A Ridiculous History of Tupperware

Summary

A Ridiculous History of Tupperware

Episode Summary for "Ridiculous History" by iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In the episode titled "A Ridiculous History of Tupperware," hosts Ben Thompson and Noel Brown delve into the fascinating and often overlooked story behind one of the most iconic household brands—Tupperware. Released on April 24, 2025, this episode explores the innovative business strategies, the pivotal role of Brownie Wise, and the eventual downfall of the Tupperware empire. Through engaging discussions and insightful analysis, the hosts shed light on how a simple plastic container became a cultural phenomenon.

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The Birth of Tupperware

The story begins in 1937 during the Great Depression, a time when America was grappling with economic hardship. Ben Thompson sets the stage by describing the environment:

"Travel back with us, fellow ridiculous historians. It's 1937. The Great Depression... people were having just the roughest time." ([00:00])

Earl Tupper, an inventor working with DuPont, seeks a solution to help families preserve food amid scarcity. Dissatisfied with the existing materials, Tupper experiments with polyethylene—a byproduct often considered inferior and slated for disposal.

"He thinks, 'What if we make a container out of this plastic that these DuPont guys are pitching?'" ([13:06])

Despite initial challenges, including unpleasant odors and issues with manufacturing lids, Tupper's persistence leads to the creation of the Wonder Bowl, a durable and innovative plastic container designed to keep food fresh longer.

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Enter Brownie Wise: The Marketing Maverick

While Earl Tupper focused on the product development, Brownie Wise emerged as the unsung hero who revolutionized Tupperware's sales strategy. Born in rural Georgia in 1913, Brownie was a talented writer and organizer who faced numerous personal challenges, including a tumultuous marriage and single motherhood.

"Brownie Wise is our protagonist. She is from Georgia... dropped out of school at the age of 14 to work with her mother as an organizer for union the hatmakers." ([21:17])

Leveraging her background in direct sales with Stanley Home Products, Brownie pioneered the Tupperware Party—a novel approach that combined product demonstration with social gathering. This strategy not only showcased the practicality of Tupperware but also built a community among housewives, empowering women through business opportunities.

"Wise once said, if you build the people, they'll build the business." ([36:26])

Her charismatic presentations and emphasis on teaching customers how to use Tupperware, including the now-famous "Tupperware burp," made the product a household staple.

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Tupperware's Golden Era

Under Brownie Wise's leadership, Tupperware experienced meteoric growth. By 1954, sales had soared to $24 million, a figure equivalent to approximately $284.68 million in 2025 dollars.

"By 1954, Tupperware is just running the game. They're amazing at this. The sales have reached US$24 million." ([42:08])

The company boasted over 20,000 dealers, with a diverse representation that included black women from various backgrounds, breaking industry norms and fostering an inclusive environment. This diversity not only expanded Tupperware's reach but also provided valuable economic opportunities for many women during a time when they were being edged out of the traditional workforce post-World War II.

"Tupperware company was also very diverse in its hiring practices... black women coming from urban and rural areas participating in these Tupperware parties." ([43:49])

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Conflict and Downfall

Despite the flourishing business, tensions brewed behind the scenes. Earl Tupper, initially supportive, became envious of Brownie Wise's prominence and the media attention she garnered.

"He became... envious because Brownie Wise was getting headlines. She was a face of the company." ([44:26])

By 1958, Earl Tupper decided to oust Brownie Wise from the company, citing mishaps like weather-related injuries at large parties as scapegoats.

"In 1958, having gotten the excuse that he was looking for, Tupper fired Wise from the company." ([46:12])

This decision was not only a personal setback for Wise but also marked the beginning of the company's decline. Without her innovative strategies and leadership, Tupperware struggled to maintain its market dominance.

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Legacy and Recognition

Brownie Wise's contributions were eventually recognized long after her departure. In 2016, Tupperware honored her legacy by donating $200,000 to name a park after her near their corporate headquarters in Orlando.

"In 2016... the Tupperware company donated US$200,000 to name a park after her near their corporate headquarters in Orlando." ([47:59])

Today, Tupperware continues to honor Brownie Wise's legacy by maintaining the tradition of Tupperware parties, demonstrating the enduring impact of her visionary approach.

"Despite having declared bankruptcy in 2024, that doesn't mean the company is gone. There is a link at the very top that says host a party." ([48:35])

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Conclusion

"A Ridiculous History of Tupperware" highlights the intricate interplay between innovation, marketing genius, and corporate dynamics. Ben Thompson and Noel Brown effectively illustrate how Brownie Wise's entrepreneurial spirit and community-building tactics transformed Tupperware into a symbol of empowerment and cultural significance. The episode serves as a testament to the profound influence one individual can have on an entire industry, ensuring that Brownie Wise's legacy remains undiminished despite the company's challenges.

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Notable Quotes

• Ben Thompson ([00:00]):

  "History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous."

• Noel Brown ([33:35]):

  "It's like, you were good enough to take your jobs while you're away at war, but when you're back, it's like you just tossed us out."

• Ben Thompson ([36:26]):

  "Wise once said, if you build the people, they'll build the business."

• Noel Brown ([43:49]):

  "Tupperware is not just white suburban matchbook house hell. This speaks to universal needs for so many people."

• Ben Thompson ([44:26]):

  "She was reaching celebrity. Right? That's the point."

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key themes and discussions from the "A Ridiculous History of Tupperware" episode, providing listeners with an in-depth understanding of Tupperware's rise, the pivotal role of Brownie Wise, and the eventual challenges that led to the company's downturn.

Transcript

[Ben Thompson]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you as always, so much for tuning. Tuning in. Let's hear it. Let's get a. Let. You know what, let's get a Tupperware burp for our super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, gross. No, take it.

[Ben Thompson]

Picture a Tupperware burp.

[Noel Brown]

That is not what it. Tupperware.

[Ben Thompson]

All right.

[Noel Brown]

You sounded like you do.

[Ben Thompson]

What? You're Noel Brown. I've been bullied. Yeah, it's like a breath.

[Noel Brown]

It's like a breath.

[Ben Thompson]

Oh, if it's good Tupperware, it's like.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, there's that.

[Max Williams]

Are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room? And Happy Oblivion Day. Happy Oblivion Day.

[Noel Brown]

Nobody knows this but you, Max. Everyone knows this, but this is the.

[Max Williams]

Biggest news in gaming.

[Ben Thompson]

We're recording on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, about 11am local time. And during this time, during this recording, we have asked our pal Max to pull some double duty and keep an eye on the news regarding Bethesda's latest re release of Obliv is a game we enjoy.

[Max Williams]

Also to jump in real quick, the serious thing that I actually wanted to put up here at the top. Happy four years, boys.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, is that right?

[Max Williams]

April 20th, 420 was four years of me on the show.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, nice.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah.

[Noel Brown]

Well, congratulations to you, max, and happy 420. And happy Jesus's rebirthday.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah, Step aside, Pope Francis. There's bigger news.

[Noel Brown]

I think he did step aside in the terminal kind of sense.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah. Yeah. We've been going back and forth about the news is crazy these days. It's chaotic, people are in uncertain times. And so we decided off air that we were going to look into some stuff that is not necessarily breaking news, but a story that needs to be told. With the help of our research associate, Ren fellow ridiculous historians, Noel, Max and I are going to do some justice to the world of Tupperware. We're going to tell you a story of an unsung hero you may not have heard of up to this point. Her name, real name, Brownie Wise. I think it's a cool name.

[Noel Brown]

It's a very cool name.

[Max Williams]

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[Maria Tremarchi]

Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarchi, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the Highwayman suggests men dominated the field. But tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrers, known as the wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Noel Brown]

It seems like a concept, like being Brownie wise. It's like, you know a good brownie when you see it, right, Ben? You know, I'll tell you what I think of whenever I hear the word Tupperware, aside from, you know, keeping my leftovers fresh, is the idea of a Tupperware party. I think we're gonna explore that a bit today. And number two, that SC Napoleon Dynamite, where Uncle Rico is selling Tupperware and he enlists, I think, Napoleon and Pedro to help out and he does a thing where he like, runs over a piece of Tupperware. No, I know who it is. It's Napoleon's brother. Runs over a piece of Tupperware in a van and it breaks and then he just runs away or he drives away. That was a thing that I always remember hearing, like, it's indestructible. This, this Tupperware.

[Ben Thompson]

I love that we're bringing up film because I think of, I want to say it was Edward Scissorhands. Isn't there like a Tupperware party scene in there?

[Noel Brown]

It seems like there would be. It was very much about suburbia. It was. I think the main character played by Dan Weiss is a. What is it? Avon. Avon Lady. That was another Avon. Hallmark of suburbia was the Avon calling.

[Ben Thompson]

And the Tupperware party, the direct marketing. Yeah. Here's the thing. As Ren points out, if you have a plastic container that you use to store leftovers in your fridge or in your bread basket or whatever, you probably casually refer to it as Tupperware. In the United States, it's one of those things that became a universal name like Xerox or to Google or Band Aid or Kleenex or Frisbee, even a Coke sometimes. Yeah. The old soda pop. And right now, we're coming to you from the past. We want to rip off the Band Aid first and let you know that Tupperware as an organization filed for bankruptcy in the fall of 2024.

[Noel Brown]

Let's say it ain't so.

[Ben Thompson]

I wish we could say it ain't so. Maybe it'll return. But in the halcyon salad days, this company, Noel Tupperware, was known for that business model we're describing and comparing to AV on it relied upon people that you would describe as housewives. Right. And they're often, unfortunately a population that is treated as though they're on the margins. And the idea was, look, we're not going to put this stuff immediately in stores. We're going to build a community around these products.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. And they're selling an image with their stackable measuring cups and plastic pitchers and party wear and things for storing your leftovers. And it's sort of pitched as this sort of innovative, sort of futuristic solution. This is back when, if I'm not mistaken, plastic was still seen as kind.

[Ben Thompson]

Of like a technological marvel, A real up and comer. Right. In comparison to its also ran material. Bakelite, for anybody who remembers Bakelite. So look, we're all accustomed to storing leftovers. I know some people have some strong opinions about leftovers, but you know me, Noel, I'm like a reduce, reuse, recycle kind of guy. So when I order takeout food or something, I do prioritize places that'll give me reusable containers.

[Noel Brown]

Absolutely.

[Ben Thompson]

You know what I mean?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. And I'll work through them and they'll eventually crack and stuff and I'll throw them away. But I definitely get use out of good quality to go containers if you're looking for some real good ones. In the Atlanta area, there's a local chain called Fresh to Order, and their plastic containers are second to none, I would argue. I've got stacks and stacks of them, as Ren puts it, tumbling out of my kitchen cabinet.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah. And look at me. Just. We're an audio podcast, but as you know, Noel and Max, I reuse glass pasta jars as cups for coffee.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, you're a bell jar man. Thank you.

[Ben Thompson]

I'm going to take that as a.

[Noel Brown]

Compliment as it was intended, sir.

[Ben Thompson]

We have. Look, we all knew the plastic container game here in the modern US and we do often refer to those containers, to your earlier point, as Tupperware, even if they're not technically Tupperware. The reason this phrase and concept became so ubiquitous is not necessarily due to the inventor of Tupperware. This is why we're on a mission. In today's episode, we come to you to defend the reputation of a writer, a divorced mother, a brilliant mind, Brownie wise.

[Noel Brown]

Brownie wise. He said it earlier. The protagonist of our story versus, if we must, the big bad of our story. The guy Tupper himself.

[Ben Thompson]

The guy who invented, in a burst of humility, Tupperware.

[Noel Brown]

Tupperware. But first, Ben, let's talk a little bit about plastic. Not just any plastic, polyethylene. It's science.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah, yeah. And it's science that is driven by necessity. Right? The mother of invention. Travel back with us, fellow ridiculous historians. It's 1937. The Great Depression, which is still a terrible name, is very much in play. People are having just the roughest time. I remember history is always closer than it appears in the rearview mirror. Noel, recently after. After a death in the family, I was going through some things at an estate and I found a cabinet. And it's so weird, I found a cabinet that had in the back of it a collection of small rolled up string because they didn't want to throw away the string in the 1930s, they thought they might need it again.

[Noel Brown]

It was a frugal time and with everyone struggling to make ends meet, including companies who were having a hard time selling their goods because people just couldn't afford to buy it. It's a sort of chain reaction that triggered a lot of companies going out of business, of course. So while today maybe we couldn't picture a world without microplastics, you know, and.

[Ben Thompson]

Plastics, the big brushes and our heads.

[Noel Brown]

And our children and everything and all the things. Yep. At the time, like we were saying, it was quite a new innovation in the day of Tupper, and companies were really eager to start to spin this new miracle material into gold. So Tupper was hired at a plastic. I believe you found the actual company name.

[Ben Thompson]

Oh, yes, yeah. It's our old friends at dupont.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, we've heard of them. They were Kind of first to market in the old plastics game.

[Ben Thompson]

They do a lot of material science and they're also finding uses for various.

[Noel Brown]

Fossil fuel products, petroleum based things. Paint, of course.

[Ben Thompson]

Right, yeah, Panoply of products. We want to give a big shout out to Professor Marsha Bryant, writing for the conversation back in 2018. From slag to swag, the story of Earl Tubbers fantastic plastic. So like you're saying, this guy, he's having a hard time, as is most of the American population, and he gets hired by a DuPont affiliated plastic company, plastics company to test prototypes. And look, he is not, not in a silver spoon situation. Earl Tupper at this point is not the villain of our story. Instead, he's a man trying to answer a question that he knows is common for so many people struggling with a challenging economy. He says, look, it's hard enough to buy groceries. Less than half of America can afford a refrigerator. People are growing their own food in their backyard out of desperation. Surely there's a way that we could preserve food so it doesn't go to waste. And he came up with this idea. He said, what if we made a container out of this plastic that these dupont guys are pitching?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, for sure. And I was just going to say if it seems like you missed an opportunity for a good slogan here. Stretch your supper with Tupper.

[Ben Thompson]

Ah, stretch your supper with Tupper. Stretch. Their supper stood out to me as well in Wren's research. That's, that's a really good turn of phrase. Look, the, the issue was the material science wasn't quite there yet. The existing substances that Tupper was working with were not super ductile.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, like, like Uncle Rico's probably less than subpar plastic containers. I mean, granted you probably shouldn't run over regular Tupperware with a van either, but it would crack when under pressure in even before it reached market in the molding process. It was a flaw of the way this plastic that they were using was being manufactured.

[Ben Thompson]

So this guy is looking for his golden goose, right? The holy grail, the next step in material science. And he starts taking little pieces of different types of plastic home and experimenting on his own time, you know, off the books. He eventually lands upon something called polyethylene. Nobody had thought to test polyethylene for its ductility because it was considered a byproduct. It was considered kind of a trash plastic. People called it kind of like bacon.

[Noel Brown]

Back in the day of Edward Bernays. Yeah, I mean like the idea that you could take a byproduct like bacon of a slaughtering process, a manufacturing process to create pork chops or pork products. And what was seen as something that to be discarded or as, like, trash meat in that situation was ultimately, ultimately spun into a marketing miracle by Edward Bernays. Early Stuff They Don't Want yout to Know episodes about the father of marketing there you can check out. But this is even more of, like, a functional thing. This byproduct that was referred to by the folks that, you know, were manufacturing this stuff as slag. Tupper saw something in it, literally. The idea that it could potentially be more durable and be molded because of some properties that he found in it when kind of digging into the samples that he brought back.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah. And this is, to be fair, after he's taken multiple samples of things we would call slag in the plastics industry and tested them at home. So travel with us to Tupper's kitchen. He's at home in his kitchen. And like you were saying, Noel, he says, wow, this polyethylene, it is stinky. It is slag, but you can melt it. And his kitchen probably smelled terrible, if we're being honest at this point. You can melt it and you can put it into a mold, and it's not gonna break. This is where he starts returning to the. You know, to his day job and saying, guys, let's call it poly tea material of the future. The issue now is. Okay, so we got two issues. First, the issue is the smell. Second, you haven't thought about the smell. Second, the issue is the lid. Right now we can make a bowl. How do we make a lid?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, this is confusing to me. Maybe you can help shed some light on this. The idea that there was a catch, that people were used to just closing a bell jar, a mason jar with a screw top. But. But there was, like, an extra step, I guess, before you were storing your stuff. I guess you wanted to get the air out of it or get as much air out as possible. So you had to burp the seal, and it was tough. Smithsonian Magazine points out for people who were accustomed to glass jars and ceramic containers to kind of figure this out. And maybe I'm just spoiled by a life of luxury, surrounded by Tupperware, But I guess I don't understand the. I know a Tupperware burp is referred to as the sound that it makes when that seal is released, but what does this mean? The idea that, like, you had to.

[Ben Thompson]

Burp really means you had to teach the population how to use the product. And I love that we're pointing Out Smithsonian because Kat Eschner did some fantastic work in her article the story of Brownie Wise, the ingenious marketer behind the Tupperware Party Light Spoiler. It makes sense. We've talked about it before. With other big rollouts of new products, you kind of have to teach the people or normalize the consumer base towards certain behaviors. So like you were saying, Noel, if you are used to canning, right. You got your mason jar and you got your screw top lid. You already know about soda at this point and how to open cans. Right. The can opener is an invention. Already the people who are making Tupperware are trying to figure out how to teach folks this extra step. You've gotta leverage up one corner of the container and then push down a little bit to get that excess air out.

[Noel Brown]

That's what it is for sure. Yep. And then, you know, and it's not like required, but he was pitching this as a tried and true method for getting the most out of your preservation. Right. Of your food. So a good example too is if you're used to maybe using plastic wrap. I learned this back when I first worked in a restaurant in my younger days. But you put plastic wrap on the top of the thing and you're supposed to push it down so that the air gets forced out of the sides and it almost creates like a vacuum seal where it kind of, you know, bows inward a little bit. It's just a simpler method of doing, say, what like a vacuum sealer food saver situation does, where it literally sucks all the air out. But by lifting that lid and pushing down a little bit and forcing that air out, you're gonna do exactly what the best possible sales pitch for this thing was. Preserve your food for longer so you're ready to start a business. But the thing is, when it comes to making a website and a logo and doing social media marketing and all that good stuff, you and me included are completely clueless.

[Ben Thompson]

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[Noel Brown]

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[Ben Thompson]

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[Noel Brown]

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[Ben Thompson]

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[Noel Brown]

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[Ben Thompson]

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[Holly Fry]

So are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24. 7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.

[Ben Thompson]

And this is where we introduce our protagonist, Max. A little bit of protagonist music, if we may, for the one, the only, Brownie Wise. While not the inventor of what we call Tupperware, Brownie Wise is, I would argue, the reason Tupperware is still considered a thing today.

[Noel Brown]

For sure. She had a vision.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah, she has a vision. She knows how to speak with the people, right? And at this time, Tupperware, they're calling the new invention the Wonder Bowl. And you've probably seen a picture of this or you might have one in your cabinet now. No. Let's learn a little bit about Brownie Wise. She is from Georgia.

[Noel Brown]

That's right, rural Georgia. Born in 1913. A bit of a mystery in terms of her backstory. We do know that she dropped out of school at the age of 14 to work with her mother as an organizer for union the Hatmakers. And from a very, very early age, she had a lot of drive. She was a dreamer. She had that vision very early on. She wanted to be a writer and an illustrator. And in 1936, she won a chance to paint a mural at the Texas Centennial, which is callback to another Wren episode, a World's Fair exhibition.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah, great stuff, Wren. And while she's in Texas for this fair, she meets a guy named Robert and she kind of digs him. And later they get married. Robert is in charge of an exhibit for the Ford Motor Company at the World's Fair or at the Texas Centennial. When they get together, picture every amazing rom com, meet cute you've ever seen. They eventually have one child, Jerry, and then they move to Detroit. While they're in Detroit, Brownie Wise, who was always a very talented writer and illustrator, we know that she would contribute to a column called Experience, published in Detroit News. It's a reader's Forum wherein people write under different pseudonyms like Gin Whistle. No Can See. Get it? And Hippity Hopping.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, way ahead of its time. They invented hip hop back in Detroit in the 30s. So Wise had her own pen name and it was Hibiscus. That sounds very Southern and genteel.

[Ben Thompson]

Hibiscus.

[Noel Brown]

Hibiscus and Hibiscus, as I guess in the character, the sort of lore she was.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah, the world building.

[Noel Brown]

Uh huh. She had a devoted husband by the name of Yankee. And despite his unwavering love, she missed her family mansion back home in Mississippi.

[Ben Thompson]

Oh, how long for those? Slow.

[Noel Brown]

Long for the. Indeed. With a mint julep on the porch. The conveniences, as she put it, of a southern bell. Hibiscus and Wise were very much two completely different people.

[Ben Thompson]

He's not the real story.

[Noel Brown]

This is so funny.

[Ben Thompson]

It's sad. It's so sad because Hibiscus, although Brownie Wise is writing this character, Hibiscus is not real. And Brownie is leading a very different life. Her husband Robert, from this centennial that we talked about earlier, he is nothing like the strapping Yankee. He is addicted to booze. He is also abusive. Eventually the couple divorces. It's 1942, so divorce is still very unfair to women in this country for sure. And now she's a single mother. She's still got Jerry, like you said, she has dropped out. She doesn't have too much formal education to speak of. It's the height of World War II, so things are already not great again. And she's working multiple. It's like a gig economy. Right.

[Noel Brown]

She has multiple jobs and then she finds her way to sort of a proto version of the business model that we're really, you know, getting to. The idea of being a door to door city salesman, you know, you hear a lot more. Or salesperson, rather. You hear a lot more about that business model from this era. You think about Death of a Salesman, for example, the Tennessee Williams play, and just the idea of like being a vacuum cleaner salesman where you like bring the little bag of dirt and pour it on the ground and then like show how you can vacuum it up or whatever.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah. Selling encyclopedias or knives or there's a great documentary now, parody, selling Globes. One of the. I don't know if I told you guys, one of the weirdest comedy sketches I ever wrote was, you know, how you love to take a notion or a dumb initial idea and just see how far you can go with it. I'm going to pitch it to you guys now. Door to door. Door Salesman.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. It's like buying luggage at the airport.

[Ben Thompson]

I love it. Thank you for the support on that one. Yeah.

[Max Williams]

If I can jump in here real quick. We've already referenced one Tim Burton film, so I think we should reference another one, which is. Is Big Fish, which in big fish, Ewan McGregor's character, who's like the younger father thing, watch the movie, he sells door to door. Like it's a hand that holds things. Because Big Fish is always. Is kind of a movie that's like a little bit off. And one of my favorite things about it, because obviously that came out after Edward Scissorhands. They were very intentional because the thing, the hand would like, hold a bunch of different things. They made sure for it to never have scissors in the hand.

[Ben Thompson]

Ah, yes, Perfect. A solution to a problem that doesn't exist for most people. That's what made for TV products are. I love it. To just give everybody a sense of how far down the rabbit hole we walked on that sketch, which astute listeners can find on YouTube. I imagine the door to door door salesman sells doors, themed doors like Jim Morrison.

[Noel Brown]

Galaxy Brain to me, dude.

[Ben Thompson]

So Brownie Wise, like you were saying, is already getting her feet on the street, right? She's selling these Stanley home products. Knock, knock, ring the doorbell. Walking into people's homes and saying, check out this cleaning product. Here are these cool brushes, maybe a vacuum cleaner.

[Noel Brown]

She.

[Ben Thompson]

She looks around, right? She's a top seller at this point for Stanley home products. And she says, hang on, what's this Tupperware thing I gonna tick. What's this? Why isn't it selling? Well, the Wonder bowl is a great idea.

[Noel Brown]

Yes. And she kind of had to ask herself why, like what? This doesn't make sense. This is such a great idea, such a great concept. Must have something to do with. With the communication with the public that these things should potentially be absolutely blowing up with. Which led her to this concept of burping the container before putting into the fridge. So Wise kind of figured that she could come up with a better way of selling this stuff to the public, specifically to housewives. The housewives. We talked about that. She understood their lives. She was able to kind of speak that language. Cause that was her absolute background, especially in being a single mother, having to. To stretch the food that she puts on the table. Coming by this stuff honestly, she figured that she could sell this product using the home party method that she had learned at Stanley.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah, and a home party method means that our protagonist, our hero of this story, Brownie Wise, is not just going door to door solo. She is introducing people to a community. So now we can have folks get together and talk about how much they love Stanley Home Products. She thinks maybe I could build a community around Tupperware again. It's very difficult to be a single mother. Right. She's a single mom, quite motivated. She moves with her son from Detroit over to Florida and she founds her own company called Tupperware Patio Parties. I like saying patio Wise started hosting Tupperware parties at her own home. And while she was at these parties, she would tell people like she would solve the problem Earl Tupper couldn't figure out. She would normalize the idea of burping the Tupperware, like showing you how to do it. And she also would make it just like a cool hang. It's a cool house party.

[Noel Brown]

That's what she named very community focused. I mean, and I would argue that there's a lot of, you know, outside of the marketing genius of it all, this was a time where folks were feeling kind of isolated, you know, and to give them a reason to kind of connect with other like minded or, you know, people from the same background in their community. I think that's really neat that she was kind of fostering that with these Tupperware parties. And she also kind of had a bit of flair. While she would demonstrate, you know, the technique of burping the Tupperware, normalizing it, making it at part of it obviously household naming, the concept of a Tupperware burp. While I didn't really fully understand before this exactly what it was referring to, I certainly knew the term and you can thank Wise for that. She also, speaking of flair, a little bit of theatricality, she would toss around to the folks attending the party a bowl, one of those Tupperware bowls full of grapefruit, showing that it wouldn't leak.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah. Again, the Wonder bowl is sort of the flagship product at this point. And she would take grape juice dentistry.

[Noel Brown]

Grape juice, yes. Not grapefruit. Yeah, yeah, even better because like that's the scary stuff that you know, will stain.

[Ben Thompson]

Right. She's got the classic banter, the patter we used to call it back in the uk and she is able to take this Wonder bowl, show people how to successfully close the lid and burp the Tupperware. And yeah, she's throwing around, she's like, look, this won't leak. Which is amazing. So it doesn't take long. It's less than a year, it's just a few months. And Brownie Wise has expanded Tupperware patio parties. Now she has not quite franchising, but she has Tupperware dealers, she has a crew, she's building out the organization such that there are home party managers, most of whom are women, and they are running the game as well. So we have to understand the context. Right. This is Post World War II at this point, and the U.S. needed resources, needed employees. So women entered the workforce at an unprecedented level for the country. But now that the war is over and these men are returning, they're taking these women's jobs and there's this huge, incredibly unfair cultural push to put women away from public workforce. Right. And put them back into the kitchen, back into the housewife situation. There's nothing wrong with whatever path people choose to take take on their own, as long as you're not hurting people. But a lot of women felt that they were unfairly getting pushed out of the workforce. This was not a glass ceiling. This was a matter of US companies aggressively firing women, pushing them out for nothing other than misogyny.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, oh, you were good enough to take your jobs while you're away at war, but when you're back, it's like you just tossed us out. Like, I'm sorry, I don't mean to speak for women, but certainly the sentiment and the idea of, you know, really carrying the weight while the men were off at war and then being treated like second class citizens.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah, no appreciation. Yeah. And as a result, there are a lot of people in this demographic who want to continue, continue working in some capacity. Right. And so these folks hear about Brownie wise, they hear about Tupperware patio parties and they want to get involved in the business because now it is a thing they can do that is gainful employment and is less unfair. I don't want to say completely unfair, but it's less unfair than the rest of the American job market.

[Noel Brown]

I guess that's looked at as like safe or something, you know, by the powers to be. Or it's sort of like, oh, yes, let them have their little Tupperware parties, you know, which is incredibly dismissive and gross, you know, in retrospect, but it was a place that they could go. And not to mention, the Tupperware company was also very diverse in its hiring practices. You would see black women coming from urban and rural areas participating in these Tupperware parties and again, stretching out these networks to other areas where they lived. So you're ready to start a business. But the thing is, when it comes to making a website and a logo and doing social media marketing and all that good stuff, you and me included are completely clueless.

[Ben Thompson]

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[Noel Brown]

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[Ben Thompson]

And who doesn't like choices? Aero even lets you write social ads and it posts them for you automatically with a fully populated social media calendar.

[Noel Brown]

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[Ben Thompson]

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[Noel Brown]

It's like you know what you're doing.

[Ben Thompson]

Terms applied. That's GoDaddy.com/all access.

[Holly Fry]

Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24,7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.

[Ben Thompson]

And this is incredibly successful. The secret to Wise's success, by the way, is not entirely based on the Stanley Home Products model. It's the community that she builds. She has a great quotation that we found in Smithsonian and a couple of other places. Wise once said, if you build the people, they'll build the business. Which I thought was super insightful. And of course, this is where our turn occurs. Noel.

[Noel Brown]

It is insightful. It's a little on the corporate Y side. You could look at it as a corporate Y kind of slightly dehumanizing way of looking at things, but I don't know that that's how she intended it. But I guess maybe hindsight is totally different.

[Ben Thompson]

It might be our internalized cynicism.

[Noel Brown]

Right? That's right. That's what I'm getting at 100%. So this was the turn though, however, right? This is a point where the world changed and Tupperware somewhat got left behind.

[Ben Thompson]

So here's our turn. We introduce the guy, the inventor, Earl Tupper, right? The dude smuggling Plastic pieces and slag into his home. It's the early 1950s. Earl Tupper, inventor of the Wonder bowl, is following the Tupperware boom in Florida. What's going on down there? What's up with this patio company? And he. He does his homework. He is incredibly impressed. He is astonished at how great Brownie Wise is at popularizing Tupperware, which, to be clear, it was a chestnut he himself could not crack. Or a walnut he could not crack. What's a nut? You could.

[Noel Brown]

They're both difficult to crack.

[Holly Fry]

Any nut.

[Noel Brown]

Any nut. A tough nut to crack. A tough nut.

[Ben Thompson]

All right, well, he can't get that tree nut. And so. So he reaches out to Brownie Wise and he says, look, you're awesome. You are so good at this. You have pretty much saved this product. Please be vice president of the entire company, My company. So Earl Tupper knows a good idea when he sees it. And after or based on his conversations with Brownie Wise, he switches the sales strategy of Tupperware company entirely to this home party, build the community, field of dreams type plan. This direct marketing. And this is a huge boom to Tupperware. American culture now is in that golden Post World War II era, right? The time of retrofuturism, atomic energy, making the world clean despite all the unclean things atom bombs did. And now we see a booming middle class. People are buying cars. More people own refrigerators. 2.5 kids, nuclear family at home. Entertaining becomes a fixture of social life. This is also just side note for our friends at Savor. This is where you see a lot of just terrible cookbooks.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, God. Yeah. They're lots of mayonnaise based stuff. Lots of gelatin based stuff. Yeah. Meat jelly skeletons, in fact, is, I think, the biggest gross out. They're all meant to be these, like, centerpieces kind of, and they're just so hideous. It's like aspic.

[Ben Thompson]

I appreciate it as sculpture, but maybe not as food, you know?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, maybe not. It was definitely a vibe, for sure. And the cookbooks were everywhere. And they're a lot of fun if you get a hold of them. We actually did an episode quite a while back on gelatin on, like, jello cookbooks. And we talk about all the stuff, so check that one out if you can find it. And to your point, Ben, about neo futurism and all of that good stuff, Tupperware is perfect for that because it's sort of pitched as this, like, miracle material. And now there's ways of, like, making it fun colors, you know, and different kinds of stackability and accessories and things that link together. It's such a malleable material by its very nature that you can pretty much mold it into whatever shape you want. And that starts to kind of catch up with the change in demographic, where now people are doing a little bit better. The Great Depression is a little further in the rearview mirror. You have a new kind of middle class coming up and people are like having parties. Not Tupperware parties, like hosting events. Gatherings or whatever. So they put out, I think it was a section serving platter that you could kind of put different dips or whatever, Cruditat, perhaps gelatin based items in there. But all of this very much been to your point, matches up with the kind of images you'd see in some of these cookbooks in terms of the spread and highlighting. The use of the microwave, for example. All of this like the atomic age kind of futuristic living. They really thought they were on the cutting edge.

[Ben Thompson]

Hey, what do you think about us doing commercials from the past in future episodes?

[Noel Brown]

There's so many good ones. All of that would be public domain audio stuff. So we could find a ton of great clips and make it like a audio clip show. I love it, Ben.

[Ben Thompson]

Let's do. All right, let's do it, Noel. We also know that by 1954, Tupperware is just running the game. They're amazing at this. The sales have reached US$24 million. And if we could do an inflation calculator here.

[Noel Brown]

And a boop. A boop.

[Ben Thompson]

1954. $24 million in 2025 money. That is slight. Drum roll. Roll. $284,682,825. That's a lot.

[Noel Brown]

That is indeed a lot. When I first looked at it, I think I added some extra decimal places and thought it was hundreds of billions of dollars. But still impressive. Still impressive.

[Ben Thompson]

Still impressive. Yeah. Like you were saying earlier, there are over 20,000 dealers or direct market Tupperware Network. And I love this point about the diversity, right. The fact that we have black women who are given an opportunity, you know what I mean? That would maybe not ordinarily occur in orthodox industry. And they're saying, look, Tupperware is not just white suburban matchbook house hell. This speaks to universal needs for so many people. And you also mentioned, of course, Brownie Wise is a female executive at a time where that is quite rare. She doesn't have a ton of mentors. So if we go to another Smithsonian magazine article from the writer Bob Keeling, we'll see this argument that without a community of peers, Brownie Wise sought to create one, which is really inspiring.

[Noel Brown]

It super is. And lest we forget that Mr. Tupper himself was introduced as our Big Bad. You may think to yourself, thus far, he's doing so much great stuff for women and Brownie Wise made her the executive and everything. At the end of the day, though, folks, he was pretty much just as bad as many of the men in leadership that tossed women aside in the workplace. He was more enamored with the idea and he saw dollar signs dancing over Wise's head and a little less concerned with the human being.

[Ben Thompson]

Yeah. And he became, look, they needed each other for Tupperware to work. But Earl Tupper grew envious. He grew jealous because Brownie Wise was getting headlines. You know what I mean?

[Noel Brown]

She was a face of the company.

[Ben Thompson]

She was a face of the company. Sort of like how you would see, oh, who's that amazing actor who does the progressive commercials?

[Noel Brown]

Like, oh, what's she talking about? The guy from Oz?

[Ben Thompson]

Sure, that guy too. Yeah. But you know what I mean, like.

[Noel Brown]

She became a. Oh, Dennis Haysbert. I'm sorry, there's so many celebrities are doing insurance commercials, stuff like that.

[Ben Thompson]

So she is reaching celebrity. Right? That's the point. She is the, as you said, public face. People are associated Brownie Wise with Tupperware and it's great for the business. But Earl Tupper is being a bit of a drip about it. He's saying, why is this person popular as high school as it sounds? And so he is consistently getting hostile with Brownie Wise. He starts to micromanage the stuff she does, even though she knows what works. Obviously, around 1957, Tupper is actively seeking to cut Brownie Wise from his company. And that's where we reach a disastrous moment in Tupperware history. It is a luau gone wrong.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, yeah. At first I'm looking at this and I'm like, are these Tupperware related injuries? I don't understand. No, they were apparently weather related injuries. Several folks sustained injuries at this party due to, to some unforeseen bad weather. And this led to some lawsuits against the Tupperware company that went on for many years. Very interesting, though. We were talking off mic about what would lead to a legitimate claim in a situation like this. And I guess you could be sued for liability or maybe negligence. So in 1958, having gotten the excuse that he was looking for, Tupper fired Wise from the company. And, and I believe she'd received no stock options and was just paid One year's salary as severance, which is an absolute ripoff.

[Ben Thompson]

You know, this weather was beyond her control. It's a private island on a lake in Kissimmee, Florida. But there are a ton of people there. There are like 1200 people there. So this is, as you were saying, an opportunistic move on Tupper's part. Look, her breath. Brownie Wise, her life continues post Tupperware. She starts cosmetic companies using this sales model that, if we're honest, she created. None of them are quite Avon level. They're not super successful. She passes away in Florida, in Kissimmee, in 1992. She is 79 years old, and she was a part, part of buried History, put away as though she was placed in some sort of proverbial Tupperware container.

[Noel Brown]

A tomb. A Tupperware tomb.

[Ben Thompson]

A Tupperware mausoleum. Yeah, until 2016. And that's when the Tupperware company donated US$200,000 to name a park after her near their corporate headquarters in Orlando.

[Noel Brown]

And if you go to the official website of the Tupperware company, you can find mention of Brownie Wise in their official company backstory.

[Ben Thompson]

And with that, we have to give a shout out to an absolute badass. I hope I can say badass on air. Ben Thompson, our colleague from Badass of the Week, probably knows and loves this story. Big, big thanks to our super producer, Mr. Max Williams. Huge thanks to our research associate, Ren, for bringing some justice to the untold story of Brownie Wise. Who else do we think?

[Noel Brown]

Ooh, ooh, real quick, I just want to say I went to tupperware.com and despite having declared bankruptcy in 2024, that doesn't mean the company is gone. And there is a link at the very top that says host a party. So they very much are still carrying on that legacy of Brownie Wise to this very day. Huge thanks. Thanks to Max Williams super producer extraordinaire, Alex Williams, who composed this Bangin Bop.

[Ben Thompson]

Big thanks to Jonathan Strickland, AKA the Quister. Big, big thanks, of course, to AJ Bahamas Jacobs, who does listen to the show. Thank you, Bahamas. Big thanks to Rachel Big Spinach Lance. If you like our show, please check out the Rude dudes at Ridiculous Crime, good friends of ours. And they also will bring justice to Buried History.

[Noel Brown]

Man. If y'all want to get in on this Tupperware party, you can receive a free host gift special with $500 in party sales. Tupperware Wave Stack Cooker. It's like one of those microwave cover things to keep it from splashing or actually it's a casserole and a colander all in one. My mistake. We'll see you next time, folks.

[Ben Thompson]

Foreign.

[Noel Brown]

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Holly Fry]

Time is precious and so are our pets. So time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 247 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to five pets. You can message a vet at any time and subscribe. Schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments and shipping is always free. With Dutch. You'll get more time with your pets and year round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care.

[Maria Tremarchi]

Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarchi, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the Highwayman suggestions suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrers, known as the Wicked lady who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.