah,
maybe not a band name, but a great name. The
brown the Brownie Wise would be a good name, or
the the Brownie Wise massacre Yeah sure, yeah, there you go,
(13:26):
or Brownie Wise over Drive. Both of those anyway for
one another. I guess the point that I'm trying to
get to his Let's take your break, Okay. So Brownie
(13:50):
Wise has her tupper Wear Patio Parties company out selling stores.
She gets hired on UM. They literally divide the company
into uh two sides, the Tupperware manufacturing up in Massachusetts
and then Tupperware Home Parties down in Orlando. Down in Orlando, yeah,
where she lives. Basically, Earl Tupper comes to her in
(14:11):
n and says, hey, how would you like to be
one of like three female high level executives in the
United States in the world I would guess, and she said,
that's sure, why not, I'll do you a favor. And
I said she was a very interesting woman. If I didn't,
I did in my head and meant to say it,
but she, Um, there's apparently a movie coming out about
(14:33):
her life, starring Sandra Bullock. You did not say that,
and I did see that, So there you go. I
couldn't find any information on except that I think it's
in uh in pre uh pre production right now. Oh,
I see, I think it's going to happen. But um, yeah,
I mean she she's one of the great uh woman
entrepreneurs that this country has ever seen, the world has
(14:54):
ever seen. Really yea, because she took this tupperware, which
everyone except the American public agreed was great. In ninety seven,
the year that Tupper invented this stuff, Time named it
this amazing thing. It won design Awards. Yeah, she was
on the first woman on the cover of Business Week magazine,
right right. But even before she came along, everybody, especially
(15:17):
in the art world, in the design world, um said this, this,
this stuff is great. But it was just sitting there languishing,
and then then Brownie Wise comes along and just turns
it into a blockbuster, like turns it into it an
American iconic brand, which it still is today. Yeah. And
what she realized, which is uh was a stroke of genius,
was it's the nineteen fifties. The suburbs are happening post
(15:41):
World War two in a big way. Um, there's a
lot of women that are that are homemakers, that are
I guess we could just say they were bored and
looking for something to do well. Plus also they had
very um, they had very real constrictions on their time
where like they're basically freedom of movement. They didn't have cars,
(16:04):
they didn't have things like this, they didn't have a
lot of ways to make money. Yeah. Well, and again
they were out in the suburbs for the first time.
It's not like many of these were connected by subway
or anything. That was still an inner city deal. Right. So,
But rather than view these places as fast like waste
lands of isolation, Brownie Wise said, no, these are like
little tiny social networks where people know and trust one
(16:25):
another and they're board out of their skulls and they're
looking for ways to make money. Like so, not only
do you have a really great market to sell this to,
you have a really great workforce that's just sitting there, idol.
And she said, how would you gals like to sell tupperware?
And they went, let's do this, that's right. And what
she did was came up with a system where and
(16:46):
you could work your way up the chain, um, from
sales all the way. Well, let's let's just detail it.
What you are is your consultant at first, which is
out there, you know, holding the parties, hosting these parties.
Talk about everybody's till yeah, and then you can work
your up to manager if you organize a certain number
(17:06):
of parties, and then managers, uh, we're eventually recruiting other women.
So if you recruit enough women and increased sales, then
you could rise to distributor. And that was the highest
level you could attain at that point. Yes, you could
be a distributor. You have your own office, you have
your network of managers, and then they managed the consultants
(17:28):
or the party throwers, party hosts, and um. Basically she
started her own army of salespeople. Yeah, so incentibized salespeople.
Right now, there are two point nine million people in
the world. Every three seconds there's another top waur party.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right, So she she
(17:50):
put together this workforce and again it was UM, this
guy named Norman Squires who came up with this idea
that led to UM being a huge, huge hip for tupperware,
but also later on avon Um and Mary Kay and
Pampered Chef and like all of these, all of these
brands that like are sold through hostess parties basically get
(18:15):
you in our house and get you drunk and just
leave me a blank Checkly, but the it wasn't invented
by Brownie wise, but she definitely perfected it for sure.
So UM she tapped this workforce. And one of the
ways that she kept people excited and loyal not just
the fact that they could rise throughout this hierarchy UM
(18:38):
in the tupperware industry, but there there was also like
this thing that she created called the Jubilee every year
down Orlando. It was a big company party it was,
and they would just pull out all the stops like
they would bury fur coats. They were bury blenders. One
of the buyers once said that he bought a hundred
thousand blenders once for this jubilee. They just bring all
(19:00):
these tupperware sales associates and just basically throw them a
party for a few days and let them just win
free stuff and have a great time. Yeah. And when
you say, Barry, I think we should explains that sounds
really weird. They would bury these prizes and people would
go and dig them up. Right. It wasn't like you
can't have this. Look at what you can't have, we're
burying it. They just sounded fun. You're like, they bury
(19:21):
for coats, they bury anything that moves. Yeah, thank you. Yeah,
but it was all part of the fun. Apparently they
lost a lot of them too. Yeah. Years later, Um,
at the at the Tupperware headquarters in ORLEANSO, they went
to dig a pond and they found a bunch of
the prizes that had never been found. Yes, some say
there's still for coats buried all over Orlando by the illuminati. Right. So, um,
(19:46):
those are the big jubilee parties, the big company parties.
Great for morale. Um. The hostess uh themselves or the
consultants would um, they would make percentage. Uh, they basically
make a cut what they were able to sell as
well as get prizes. Um, like these really neat prizes
and the more parties you hosted, the better the prizes
(20:06):
would get. So it's like it's like the Wild West.
It's the Heyday for these women. They're like earning their
own money for a change. They're getting these great prizes.
They're feeling great about themselves. They're not bored any longer.
And their husbands were like, WHOA, what's going on here?
Give me that money you made? Yeah, exactly. And things
were so successful with this model that that was their
(20:29):
only sales model up until the late nineteen eighties. Right,
You couldn't even buy the stuff in stores. No, he
just stopped. It wasn't even worth the money or effort
to distribute it. The stories. They just did it through
parties and home parties. Thank you, Brownie Wise all right, So, um,
and like you said in they started selling it through
um catalogs, I guess, uh, yeah, I think they. I've
(20:54):
seen like older catalogs from like the fifties and sixties,
So I don't know what that means. Maybe over the
phone you saw Tupperware one. Yeah, it's on our it's
on the podcast pitch for this episode. There's a link
to this kind of design layout and it has some catalogs.
So it must have been like ordered by phone. Oh yeah,
maybe so. And then just about ten years later, Tupperware
(21:15):
had their first website, which e commerce in that was
fairly forward thinking. Yeah that's true, you know. Yeah, um,
so this caught like wildfire today you can it's not
just like an American institution. There are Tupperware parties, like
we said, at the rate of one every three seconds,
(21:36):
and more than a hundred countries around the world. I
had no idea that Tupperware was that popular in like
Asia and India, And they said half a million, more
than half a million every year in France alone. Yeah,
of Tupperware sales are outside of the US these days. Yeah,
and it's a I mean, like it's got it moving
like gangbusters. Last I saw, I was trading at like
(21:58):
sixty three dollars a share, which is down from like
a hundred in December. Maybe. Um, Like it's it's a
really set company again these days, Like it's been able
to just be on the brink of utter irrelevance when
it finds a new market, when it figures out a
new way to do to sell, when it figures out
a new product, like currently right now in China. Um,
(22:23):
Tupperware is making tons of cash selling a thousand dollar
water filter, and they're doing it by traveling from town
to town and setting up these in home demonstrations or
public demonstrations and showing how to do it. So they're
like taking the Tupperware model that Brownie Wise like really
perfected and and figuring out how it best works and
cultures around the world. Yeah, I know. They make um also,
(22:44):
like uh, depending on your country and what they eat,
like certain shaped um containers, right like round bread containers
for non in India. How about that? So what happened
to Brownie Wise? I guess she retired, was thanked, carried
out on everyone shoulders, and lived a great fulfilled life
until her death. Right. Well, we're gonna tell you right
(23:07):
after this break, all right, Josh, let's fast forward to um.
(23:30):
The Tupperware business is booming, Brownie Wise is a bit
of a celebrity. The twist is going like Gangbusters? Was it?
Probably okay? People are still twisting the night away? Yeah?
I mean what was that like? Probably started three years?
Sure there was some squares still twisting. Yeah, they weren't
(23:51):
doing the mashed potato yet. No, I think that was
a little later, Okay, Um, so business is booming, Brownie
Wise is killing it. She's a celebrity. Earl Tupper um
starts to get little jealous over the years. It's as
simple as that. Yeah. As much as he like didn't
seek or want the limelight, he was still jealous that
Brownie Wise people thought that she was Tupperware and that
(24:14):
she started the company um and started selling like I
can sell anything like this. So she didn't say that
him in the media said she could. She could have
done this with any brand. She's that great, and Earl
Tupper wanted to be like, well, no, I mean my
product that I invented is you know a big part
of this, if not the thing, Earl Tupper right, so
(24:36):
he um he apparently also she stopped kind of cow
towing to him quite as much. Um, but I got
on great for a while. Yeah. And again he had
said to their PR department and to any media interviewer like, yes,
this lady is the face of Tupperware. Treater is such, promoter,
is such, And he, just like you said, ended up
(24:58):
getting jealous. Didn't like that she wasn't cows outing to
him any longer, and in night said, you're fired. Yeah.
He The story I read was that he wanted to
sell the company and cash in, and that he didn't
think and was advised that it would be really hard
to sell a company with a woman in such a
prominent position on the board. And so he, uh, like
(25:21):
you said, just unceremoniously get rid of her, gave her
one year salary. It was like thirty grands zero stock
that she had built almost from the ground up. Yeah,
or help build at least. And I gotta say that
was her you know, that was her mistake. She should
have gotten some stock along the way. Yeah, I guess.
You know, she's too busy selling And yeah, I mean exactly.
(25:45):
She was imagined thirty five grand a year was a
pretty good salary at the point. You want me to
look it up, I will, you can. So she got
that small pay out. She went UM and what he
said to her was is that there were some accounting
errors in the previous year. She wouldn't come to Massachusetts
to talk to him about it, and sort of dug
(26:05):
In says that she said that she had gotten sicker,
injured and couldn't leave Florida. He finally went down to
Florida UM and basically said that, you know, these jubilees
are too expensive. The landscaping you've done here in Florida,
the company headquarters is too expensive. You're spending too much
money on clothes. Uh. And we own all that stuff,
We own all your clothing. What well, I mean that's
(26:28):
I don't know if he actually took it, but he
basically was like, you know, she paid for all that
stuff through the company, as she should have, you know,
to keep up appearances. But um, yeah, that was it
for her. She started a small company called Cinderella Cosmetics
that folded after a year and sort of faded into obscurity.
Then um earl tupper Uh sold out that the next
(26:53):
year I think sixteen million. Yeah, he sells out for
sixteen million dollars. Nice cash. She wrecked all drug company,
which was eventually absorbed by Kraft, who apparently now owns Tupperware.
I think maybe it's the parent company. Um and yeah,
sixteen million in nineteen fifty eight. It's not too bad
for a boy who couldn't get his parents to build
(27:14):
a playground on the family pick your own whatever farm.
Did you find out if she thirty five grand was
a good salary? Yeah? It wasn't bad. It was like
two hundred and I think thirty two thousand dollars back then. Yeah,
that's good. It's not bad. I mean especially for a executive. Yeah. Um.
(27:35):
But he sold the whole thing for sixteen million, gave
her one year salary, moved to Costa Rica, bought an island,
announced as US citizenships so they didn't have to pay
any taxes on that. Got divorced. Yeah right, and uh
said Siona, everybody, I'm going to Costa Rica to buy
an island and keep a note pad in my pocket.
So anytime an idea for a new invention hits, I'll
(27:59):
have it. Yeah. And just like probably you know, eight
pineapples on his island. Yeah. He died in three in
Costa Rica, Uh, seventy six, and she died in nineteen
and Um, tupperware has not gone out of fashion. It's
it's been featured uh starting in what year was it,
(28:21):
I guess when they first came out at the Museum
of Modern Art, and then again in two thousand eleven.
I think I even saw this exhibit. In fact, I'm
almost positive I did, because it was about just industrial
design and things, and there's Tupperware all over again because
of its gorgeous of course, now you know that fifties
era design. The original line that tupper released is called
(28:46):
the Millionaire line, and it came in six colors, five
pastels and one white, right, yellow, blue, green, orange, and pink.
And they're really pretty. Like if you look at a
set of these things in a good, good condition, they're gorgeous.
He went on to the Plastics Hall of Fame. Um
and now like this stuff from the fifties and sixties,
(29:06):
you can get some decent money on eBay for that stuff,
you know, because it still works and people love that
retro look. Did you know that he refused refused to
have any um any pet bowls designed. He thought it
was Tupperware was too good for pets to eat out of.
What a jerk. See, I was all on board until that.
(29:30):
Actually I wasn't on board. I was off board when
I found out that he fired Brownie Wise. Yeah he
and then was like, okay, I've got some money. See
a later family. Yeah, moved to Costa Rica. Would you
be funny if he went down and started a cult
with the slinky guy. Um? So Tupperware stayed pretty much
the same until when they designer named Morrison Cousins basically
(29:53):
kind of redesigned for for the new era. Yeah he
he was UM already a VP I guess that Tupperware
and he was. He decided that it was a little difficult.
He had an eighty two or eighty one year old
mother at the time eighty seven year old mother at
the time when he was charged with redesigning the Tupperware line,
(30:14):
and UM he from that viewpoint, he redesigned it to
make it easier for UM the aged to use. Right,
So like that burping lid that you had to like
really kind of have some decent hand strength to put on.
He figured out a way around it by UM using
flaps that opened and closed to release the air. Didn't
(30:35):
require quite as much hand strength. UM. The lids were
made in contrast and closure to the bowls, so if
you had a low visibility low vision not visibility, that's
totally different. If you were wearing all camouflage at the time,
you'd be able to find the lid and the bowl
that go together pretty easy. So he yea, he made
(30:56):
them easier for old books, yep. And he was the
guy who UM brought it online. He did a lot
of good stuff. Apparently with it, he also took the brand.
I thought this is cool, and I would love to
see this on video because I'll bet it's just so
bizarre and surreal to watch. They broadcast a series of
(31:17):
live Tupperware parties on some home shopping channel in the
early nineties. That was probably the first home shopping experience.
I think those were around in the eighties. I think
home shopping was already established. When did they do this
early nineties? Oh? I thought you said he did it
like in the sixties. No, no, no, got no, we
should do one on home shopping. I'll bet that has
(31:37):
an interesting, weird history. You think I'll look into you know? Okay,
my mom's into it, man. QBC. So did we talk
about how to throw a tupperware party? We did? We
sure did. Okay, did we talk about tupperware drag parties?
We did not. We should because there's more than one.
(32:00):
There's well, there's one person in particular, a guy named
Chris Anderson, who performs in drag as Dixie Longate and
um sells like a million dollars worth of tupperware in
the process. Like he gets paid to perform like you
gotta pay forty bucks just to a person just to
(32:20):
have I guess he stole does house parties, but he
literally does like tours and does like off Broadway shows
and stuff now right, But the whole thing is I
mean real tupperware party where like you can buy tupperware,
and like he's demonstrating the tupperware. He's kind of giving
his own take on what it's useful for. But he's
not the only um drag show in the country selling tupperware,
(32:41):
of course, not apparently. Uh. A drag queen named Aunt
Barbara up in Long Island is was at least in
two twelve the number one salesperson in North America for tupperware.
It all makes sense when you think about it. So
two d and fifty grand worth of tupperware in one year.
Like the kitch of the drag show the kitch of
tupperware parties, it all sort of goes hand in hand. Yes,
(33:05):
it does. And um I went to the website of
Dixie Longate and he has a pretty interesting bio. I
have three kids, Winona, Dwayne and Absorbing Junior. It's all
made up, I think, I think maybe, although you never know,
but yeah, now he has solo stand up shows, um
(33:26):
and a recent theatrical show called Never Wear a Tube
Top while Riding a Mechanical bowl and sixteen other things
I learned while I was drinking last Thursday. And apparently
that is selling out venues. It's basically that's selling out venues.
We're not, but that is don't be better. We will
one day if we didn't dragging. Probably. Well, no, that's
(33:47):
not true either, one day chuck. Yeah. Uh wow, that's
a weird way to end us. Yeah, I think it's perfect. Um.
I thought I had something else, but I guess I don't. Oh,
yes I do. PBS did a great documentary called Tupperware
with an exclamation point. It's got a whole website on
online and you can watch parts of the documentary, if
(34:09):
not the whole thing. Yeah, and look for the Sandra
Bullock the Brownie Wise story coming to a theater near
you in a couple of years. Nice job, you said
a theater near you. A theater you just said coming
to a theater near you. That's like, Wow, did you
ever think you would grow up to say that like
in public? Sure? Okay, Well, if you want to know
(34:31):
more about tupper war. You can type that one word
and the search part how stuff works dot com? And uh,
since I said search parts time for listener mail. And
they call this the Strisand effect. Have you ever heard
of this? No, Hello, Josh, Chuck and Jerry really enjoyed
the podcast on Internet censorship, although I was disturbed that
(34:51):
s OP three oh three exists. Sure, one thing not
mentioned that I thought was relevant is when individuals attempt
to censor specific things from their own life and the
resulting fallout that occurs. In two thousand three, and I
remember what was happening. Actually, a picture of Barbra Streisand's
home in Malibu appeared in a publicly available collection of
over twelve thousand photos of California coastline. The collection was
(35:16):
documenting coastal erosion and not related to news paparazzi or
tabloids or anything like that. But Streisand's lawyers filed a
fifty million dollar lawsuit against the photographer, asking the picture
to be taken down for privacy reasons. Before stories of
the lawsuit hit the press, the photo of the home
had only been downloaded six times, two of which were
(35:36):
by her attorneys. During the following month. After the whole
thing became a news story. More than four hundred thousand
people visited the website. Uh, they even coined the term
the streisand effect were an attempt to hand for her.
Yeah it did. I remember this blew up in her face.
An attempt at censoring or removing something from the Internet
results and said thing being seen and reported on much
(35:58):
more than if the person requesting it be removed it
simply let it fade into obscurity. Thanks for the podcast.
Also possibly a shout out to my wife Emily, who
is nearly as addicted to stuff you should know as
I am nearly And that is from Brinton Krausse in
uh mid Hudson Valley, New York, USA. So Emily and
get on it so you're equally as addicted. And thank
(36:21):
you Britton for being fully addicted. Yeah to the brim.
I guess Uh. If you want to get in touch
with us and talk to us about tupperware or um whatever,
you can tweet to us right at s y s
K podcast. Josh's manning that station. You can go on
to our awesome Facebook page courtesy of Chuckers Facebook dot
(36:45):
com slash stuff you should know You can send us
an email. We both get those become direct to us
to uh stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com,
and hang out with us at our home on the
web Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on
this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works
(37:06):
dot com. M
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
the Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry the Stuff
you Should Know herb. Have you ever heard a tupper
(00:23):
Warrior burp? Yeah, sort of, I mean it, you know,
it doesn't sound like a burb. It's just sort of like,
can you emulate one? Well, it's just like a like
air just sort of it's like a burb. It sounds
like a dude, yeah, something different. Yeah, but I don't
think you could call it a Tupperware bart because it
probably wouldn't sell us. Well, even a burp is a
(00:44):
little you know. Okay, So I guess I have heard
one before when I was a kid, but I thought
like there was like a burb or something like that,
or do you remember that cartoon. It might have been like,
h what was the Droopy I think it might have
been a droopy cartoon, So some sort of cartoon where
like they had a machine that burped radishes. But I
(01:06):
like it. It was a great I think it was
like the Kitchen of the Future, one great cartoon. Bert.
That's what I assumed the Tupperware thing was like, yeah,
that was a big droopy fans I thought I was
missing out. Nope, no, it's just a little air being expelled.
But it was a very very important bit of air,
because Chuck. At the time that Tupperware came out, women
(01:30):
were using like basically a pot that they cooked something in,
maybe a bowl, and putting a shower cap over it
and storing it in the ice box. You know what
they call that primitive? That's primitive food storage. It sounds
like a tuk tuk would have done something like that,
not men and women in the nineteen forties, except he
(01:54):
would have used like some sort of Madagascar type animal
pelt sure them from the movie Madagascar. No, not Madagascar.
I say, that's what I'm thinking of. I say, I
haven't seen it one. So they're very similar. It is
setting like different climbs in different time periods. I've never
seen me either, different animal protagonists. I just I can
(02:14):
get a lot from commercials. Yeah, uh so, yeah, Tupperware,
let's let's talk about it. Um, the original patent. I
love the name of this thing, and you know it
was created. You want to drop this cool little fact
by the name the name of the guy Earl Tupper.
Yeah I never knew that. Yeah, I guess I didn't either.
(02:34):
I didn't didn't think about it. No, you think of
tupper war is nothing but tupper ware, and there's no
Tupper who invented It's crazy talk, right, Yeah, No, there
was a tupper named Earl and that tupper tup tupperware. Yes,
the Earl of Tupper he Uh he has a patent
um call it. Well had he didn't have it anymore. Uh.
The e s tupper open mouth container and non snap
(02:55):
type of closure. Therefore this by the way, Yeah, that's
why I read it like that. But I was explaining
that to the everybody else. Do they know me? This
is going poorly? No, it's not so. Um. Let's you
want to talk a little bit about Tupper himself. Yeah.
He Um was a bit of a reclusive figure, as
(03:18):
we'll find, but he was also like a he was
a pretty sharp guy. I A grouch, I think is
a possible way to describe him. Maybe a bit of
a mad, smart, tinkering grouch. Um. He disliked his father
because he felt his father lacked ambition. And this is
when he was like ten. Right, Um, all you do
(03:38):
is just go to the races and lay around het. Well,
his parents owned a like a farm of sorts, but
I think I get the idea. It was like kind
of a harvest your own farm. And this kid, little
Earl Tupper, when he was like ten twelve, he was
like pitching the idea to to build like a children's
playground on the grounds of his pick your own farm
for you know, to at track tourists and stuff. And
(03:59):
his I was like, it sounds like a lot of work, totally,
just go to school or something. Get out of my hair.
And Arrow was like, you're gonna pay for ignoring me.
But he he was of sharp contrast to his father,
is what I'm trying to say. He was very ambitious.
Big Tinker came up with a lot of different patent
(04:20):
ideas and apparently patents too. Yeah he Uh he had
a book of inventions. Uh. There was a better stocking guarter,
which is a very sexy thing for a child to admit, right. Um,
A better way to remove a burst appendix. Yeah, yeah,
that's for real. Um, a dagger shaped comb to be
clipped to the belt. Um pants that wouldn't lose their crease. Um.
(04:43):
This one of great import. Yeah, the customized cigarettes, I
can't believe that didn't catch on, like for real, you
know how Coca Cola does this stupid cans and bottles
now with names. Oh now I understand. Yeah, there were
cigarettes that said like Sporty or the collegiate on the cigarette,
so it would have like your sports team like emblazoned
(05:03):
on the side. Maybe the problem is none of these
inventions took off. Now this guy literally well he could
give his inventions away, but like he almost literally couldn't
give him give them away. He he ended up manufacturing
these things and giving them away is like premiums for
other stuff like cigarettes and things like that. Yeah. So, um,
(05:25):
he starts a tree uh doctor business, Tupper Tree Doctors
that um failed after um the depression, people were cutting
back on things like tree doctoring. So he went out
of business and in a very fortuitous move, went and
worked um for Visca Lloyd Plant, which is a division
(05:47):
of DuPont making plastics. Right, and this is where things
kind of started taking shape. Yes, yes, yes, so basically
he gets into plastics and this town in Massachusetts that
he ended up in where the Vistalloid plant was, he
was all over New England basically growing up right, this
particular town was kind of like a mad scientists mecca
(06:11):
where like all of this stuff is going on in plastics,
all these little tiny plastic manufacturing outfits are, you know,
start It's like a startup town for plastics in like
the thirties or forties. They're like, we have this new thing,
Like what all can we do with it? Yeah? And which,
by the way, plastic, especially polyethylene. Polyethylene was invented by accident,
(06:31):
and by the forties they had still kind of they
perfected the polyethylene or had come out perfect, but they
hadn't figured out quite how to use it. And Earl
Tupper was one of those guys in the forties on
the cutting edge of taking plastics and figuring out how
to mold them in the right shape, how to keep
him from being oily or sticky or falling apart when
(06:52):
they were sitting out in the sunlight or all this stuff.
This guy is doing all these tests and he ends
up coming up thanks to getting a block of this
pure polyethylene from DuPont, the good stuff, the good stuff,
uncut stuff, um, and he figures out how to make
this bowl, A wonder lier bowl is what he calls it. Yeah,
and um DuPont at the time didn't think that they
(07:14):
could even mold plastic. Like he was smarter than their
guys because he figured out how to do it. And
Um then along with the design the the patented U
tupperware seal that made it so useful and famous, that
made the what sound that made the like the burping
sound or tooting sound. Um he originally got that idea
(07:37):
for the seal from paint cans, apparently, the fact that
you could turn a paint can upside down and it
wouldn't leak paint out all over the place. And he said,
I guess we can do this with food, you know, Yeah,
like put food in here. It's sealed. Look at the demonstration.
It's upside down and I'm shaking it and there's none
of that gravy coming out. What right, the grave is
not coming out. I can drop this bowl and it's
(07:58):
not gonna break because everyone knows how clumsy housewives are
breaking stuff all over And the fact that it, um
is that you burp it right, and it makes that sound,
and you're basically preserving the food for many many days
to come which was huge because a lot of the
(08:19):
people who were um homemakers in the forties and fifties,
they had lived through the depression and they remembered exactly
what it was like. So preserving food was a big deal.
And so this thing was like it's really easy to
take for granted these days, but it was very cutting
edge technology. Well, these days they have all those terrible
(08:40):
cheap oh uh, I was gonna say knockoffs are not
knockoffs are major brands. But you know those little cheap
plastic containers that are sold, they're they're not nearly the
quality of Tupperware. No tupper Warres started all that. Yeah,
and this stuff is garbage. The lids don't fit right ever,
they break, they don't, they don't do any thing that
Tupperware did. Like I have a Wonder bowl from the
(09:03):
nineteen seventies that's still like perfect. I mean it's a
little worn down, but it's still like functions perfectly right. Well,
it's a testament to and that other garbage that stuff,
like I don't have anything from last year. Well, it's
made and it was made during a time of much
more disposable thinking. You know, at the time it was like,
(09:27):
we're gonna make something now will last forever. Yeah, and
I think they still have a lifetime guarantees on everything. Yeah.
Like you could send in a tupperware piece from the
sixties and they'll, you know, if it's broken and it
meets the requirements, like you know, you didn't smash it
with a hammer or something. Um, because they can't prove you,
they'll give you like credits or the equivalent of what
(09:48):
you could get today or something. It's like, well, you
paid for that, but like, let's see what the West
Aid currency calculator has to say about that. So, um,
he formed Upper Plastics. Uh. Thing did not take off though,
um like he thought they would. He put him in
department stores and hardware stores for some reason, not a
(10:08):
good place to sell your tupperware. Yeah. I mean nowadays
I can see that, but back then you probably just
went to hardware stores for nails and hammers and stuff. Yeah,
I'm sure there are home goods and stuff too. It
was probably closer to a general store in the hardware
stores today, but even still, they weren't flying off the
shelves at the point. They were not. Um. So what
he did was there was another timeline going on at
(10:31):
the same time. UM Stanley Home Products was this, uh
basically pioneered the non door to door sales in favor
of hosting a party for lack of a better word,
in home demonstrations where you would gather people together. And
it was a guy named Norman Squires had um garnered
(10:53):
a lot of profits in this kind of sales, and
they had working for them a woman named Brownie Wise
and she was selling all kinds of stuff for Stanley
Home Products and uh they called it the hostess group
demonstration plan and she was a great, great salesperson. Yeah.
So these people at Stanley Home Products basically found tupperware
(11:16):
on their own and started selling it at these hostess parties. Right. Yeah,
she formed her own company called Tupperware Patio Parties. Oh
did she yea before she was hired. Before she was hired,
And she was selling so much of it that Earl
Tupper got in touch with her and was like, I
can't sell this stuff in stores like you're beating like
(11:36):
department stores in New York City sales records, and she yeah,
she really was. She had a lot of charms. She
had um she figured out that this burp thing that
was so essential and made this product so revolutionary, right that, Um,
it wasn't like intuitive, you didn't just understand how to
(11:57):
work it, and so it wasn't helping sale, which again
seems weird today, but back then people like, what is
this weird colored thing? Just go together? And they're just
banging them together in the isle of a hardware store crying. Um.
They She figured out that if you demonstrate this to people,
especially in like somebody's house or whatever and they've had
(12:20):
a couple of martinis and there's or Derv's, people are
apt to buy these things. And yeah, like you said,
she started out selling department stores hardware stores obviously, um,
and she got hired on by Earl Tupper. She was
in Detroit at the time. I think I think she'd
moved down to Orlando when she was hired. Oh really
by that point. Yeah, she was from Beauford, Georgia originally. Yeah,
(12:42):
she was from Earl Georgia. And U ended up, um
being married and divorced, which was pretty unusual at the time.
And she was a single mom. Yep, the little Jerry
Wise that's right. She unfortunately her husband was a violent
drunk that too, so that's not saying that. That's PBS
taken the fall for that. So she was re married
him for about six years and then it was basically like,
(13:03):
I'm gonna make my own way. He only had an
eighth grade education, and she was killing it on the
sales front. Yeah, she she really was. So it took
before we get any further about Brownie Wise. Great name name, yeah,
maybe not a band name, but a great name. The
brown the Brownie Wise would be a good name, or
the the Brownie Wise massacre Yeah sure, yeah, there you go,
(13:26):
or Brownie Wise over Drive. Both of those anyway for
one another. I guess the point that I'm trying to
get to his Let's take your break, Okay. So Brownie
(13:50):
Wise has her tupper Wear Patio Parties company out selling stores.
She gets hired on UM. They literally divide the company
into uh two sides, the Tupperware manufacturing up in Massachusetts
and then Tupperware Home Parties down in Orlando. Down in Orlando, yeah,
where she lives. Basically, Earl Tupper comes to her in
(14:11):
n and says, hey, how would you like to be
one of like three female high level executives in the
United States in the world I would guess, and she said,
that's sure, why not, I'll do you a favor. And
I said she was a very interesting woman. If I didn't,
I did in my head and meant to say it,
but she, Um, there's apparently a movie coming out about
(14:33):
her life, starring Sandra Bullock. You did not say that,
and I did see that, So there you go. I
couldn't find any information on except that I think it's
in uh in pre uh pre production right now. Oh,
I see, I think it's going to happen. But um, yeah,
I mean she she's one of the great uh woman
entrepreneurs that this country has ever seen, the world has
(14:54):
ever seen. Really yea, because she took this tupperware, which
everyone except the American public agreed was great. In ninety seven,
the year that Tupper invented this stuff, Time named it
this amazing thing. It won design Awards. Yeah, she was
on the first woman on the cover of Business Week magazine,
right right. But even before she came along, everybody, especially
(15:17):
in the art world, in the design world, um said this, this,
this stuff is great. But it was just sitting there languishing,
and then then Brownie Wise comes along and just turns
it into a blockbuster, like turns it into it an
American iconic brand, which it still is today. Yeah. And
what she realized, which is uh was a stroke of genius,
was it's the nineteen fifties. The suburbs are happening post
(15:41):
World War two in a big way. Um, there's a
lot of women that are that are homemakers, that are
I guess we could just say they were bored and
looking for something to do well. Plus also they had
very um, they had very real constrictions on their time
where like they're basically freedom of movement. They didn't have cars,
(16:04):
they didn't have things like this, they didn't have a
lot of ways to make money. Yeah. Well, and again
they were out in the suburbs for the first time.
It's not like many of these were connected by subway
or anything. That was still an inner city deal. Right. So,
But rather than view these places as fast like waste
lands of isolation, Brownie Wise said, no, these are like
little tiny social networks where people know and trust one
(16:25):
another and they're board out of their skulls and they're
looking for ways to make money. Like so, not only
do you have a really great market to sell this to,
you have a really great workforce that's just sitting there, idol.
And she said, how would you gals like to sell tupperware?
And they went, let's do this, that's right. And what
she did was came up with a system where and
(16:46):
you could work your way up the chain, um, from
sales all the way. Well, let's let's just detail it.
What you are is your consultant at first, which is
out there, you know, holding the parties, hosting these parties.
Talk about everybody's till yeah, and then you can work
your up to manager if you organize a certain number
(17:06):
of parties, and then managers, uh, we're eventually recruiting other women.
So if you recruit enough women and increased sales, then
you could rise to distributor. And that was the highest
level you could attain at that point. Yes, you could
be a distributor. You have your own office, you have
your network of managers, and then they managed the consultants
(17:28):
or the party throwers, party hosts, and um. Basically she
started her own army of salespeople. Yeah, so incentibized salespeople.
Right now, there are two point nine million people in
the world. Every three seconds there's another top waur party.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right, So she she
(17:50):
put together this workforce and again it was UM, this
guy named Norman Squires who came up with this idea
that led to UM being a huge, huge hip for tupperware,
but also later on avon Um and Mary Kay and
Pampered Chef and like all of these, all of these
brands that like are sold through hostess parties basically get
(18:15):
you in our house and get you drunk and just
leave me a blank Checkly, but the it wasn't invented
by Brownie wise, but she definitely perfected it for sure.
So UM she tapped this workforce. And one of the
ways that she kept people excited and loyal not just
the fact that they could rise throughout this hierarchy UM
(18:38):
in the tupperware industry, but there there was also like
this thing that she created called the Jubilee every year
down Orlando. It was a big company party it was,
and they would just pull out all the stops like
they would bury fur coats. They were bury blenders. One
of the buyers once said that he bought a hundred
thousand blenders once for this jubilee. They just bring all
(19:00):
these tupperware sales associates and just basically throw them a
party for a few days and let them just win
free stuff and have a great time. Yeah. And when
you say, Barry, I think we should explains that sounds
really weird. They would bury these prizes and people would
go and dig them up. Right. It wasn't like you
can't have this. Look at what you can't have, we're
burying it. They just sounded fun. You're like, they bury
(19:21):
for coats, they bury anything that moves. Yeah, thank you. Yeah,
but it was all part of the fun. Apparently they
lost a lot of them too. Yeah. Years later, Um,
at the at the Tupperware headquarters in ORLEANSO, they went
to dig a pond and they found a bunch of
the prizes that had never been found. Yes, some say
there's still for coats buried all over Orlando by the illuminati. Right. So, um,
(19:46):
those are the big jubilee parties, the big company parties.
Great for morale. Um. The hostess uh themselves or the
consultants would um, they would make percentage. Uh, they basically
make a cut what they were able to sell as
well as get prizes. Um, like these really neat prizes
and the more parties you hosted, the better the prizes
(20:06):
would get. So it's like it's like the Wild West.
It's the Heyday for these women. They're like earning their
own money for a change. They're getting these great prizes.
They're feeling great about themselves. They're not bored any longer.
And their husbands were like, WHOA, what's going on here?
Give me that money you made? Yeah, exactly. And things
were so successful with this model that that was their
(20:29):
only sales model up until the late nineteen eighties. Right,
You couldn't even buy the stuff in stores. No, he
just stopped. It wasn't even worth the money or effort
to distribute it. The stories. They just did it through
parties and home parties. Thank you, Brownie Wise all right, So, um,
and like you said in they started selling it through
um catalogs, I guess, uh, yeah, I think they. I've
(20:54):
seen like older catalogs from like the fifties and sixties,
So I don't know what that means. Maybe over the
phone you saw Tupperware one. Yeah, it's on our it's
on the podcast pitch for this episode. There's a link
to this kind of design layout and it has some catalogs.
So it must have been like ordered by phone. Oh yeah,
maybe so. And then just about ten years later, Tupperware
(21:15):
had their first website, which e commerce in that was
fairly forward thinking. Yeah that's true, you know. Yeah, um,
so this caught like wildfire today you can it's not
just like an American institution. There are Tupperware parties, like
we said, at the rate of one every three seconds,
(21:36):
and more than a hundred countries around the world. I
had no idea that Tupperware was that popular in like
Asia and India, And they said half a million, more
than half a million every year in France alone. Yeah,
of Tupperware sales are outside of the US these days. Yeah,
and it's a I mean, like it's got it moving
like gangbusters. Last I saw, I was trading at like
(21:58):
sixty three dollars a share, which is down from like
a hundred in December. Maybe. Um, Like it's it's a
really set company again these days, Like it's been able
to just be on the brink of utter irrelevance when
it finds a new market, when it figures out a
new way to do to sell, when it figures out
a new product, like currently right now in China. Um,
(22:23):
Tupperware is making tons of cash selling a thousand dollar
water filter, and they're doing it by traveling from town
to town and setting up these in home demonstrations or
public demonstrations and showing how to do it. So they're
like taking the Tupperware model that Brownie Wise like really
perfected and and figuring out how it best works and
cultures around the world. Yeah, I know. They make um also,
(22:44):
like uh, depending on your country and what they eat,
like certain shaped um containers, right like round bread containers
for non in India. How about that? So what happened
to Brownie Wise? I guess she retired, was thanked, carried
out on everyone shoulders, and lived a great fulfilled life
until her death. Right. Well, we're gonna tell you right
(23:07):
after this break, all right, Josh, let's fast forward to um.
(23:30):
The Tupperware business is booming, Brownie Wise is a bit
of a celebrity. The twist is going like Gangbusters? Was it?
Probably okay? People are still twisting the night away? Yeah?
I mean what was that like? Probably started three years?
Sure there was some squares still twisting. Yeah, they weren't
(23:51):
doing the mashed potato yet. No, I think that was
a little later, Okay, Um, so business is booming, Brownie
Wise is killing it. She's a celebrity. Earl Tupper um
starts to get little jealous over the years. It's as
simple as that. Yeah. As much as he like didn't
seek or want the limelight, he was still jealous that
Brownie Wise people thought that she was Tupperware and that
(24:14):
she started the company um and started selling like I
can sell anything like this. So she didn't say that
him in the media said she could. She could have
done this with any brand. She's that great, and Earl
Tupper wanted to be like, well, no, I mean my
product that I invented is you know a big part
of this, if not the thing, Earl Tupper right, so
(24:36):
he um he apparently also she stopped kind of cow
towing to him quite as much. Um, but I got
on great for a while. Yeah. And again he had
said to their PR department and to any media interviewer like, yes,
this lady is the face of Tupperware. Treater is such, promoter,
is such, And he, just like you said, ended up
(24:58):
getting jealous. Didn't like that she wasn't cows outing to
him any longer, and in night said, you're fired. Yeah.
He The story I read was that he wanted to
sell the company and cash in, and that he didn't
think and was advised that it would be really hard
to sell a company with a woman in such a
prominent position on the board. And so he, uh, like
(25:21):
you said, just unceremoniously get rid of her, gave her
one year salary. It was like thirty grands zero stock
that she had built almost from the ground up. Yeah,
or help build at least. And I gotta say that
was her you know, that was her mistake. She should
have gotten some stock along the way. Yeah, I guess.
You know, she's too busy selling And yeah, I mean exactly.
(25:45):
She was imagined thirty five grand a year was a
pretty good salary at the point. You want me to
look it up, I will, you can. So she got
that small pay out. She went UM and what he
said to her was is that there were some accounting
errors in the previous year. She wouldn't come to Massachusetts
to talk to him about it, and sort of dug
(26:05):
In says that she said that she had gotten sicker,
injured and couldn't leave Florida. He finally went down to
Florida UM and basically said that, you know, these jubilees
are too expensive. The landscaping you've done here in Florida,
the company headquarters is too expensive. You're spending too much
money on clothes. Uh. And we own all that stuff,
We own all your clothing. What well, I mean that's
(26:28):
I don't know if he actually took it, but he
basically was like, you know, she paid for all that
stuff through the company, as she should have, you know,
to keep up appearances. But um, yeah, that was it
for her. She started a small company called Cinderella Cosmetics
that folded after a year and sort of faded into obscurity.
Then um earl tupper Uh sold out that the next
(26:53):
year I think sixteen million. Yeah, he sells out for
sixteen million dollars. Nice cash. She wrecked all drug company,
which was eventually absorbed by Kraft, who apparently now owns Tupperware.
I think maybe it's the parent company. Um and yeah,
sixteen million in nineteen fifty eight. It's not too bad
for a boy who couldn't get his parents to build
(27:14):
a playground on the family pick your own whatever farm.
Did you find out if she thirty five grand was
a good salary? Yeah? It wasn't bad. It was like
two hundred and I think thirty two thousand dollars back then. Yeah,
that's good. It's not bad. I mean especially for a executive. Yeah. Um.
(27:35):
But he sold the whole thing for sixteen million, gave
her one year salary, moved to Costa Rica, bought an island,
announced as US citizenships so they didn't have to pay
any taxes on that. Got divorced. Yeah right, and uh
said Siona, everybody, I'm going to Costa Rica to buy
an island and keep a note pad in my pocket.
So anytime an idea for a new invention hits, I'll
(27:59):
have it. Yeah. And just like probably you know, eight
pineapples on his island. Yeah. He died in three in
Costa Rica, Uh, seventy six, and she died in nineteen
and Um, tupperware has not gone out of fashion. It's
it's been featured uh starting in what year was it,
(28:21):
I guess when they first came out at the Museum
of Modern Art, and then again in two thousand eleven.
I think I even saw this exhibit. In fact, I'm
almost positive I did, because it was about just industrial
design and things, and there's Tupperware all over again because
of its gorgeous of course, now you know that fifties
era design. The original line that tupper released is called
(28:46):
the Millionaire line, and it came in six colors, five
pastels and one white, right, yellow, blue, green, orange, and pink.
And they're really pretty. Like if you look at a
set of these things in a good, good condition, they're gorgeous.
He went on to the Plastics Hall of Fame. Um
and now like this stuff from the fifties and sixties,
(29:06):
you can get some decent money on eBay for that stuff,
you know, because it still works and people love that
retro look. Did you know that he refused refused to
have any um any pet bowls designed. He thought it
was Tupperware was too good for pets to eat out of.
What a jerk. See, I was all on board until that.
(29:30):
Actually I wasn't on board. I was off board when
I found out that he fired Brownie Wise. Yeah he
and then was like, okay, I've got some money. See
a later family. Yeah, moved to Costa Rica. Would you
be funny if he went down and started a cult
with the slinky guy. Um? So Tupperware stayed pretty much
the same until when they designer named Morrison Cousins basically
(29:53):
kind of redesigned for for the new era. Yeah he
he was UM already a VP I guess that Tupperware
and he was. He decided that it was a little difficult.
He had an eighty two or eighty one year old
mother at the time eighty seven year old mother at
the time when he was charged with redesigning the Tupperware line,
(30:14):
and UM he from that viewpoint, he redesigned it to
make it easier for UM the aged to use. Right,
So like that burping lid that you had to like
really kind of have some decent hand strength to put on.
He figured out a way around it by UM using
flaps that opened and closed to release the air. Didn't
(30:35):
require quite as much hand strength. UM. The lids were
made in contrast and closure to the bowls, so if
you had a low visibility low vision not visibility, that's
totally different. If you were wearing all camouflage at the time,
you'd be able to find the lid and the bowl
that go together pretty easy. So he yea, he made
(30:56):
them easier for old books, yep. And he was the
guy who UM brought it online. He did a lot
of good stuff. Apparently with it, he also took the brand.
I thought this is cool, and I would love to
see this on video because I'll bet it's just so
bizarre and surreal to watch. They broadcast a series of
(31:17):
live Tupperware parties on some home shopping channel in the
early nineties. That was probably the first home shopping experience.
I think those were around in the eighties. I think
home shopping was already established. When did they do this
early nineties? Oh? I thought you said he did it
like in the sixties. No, no, no, got no, we
should do one on home shopping. I'll bet that has
(31:37):
an interesting, weird history. You think I'll look into you know? Okay,
my mom's into it, man. QBC. So did we talk
about how to throw a tupperware party? We did? We
sure did. Okay, did we talk about tupperware drag parties?
We did not. We should because there's more than one.
(32:00):
There's well, there's one person in particular, a guy named
Chris Anderson, who performs in drag as Dixie Longate and
um sells like a million dollars worth of tupperware in
the process. Like he gets paid to perform like you
gotta pay forty bucks just to a person just to
(32:20):
have I guess he stole does house parties, but he
literally does like tours and does like off Broadway shows
and stuff now right, But the whole thing is I
mean real tupperware party where like you can buy tupperware,
and like he's demonstrating the tupperware. He's kind of giving
his own take on what it's useful for. But he's
not the only um drag show in the country selling tupperware,
(32:41):
of course, not apparently. Uh. A drag queen named Aunt
Barbara up in Long Island is was at least in
two twelve the number one salesperson in North America for tupperware.
It all makes sense when you think about it. So
two d and fifty grand worth of tupperware in one year.
Like the kitch of the drag show the kitch of
tupperware parties, it all sort of goes hand in hand. Yes,
(33:05):
it does. And um I went to the website of
Dixie Longate and he has a pretty interesting bio. I
have three kids, Winona, Dwayne and Absorbing Junior. It's all
made up, I think, I think maybe, although you never know,
but yeah, now he has solo stand up shows, um
(33:26):
and a recent theatrical show called Never Wear a Tube
Top while Riding a Mechanical bowl and sixteen other things
I learned while I was drinking last Thursday. And apparently
that is selling out venues. It's basically that's selling out venues.
We're not, but that is don't be better. We will
one day if we didn't dragging. Probably. Well, no, that's
(33:47):
not true either, one day chuck. Yeah. Uh wow, that's
a weird way to end us. Yeah, I think it's perfect. Um.
I thought I had something else, but I guess I don't. Oh,
yes I do. PBS did a great documentary called Tupperware
with an exclamation point. It's got a whole website on
online and you can watch parts of the documentary, if
(34:09):
not the whole thing. Yeah, and look for the Sandra
Bullock the Brownie Wise story coming to a theater near
you in a couple of years. Nice job, you said
a theater near you. A theater you just said coming
to a theater near you. That's like, Wow, did you
ever think you would grow up to say that like
in public? Sure? Okay, Well, if you want to know
(34:31):
more about tupper war. You can type that one word
and the search part how stuff works dot com? And uh,
since I said search parts time for listener mail. And
they call this the Strisand effect. Have you ever heard
of this? No, Hello, Josh, Chuck and Jerry really enjoyed
the podcast on Internet censorship, although I was disturbed that
(34:51):
s OP three oh three exists. Sure, one thing not
mentioned that I thought was relevant is when individuals attempt
to censor specific things from their own life and the
resulting fallout that occurs. In two thousand three, and I
remember what was happening. Actually, a picture of Barbra Streisand's
home in Malibu appeared in a publicly available collection of
over twelve thousand photos of California coastline. The collection was
(35:16):
documenting coastal erosion and not related to news paparazzi or
tabloids or anything like that. But Streisand's lawyers filed a
fifty million dollar lawsuit against the photographer, asking the picture
to be taken down for privacy reasons. Before stories of
the lawsuit hit the press, the photo of the home
had only been downloaded six times, two of which were
(35:36):
by her attorneys. During the following month. After the whole
thing became a news story. More than four hundred thousand
people visited the website. Uh, they even coined the term
the streisand effect were an attempt to hand for her.
Yeah it did. I remember this blew up in her face.
An attempt at censoring or removing something from the Internet
results and said thing being seen and reported on much
(35:58):
more than if the person requesting it be removed it
simply let it fade into obscurity. Thanks for the podcast.
Also possibly a shout out to my wife Emily, who
is nearly as addicted to stuff you should know as
I am nearly And that is from Brinton Krausse in
uh mid Hudson Valley, New York, USA. So Emily and
get on it so you're equally as addicted. And thank
(36:21):
you Britton for being fully addicted. Yeah to the brim.
I guess Uh. If you want to get in touch
with us and talk to us about tupperware or um whatever,
you can tweet to us right at s y s
K podcast. Josh's manning that station. You can go on
to our awesome Facebook page courtesy of Chuckers Facebook dot
(36:45):
com slash stuff you should know You can send us
an email. We both get those become direct to us
to uh stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com,
and hang out with us at our home on the
web Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on
this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works
(37:06):
dot com. M
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