Tupperware! (1988)

[bunniefuu]

[ film music plays]

FILM ANNOUNCER: American businesswomen make an impression

on America's economy through home-party selling

in millions of homes across the nation each year.

NARRATOR: In the s, women discovered they could make thousands,

even millions, from bowls that burped.

[ air escapes]

There, did you hear it?

NARRATOR: The Tupperware ladies built an empire

by selling their plastic products

in living rooms across the country at Tupperware parties.

WOMAN: Anyway, I made the parties fun.

They really had a good time.

WOMAN: And they liked playing the games.

I'd say, "Well, that's it."

"Well, one more, come on, Lavon, one more game."

Haven't you wished

for unspillable containers that wouldn't break?

I'm here to show you modern dishes for modern living

that will save you time and money.

NARRATOR: Tupperware's creator was a small-town inventor

with oversized dreams named Earl Silas Tupper.

MAN: The man was a genius.

Not with people, though, with product.

NARRATOR: It took a genius with people, a woman named Brownie Wise,

to push Tupper's product onto the world stage.

WOMAN: When she came out, all the hullabaloo and the applause,

and this was our Brownie.

And everyone wanted to be like a Brownie.

I guess Bess Bernstein lost about , pounds

wanting to look like Brownie.

WOMAN: My impression was, so here was a powerful woman,

a woman ahead of her time.

WOMAN: Brownie had the ability to just talk to your dreams--

things you didn't even know you wanted.

She'd draw these beautiful pictures

and you could suddenly see yourself being, you know,

something that you hadn't thought about before.

WOMAN: You have to understand,

in the 's, women didn't get too much recognition.

They were teased on all the comedy shows

about "Boy, she sure spends my money in a hurry,"

and you'd hear... these were the jokes of the times then,

back in the 's.

WOMAN: You know, back then it was a masculine world.

Wives done what their husbands told them to do without arguing.

I guess my generation is the one that broke that up.

[ band music begins playing]

WOMEN'S CHORUS: ♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head ♪

♪ Deep in my heart, down in my toes ♪

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling all over me ♪

♪ All over me to stay.

[ harps strumming]

[ light music begins playing]

I wish...

♪ I wish the faucet wouldn't drip all day. ♪

[ music continues]

♪ I wish that refrigerator door would close and stay closed. ♪

[ music continues]

WOMAN: Well, I frankly think that everybody believed

a woman's place was in the home and in the kitchen

and in the bedroom,

and that was it.

I think that...

that a lot of men

did not want their wives to go out and earn money.

♪ A brand-new sink, a built-in oven ♪

♪ A new refrigerator and a phone ♪

♪ A kitchen phone, a bright red phone ♪

♪ I gotta go

♪ Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye! ♪

♪ I'll call you later!

NARRATOR: Women were celebrated for working in defense factories

during World w*r II.

But after the w*r, they got a clear message:

"Go back to the kitchen."

WOMAN: I got divorced after the w*r was over-- yes.

And, uh, it was tough.

And I knew I had to make money.

WOMAN: I came from a very poor family.

I mean very poor.

They were farmers...

and not good ones at that, I guess.

And I would hate to think

that my life would have been like that forever.

NARRATOR: America had survived the Depression and World w*r II,

and the country was booming.

Women who'd done without now wanted a piece of the pie.

Tupperware's burping bowls provided

just the chance they needed.

WOMAN: I was looking for something to do to earn some money,

because on a farm, I wanted this blonde coffee table,

and that is just not on the list.

So I went to that party,

and she said, "I made ten dollars here today."

There wasn't anything that I could've done

and worked all day at that time in the Panhandle

and have made ten dollars.

So I was thinking, "Gosh, if I could just make five dollars,

"ten parties down the road,

I could have that blonde coffee table."

So, there I went home with my kit.

And Mother said, "Now, Vonnie, you can do that."

Bob said, "It won't amount to nothing.

"You'll hold a few parties

and we'll have all this junk on hand."

And he didn't know at that time

that I was having to pay for that junk,

and it didn't seem like the right time to tell him,

so I just didn't tell him.

NARRATOR: Tupperware offered people with limited education

a shot at success.

The training was on the job.

WOMAN: We were in the bedroom,

so I said, "Frank..."

That was our only private room,

because we lived in a house with everybody.

We didn't have our own place yet.

So I said, "I'm going to sit on the bed.

"You're going to set the kit up on the dresser.

"Then you'll stand in front of this mirror

and you'll start your spiel."

He says, "Okay."

So we set it up.

Now, I sit on the bed

and I'm really going to listen to this.

So Frank gets up and he says,

"Good evening, ladies,"

and I burst out laughing.

Tupperware was designed with an accent on beauty

for people of fine taste.

ELLIS: My first party was my next-door neighbor.

And I must have started setting up the display

about : in the afternoon for a : party.

I was a nervous wreck.

NARRATOR: Most Tupperware dealers had never imagined themselves

as businesswomen.

But Brownie Wise encouraged them to remake themselves,

much as she'd remade herself years before.

[ camera bulb pops]

In , Brownie was stuck in a bad marriage

in snowy Detroit with an infant son.

She was years old.

MAN: My mother didn't talk much about her childhood.

It may have been because she was too poor or too backwards

or didn't have enough education.

NARRATOR: She'd grown up in rural Georgia,

the product of a broken marriage.

Her mother traveled as a union organizer

and left her for years at a time with her cousins.

WOMAN: Hmm, she never thought that...

Brownie Mae never thought

that Georgia was a place to brag about being from.

NARRATOR: Brownie married a Ford Motor Company employee

and moved north.

JERRY WISE: My parents were divorced when I was three years old.

My mother took night courses and worked as a secretary.

She could type a mile a minute.

We did scrape by.

NARRATOR: Brownie's life turned around one day in .

JERRY WISE: Someone knocked on our door selling Stanley Home Products,

and my mother said she could do a better demonstration

than that woman did on her.

NARRATOR: Stanley Home Products was part of a long tradition

of men selling products door to door,

demonstrating brushes, vacuums, pots and pans.

But Stanley added something new.

WOMAN: I've heard a little about this kind of party,

but I've often wondered how it works.

Well, here's the idea: All you have to do

is invite about or of your friends

to drop over some afternoon or evening for a party,

and I'll help you put it on.

Tell them we'll have lots of fun.

And then I suppose you take orders from the guests.

Yes, but no high-pressure selling.

None of your friends will be embarrassed into buying.

NARRATOR: Home-party selling appealed to women.

It was a job that took advantage

of their networks of friends and relatives.

Brownie Wise was a star in Stanley

and soon became a manager, motivating others.

BROWNIE WISE [ dramatized]: Hi, g*ng.

Florence Zewicky has set a new record

for the time it takes to build success in Stanley.

And what Florence Zewicky is doing, you can do, too!

Be wise... Stanley-ize!

NARRATOR: Another star Stanley dealer in the Detroit area

was -year-old Gary McDonald.

McDONALD: Most of the people in Stanley, of course,

were in their s or s or s,

so I think I was probably the only teenager--

in our part of the country, at least.

NARRATOR: It was Gary McDonald

who brought Tupperware and Brownie Wise together.

McDONALD: Well, my first exposure to Tupperware

was when I saw it in the J.L. Hudson Department store.

And I said,

"Wow, that is a product which must be demonstrated."

NARRATOR: Gary and Brownie left Stanley

and started their own Tupperware home-party business.

BROWNIE WISE: To Mary Koranda

for the juicy hostess party she nabbed last week.

That was wonderful, Mary.

Good luck to you, one and all, though confidentially, kids,

luck has very little to do with it.

McDONALD: We got calls from Mr. Tupper's sales manager, who said,

"Just what in the hell are you people doing

to sell the amount of Tupperware you're selling?"

NARRATOR: This was a lucky turn in the life of Earl Silas Tupper.

He'd grown up dirt poor in central Massachusetts.

He'd barely graduated from high school,

but he was obsessed with becoming a millionaire,

convinced he could be the next Edison or Ford.

A tree surgeon by day,

at night he filled notebooks with his inventions:

the fish-powered boat...

the no-drip ice cream cone...

the sweetie picture belt

and the dagger-shaped comb.

♪ ♪

BING CROSBY: ♪ I'm no millionaire

♪ But I'm not the type to care

♪ 'Cause I've got a pocketful of dreams... ♪

NARRATOR: Earl doggedly tried to sell his inventions.

He was broke,

and with a young family to support, he needed work.

He happened to live in the heart

of New England's growing plastics industry.

CROSBY: ♪ ...of Wall Street, for a road where nature... ♪

MAN: Earl talked himself into a job at the Viscoloid Company.

He worked there for, uh... approximately a year

and then decided

he could go into the plastics business on his own.

NARRATOR: Earl started Tupper Plastics,

and made beads and cigarette cases and soap dishes.

In , he got his hands on some pure polyethylene pellets,

a recently invented wartime plastic.

DuPont didn't believe raw polyethylene could be molded,

but Earl tinkered with his machines for months

and invented the Wonderbowl and the Tupper Seal.

[ snap]

[ air escaping; snap]

[ snap]

[ snap]

[ air escaping; snap]

[ air escaping]

MAN: And he told me the story

of how he got the idea of using the seal, mm-hmm.

He says, "I could make a seal

"that would fit it exactly

"and it would be watertight and airtight

even though it's actually... I got the idea from a paint can."

FRANK SIRIANI: Tupperware was an absolutely most unique product.

There wasn't anything like it.

You know, it shocked everybody

that you could put food in this container

and it would keep longer and better than anything else.

It was better than waxed paper,

the wet cloth, even the refrigerator.

NARRATOR: One day in , Brownie called the company

to complain that her order was late again.

She insisted on speaking to Mr. Tupper himself.

He would improve his business, she told him,

if he sold Tupperware only at home parties.

He wanted to hear more

and invited her to Massachusetts.

CONLOGUE: And she convinced him that this was the way to go

and that he should pull out his Tupperware

out of every other place and go strictly on the party plan.

And he did.

NARRATOR: Earl hired Brownie on the spot.

This was an unlikely but perfect match.

JERRY WISE: Mother was very smooth, very genteel and a perfect lady,

and Earl Tupper was, um...

a little rough around the edges.

A Dale Carnegie course would have fixed him up good.

WOMAN: And so she worked late, and Mr. Tupper would work late,

and he would come over from his office,

and they would work together,

which probably created a little bit of gossip in the town.

We're talking small-town U.S.A. here.

She was always "Brownie,"

and Mr. Tupper was always "Mr. Tupper."

NARRATOR: Brownie didn't stay in Massachusetts long.

Earl split his company in two,

with Brownie heading up the sales operation,

called "Tupperware Home Parties."

Almost immediately, Brownie was talking about moving to Florida.

That was her heart's desire,

to get Tupper headquarters in Florida.

[ film music plays]

[ lowing]

NARRATOR: Earl Tupper bought a thousand acres of cow pasture and swamp

in Kissimmee, Florida,

and Brownie transformed it into a fantasy landscape.

MAN: When you first drive up, you're going, "Oh, my gosh."

WOMAN: The beautiful lake out in front--

the first time I ever saw it...

I believe the sign was there then

that "Welcome to Tupperware,"

and it was just, you know,

really set your heart pounding,

because it was very impressive.

NARRATOR: Brownie created a monument to salesmanship,

a pilgrimage site for her sales force.

WOMAN: It was like a...

a fairy tale, like you're in...

you know, Wonderland or something.

NARRATOR: She made up new traditions:

She baptized Poly Pond with polyethylene pellets,

showed her dealers how to place their wishes

in two-ounce Tupperware containers,

then toss them in the wishing well.

WEBER: We came from dry land, flat land, farmland,

not too far away from the Dust Bowl years.

This looked wonderful.

NARRATOR: Brownie's staff meetings were brainstorming sessions.

Everyone contributed,

and Brownie presided from her peacock chair.

MARY SIRIANI: "Rah-rah" was Florida:

"This is motivation time, rah-rah.

"Let's really get up there.

"Let's think of the next promotion,

"Rise and shine, rooty-toot-toot--

who are you going to recruit?"

All of this stuff.

They were the razzmatazz.

NOVAK: I'm sure Mr. Tupper was very much aware

of everything that Brownie was doing.

I'm sure she would never do anything major

without consulting with him.

And, you know,

with all these business meetings and conferences and so on,

he had to have been aware of what she was doing.

And he approved; I'm sure he did.

NARRATOR: For the most part, Earl was all business,

a perfectionist with a short fuse,

but not when it came to Brownie.

EARL TUPPER [ dramatized]: Brownie-- I've just opened your package tonight,

the one with the two party pictures.

You sure look super.

Anyone that cute has no right to be so smart.

I'm eating the nuts and candy now-- yum-yum.

Many thanks to you, Brownie, on our first birthday

for the happiest hours this business has known.

Sincerely, Earl S. Tupper.

BROWNIE WISE: We get lots of wonderful letters from consumers.

Anyone who can create a product outstanding enough

to consistently draw forth

that sort of unsolicited praise and enthusiasm

should be very proud of himself.

I hope you are.

B.W.

SYLVIA BOYD: You know, the era and the business

were made for each other.

Women didn't have a car to get around anywhere,

so we sat home all day and we took care of our kids.

So a Tupperware party

was thesocial function; it was theway

to get away from the kids for a few hours during the week.

MAN: In the city, we lived in an Italian area.

Probably could've walked down the street

and had three Tupperware parties that week

and didn't even have to get in your car.

Most of them would be in apartment buildings,

an apartment, three-family deckers

and stuff like that, walkups.

WEBER: When I sold as a dealer, yeah, I traveled lots of miles.

I was miles from the closest little town,

and then I worked a lot of farm neighborhood,

miles from the next three towns.

And I preferred to hold three parties a day.

That's the way I like to work.

And then I could be home a day.

And if I didn't get that worked out,

I was just running like a crazy woman

from one place to the other.

THAYER: But you know, I'd have three and four parties a day.

I'd have one... a breakfast party.

I'd have... a party between breakfast and lunch,

and sometimes a luncheon party, afternoon party,

sometimes night parties.

I went the whole route.

[ chuckles]

I liked it.

They were selling to themselves.

They were selling to people with the same needs, same budget--

all right?-- that they had.

So when they walked in and said,

"I haven't thrown away a head of lettuce in six months,

"because even though my family doesn't eat it fast enough,

"when I put it in my crisp-it,

"it doesn't turn brown, it doesn't go bad.

"This little thing keeps it up out of the water.

"It works like a charm.

"You really should try one.

It's only $.."

Your demonstration is so much better

when it's spoken with authority.

And so when I'd try this out and say,

"I kept bread for this long;

"I kept sliced tomatoes from one meal to the next;

I had lettuce crisp for several days,"

then you was more... it was more effective.

And we... we exaggerated a lot, too.

We did, we got carried away with our own stories.

Oh, we... we would make it like you could...

you could keep the food in there for months.

But it wasn't so.

It wasn't so.

But you know, that's the way we felt.

Some foods, yes.

Oh, yeah, but you know...

Macaronis, flour, sugar--

Yeah... those staples.

Well, dry goods, but we would...

you know, we would... we would exaggerate.

NARRATOR: Brownie always said,

"If we build the people, they'll build the business."

Brownie traveled all over the country--

, miles a year-- to visit her growing sales force.

She loved them, and they idolized her.

She even gave away the clothes she wore as prizes.

TATE: She would just... right on the stage,

just almost like she suddenly thought of something, like,

"This... do you like this outfit?

"Well, I'll tell you what:

"Whichever one of you does so-and-so,

you can have this outfit."

MAN: She got every distributor's sales figures every day.

Every day.

I guess all of them promoted to manager got a note,

handwritten, from Brownie Wise.

NARRATOR: Brownie used everything she could

to motivate her growing network of dealers.

CONLOGUE: To stand up in front of a group

and have that wonderful, magical sound of applause--

oh, hey, they'd do anything for that.

[ applause]

NARRATOR: She rolled out the red carpet

for the stars of her sales force,

and she made sure they were featured front and center

each month in Tupperware Sparks.

A mention was good, but a photo with Brownie was the best.

MAN: Most people only had

their name in the paper when they graduated from high school

or when they got married, or when they'd die.

And I think that she drew on all aspects of that

to create a feeling in these people

that they were a queen, that they were special--

that they were somebody different.

NARRATOR: Brownie sent a small army of Tupperware ladies

out across the country, recruiting more dealers.

TATE: At a party, I'd see a lady who seemed to be very enthusiastic,

she seemed to like people, she was a bubbly type of person.

And I would say to her, "You know,

"I don't know if you've ever thought

"about doing any work outside your home,

but you would be a terrific Tupperware lady."

CONLOGUE: When we were recruiting people, we tried to fill a need

for something that they wanted, like "I want new carpet,"

or "I want a new refrigerator,"

And then we would map out for them

how many parties they would have to hold

in order to get whatever it was that they wanted.

TATE: "And after the party's over,

"I'll take a little extra time with you,

"and I'll show you exactly what I sold.

"I will show you exactly what the Tupperware cost me,

"what the hostess gift cost,

"and you will see when I have it all on a piece of paper,

"exactly how much money you would have made

if you had done what you saw me do."

WOMAN: The type of lady that decides to sell Tupperware--

I do not think there's a set type,

not by age or race or anything.

I think it depends on who introduces them to it.

I had a tendency to recruit, when I first started,

more young people, because I was young, and I had children.

So I think you recruit someone like yourself.

BROWNIE WISE [ on film]: Hello, this is Brownie.

Will you do yourself and someone else a big favor?

Take a little extra time this week

and call back on some of the people

that you've talked to about being a Tupperware dealer.

She would say, "Now, how many dealers

have you recruited in a month, Mary?"

BROWNIE WISE: Perhaps there is someone in your own family,

or a very close neighbor, who needs the money

that Tupperware can supply.

Sometimes we overlook

the prospects closest to home, you know.

She says, "Wouldn't it be wonderful,"

and she squeezed your hand and said,

"if it would be eight or ten?

"Wouldn't that be nice?

Oh, and when I come up to your rally," or whatever,

"I want you to tell me you did it."

So I ran home...

And you did it.

And I did it.

When I first started,

and my husband was so against it...

He belonged to the Lions' Club.

And they had a wives' evening, or something.

Anyway, he said, "Now, whatever you do,

you better not be talking about Tupperware when you go there."

And I said, "Okay."

So I filled some little two-ounce midgets with water--

colored water-- took them with me, put them in my purse,

and I accidentally turned my purse over,

and they rolled out.

Everybody wanted to know what it was.

So that was my chance.

And I had parties.

I had to talk to the husband at some length

to persuade him to let her come in, just part-time,

to make a little extra money.

And I used to say, you know,

"You bring in the bread-- you're the breadwinner--

but she can bring in a little cake."

NARRATOR: Earl Tupper personally designed every new piece of Tupperware

and sent prototypes to Florida.

WOMAN: As Mr. Tupper would design a product, he would send it to me,

and it was sent to me

"Personal: to Elsie Mortland.

To be opened by Elsie Mortland only."

He... really kind of treasured the secrecy of what he was doing

and how he was doing it.

NARRATOR: Earl felt his product should be able to sell itself,

but the marketing experts were telling him something different.

When he hired a fancy Madison Avenue firm

to promote his growing company, they told him,

"You've got three things going for you:

"a good marketing plan; a great product;

"but what's really unique is

"having a charismatic female executive.

You should run with that."

Earl resisted putting Brownie above his product.

McDONALD: Earl Tupper was not too sure in the beginning.

But by the time Ruder and Finn got through all of the potential

of Brownie being the peg for the stories,

he was buying into that.

And so we made Brownie the queen of the universe,

and indeed, as far as our people were concerned, she was.

NARRATOR: In , Brownie brought the Tupperware dealers and managers

to headquarters for the first Tupperware jubilee,

a four-day extravaganza

designed to build the loyalty of the Tupperware ladies.

WOMAN [ on film]: I hadn't realized

there were so many people in the Tupperware family.

And to think there are more than , others

who could not be here.

It's just like a family reunion,

and with so many brothers and sisters.

NARRATOR: The staff decided Jubilee should have a theme.

The first was the Gold Rush.

WOMAN [ on film]: shovels on an acre of ground--

and do we have fun!

Watches, diamond rings, mink coats, television sets!

We really strike gold!

MARY SIRIANI: I was so excited.

I got on that shovel

and I dug up that dirt

and I hit a box and I pulled the box out of the ground,

opened it up,

and it was a double boiler, an Ecko...

Cookware. We still have it.

And I still have that...

We still have it.

From all those years.

I just saved that little double boiler

with the cover-- I thought it was wonderful.

NARRATOR: Even though Tupperware was still a small company,

its publicity efforts began to pay off.

BROWNIE WISE: Those photographers,

they're from LIFEmagazine and Business Week.

McBURNEY: We had the people down from Business Weekthinking,

"Well, you know, we're going to get

maybe a column or a column and a half in Business Week,

because this is sort of unusual,

and we wound up with the cover.

For the first time in the magazine's history,

a woman on the cover,

and naming her "Businesswoman of the Year--

well, you know, we were kind of happy.

NARRATOR: It was working,

even better than they had hoped:

the product, the plan, and the person.

Brownie had turned the stereotype

of the suede-shoed door-to-door salesman

into a woman-- in heels, no less.

CONLOGUE: Our managers, when they got promoted,

they were told that they were to wear a hat and wear gloves

when they went recruiting, on their recruiting calls,

and heels.

Heels, yes.

And hose, because some of them were running around

without hose on.

BROOKS: It was a very privileged job.

And selling had been denoted back in the 's and 's

like a hustle,

and Tupperware moved us up to being a lady.

WEBER: All this was really uptown.

And if you ever won a trip with Tupperware,

you were just treated like royalty, you know.

LES PAUL AND MARY FORD: ♪ I'm sitting on top of the world... ♪

NARRATOR: Women who'd worked in factories were now Tupperware ladies

dressed in white gloves and hats.

As the company grew, so did the dealers' enthusiasm.

ALL: ♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head ♪

♪ I've got it♪♪ Deep in my heart,

♪ I've got it♪♪ Down in my toes

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling all over me ♪

♪ All over me to stay

♪ Yay!

[ cheering]

NARRATOR: Jubilees got more elaborate,

and Brownie and her staff borrowed without apology

from TV game shows.

Would youlike to be queen for a day?

[ game show audience cheering]

NARRATOR: From beauty pageants...

[ pageant orchestra plays]

The movies...

FILM ANNOUNCER: What is this?

The cavalry supply train frightens the Indians off

and drops gifts

for the second category of Tupperware salespeople.

NARRATOR: Children's fairy tales...

FILM ANNOUNCER: Trumpets herald the caliph's captains

as they charm a giant cobra into a hypnotic state,

removing another obstacle to the city of riches.

NARRATOR: She'd try anything,

and intuitively she understood what would work.

[ women singing swing tune in Hawaiian]

[ expl*si*n]

McDONALD: Earl Tupper never showed up at a jubilee.

He did not want to be in the limelight.

He was invited, but... no.

I'll make you a promise.

If you will sell Tupperware with your left hand,

and sell America with your right hand,

you will sell more Tupperware with the left hand

than you ever sold with both hands before.

[ applause]

FILM NARRATOR: Business sessions such as these

occupy more than % of jubileers time.

TOM TATE: They actually had homework that they had to do,

and there were tests that they took.

And at the end of every jubilee, there was a graduation.

FRANK SIRIANI: Here you've got women

that are in their s, never graduated high school,

coming across this stage.

TATE: It must seem kind of corny, but I can tell you,

we were very proud to walk across that stage.

and I remember the year that I was at a seminar

and I was valedictorian,

and I had to leave the last line off my speech.

I was about to cry.

It was very important.

And it was to everybody.

I get choked up.

But that's just the way it was.

And it's meant an awful lot to thousands and thousands of women

who were able to go out and make a good living

for themselves and their family

that never dreamed that it would turn out that way.

[ applause]

NARRATOR: The most successful Tupperware ladies were moving up the ranks.

In , there were only eight distributors.

By , there were more than distributor couples

selling Tupperware in every part of the country.

Some even made millions.

So, when I had six people and a date book with four to...

three to five parties a week in it,

I could be promoted from dealer to manager.

As a manager I got this added commission on my team, my unit,

and I'd help them and train them

and motivated them and got them to sales rallies.

And then from that point to move up to distributor,

that was a longer haul.

I really had to be one of the top managers in the country,

and that wasn't easy.

DINAH SHORE: ♪ Shoofly pie and apple pandowdy ♪

♪ Makes your eyes light up

♪ Your tummy say howdy...

NARRATOR: Brownie and her staff believed it was ideal

for two people to run a distributorship:

one to oversee sales and one to manage the warehouse.

Brownie made the distributorship offer

to top managers andtheir husbands.

Saying yes meant the husband gave up his job

and joined his wife in Tupperware.

WOMAN: I remember the stories

of my grandparents disapproving of the move.

I know that all of my dad's friends disapproved

of his giving up the, uh, fireman position

for this risky thing nobody had ever heard of before.

NARRATOR: It also meant moving

wherever Tupperware needed a distributor.

JON BOYD: Well, we were so excited about going to be distributors,

it was incredible.

"Fort Wayne, Indiana!

Where's Fort Wayne, Indiana?"

We had no idea.

CONLOGUE: So, when we left for St. Louis,

we had my two boys from a previous marriage,

Michael and Patrick, and our dog, Blondie.

We bought a brand-new Mercury station wagon.

Oh, that was a gorgeous car--

wood on the side, leather interior--

and we took off for St. Louis.

WEBER: Moving into Wichita was an experience.

I stayed lost most of the time.

Bob would have to lead me to my parties sometimes,

and then I usually could get back home.

SYLVIA BOYD: Our arrival into Indiana...

We always said, "We must've come in the back way," I'm not sure.

I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, and I thought,

"My gosh, how are we ever going to sell Tupperware?

They all must be a hundred years old in this city."

And it was just really... got me scared.

After a couple blocks, I started crying.

And I thought, "Oh, my mother was right--

we should've never done this."

SHORE: ♪ Go to the oven and make some ever-lovin' ♪

♪ Shoofly pie and apple pandowdy... ♪

NARRATOR: Brownie understood

the problems these young distributor couples faced.

SHORE: ♪ Shoofly pie and apple pandowdy... ♪

BROWNIE WISE [ dramatized]: Success rarely comes overnight.

This is when the husband begins to think back

to the time when he had that steady job,

and her tension increases.

And we were all willing to move thousands of miles.

Our husbands quit their jobs.

We... just went out on a wing and a prayer.

[ big band continues "Shoofly Pie"]

SHORE: ♪ I never get enough of that wonderful stuff. ♪

[ song ends]

NARRATOR: Every Monday morning,

distributors held sales rallies for their managers and dealers.

On a local scale, they imitated what Brownie did at jubilee.

MARY SIRIANI: We gave all different hints and helps:

how to speak on the phone, how to talk to people on the street,

how to knock at a door.

And all these hints

were incorporated at your sales rally,

and they were looking for knowledge:

How do I get better?

How could I sell more?

How do I say it to sound better?

At our rallies, my father would dress up as the Tupperware lady

And it was this kind of yellow gingham dress with a pinafore

and a wig with pigtails.

♪ My bones denounce the buckboard bounce ♪

♪ And the cactus hurts my toes

♪ Let's vamoose where gals...

BOYD: And I don't know... part of... maybe it's some dark thing

about how people like to see men dressed up as girls.

I don't know-- it runs through Tupperware.

And the whole idea of the "Tupperware lady"

was handed down to my generation

and my husband picked up that role and did that for a while.

He had one Carmen Miranda outfit

with great, big, colored bulbous earrings,

and these big beads,

and thongs with butterflies on them,

and, oh, his outfits were outlandish,

just outlandish!

And fun!

♪ Buttons and bows

♪ Buttons and bows!

TOM TATE: It was fun, I mean...

it just seemed...

I was glad that none of my college friends

could see me doing this, but...

NARRATOR: Tupperware, a company built by women,

was ultimately run by men.

Even Brownie surrounded herself with men.

TATE: In an interview that was done for the Cosmopolitanmagazine,

the reporter asked her

why she didn't have any women on her staff,

and she said,

"If there's going to be a prima donna on this staff,

I'm it and the only one."

LORNA BOYD: Tupperware was such a woman's company

right from the bottom to just about the top,

and then suddenly, magically,

it wasn't a woman's company anymore.

All the executives were male.

And, um, it was at the distributor level, I think,

where it became the man and the woman working together,

and then suddenly the next step was a man's step.

Yeah, the next step

after being a successful distributor is to...

For some, they would say,

"Okay, can I get on staff? Can I be a regional?"

That was a very showy position in the company.

There was like only ten or of them.

CONLOGUE: It was very hard on marriages

when the guys were promoted and given the title

and the girls were told

that they were going to work with their husbands

and then all of a sudden they were pushed out.

MAN: I think Brownie surrounded herself with guys on the staff

because that was the way it was done.

Major corporations were run by men.

She was not the trailblazer that you would think,

inasmuch as it was not an all-girl band here.

I mean, she was realistic enough to know that at some level,

bankers don't talk to women.

NARRATOR: Brownie lived in the spotlight.

McBURNEY: Brownie Wise became Tupperware,

and Tupperware became Brownie Wise.

They were almost synonymous.

CONLOGUE: They say you should never believe your own press notices.

Well, she began to believe hers,

and it made her feel that she was, uh, irreplaceable.

NARRATOR: Being in the spotlight full time

began to take its toll on Brownie.

The company's success put more demands on her.

The growing number of salespeople

all wanted her attention.

She was pulled in different directions,

and she was exhausted.

MORTLAND: Yes, I remember she went to the Mayo Clinic.

And she was very disappointed

that they couldn't find anything wrong with her.

TATE: You see, I really don't believe that I know of any...

any friends of hers.

I don't remember her having any personal friends.

I think her whole life was the business.

JERRY WISE: She had a typewriter on her bed,

and she'd wake up in the middle of the night

and scribble down ideas about business.

Most people had no idea

what "full time" meant to Brownie Wise.

NARRATOR: In , Brownie's dealer force was so successful,

they were selling more than Earl's factories could produce.

When Brownie demanded that Earl keep up,

he was more than a little annoyed.

Small disagreements between them escalated quickly.

EARL TUPPER: Dear Mrs. Wise:

Sales management means sales management

and not just sales.

The manufacturer isn't in the business

for the benefit of the sales department.

Very truly yours, Earl S. Tupper, President.

BROWNIE WISE: Your comment that the sales were

wild, uncontrolled consumer demand

seemed inappropriate.

Most manufacturers would welcome wild consumer demand.

[ typewriter bell dings]

NARRATOR: At the jubilee,

Tupperware's rank and file were oblivious

to the storm clouds gathering over the company.

FILM ANNOUNCER: Yes, this is Jubilee ,

the Tupperware Homecoming Jubilee,

called by many the most unusual sales convention in the world.

EARL TUPPER: Dear Brownie:

I believe a lot of our problems could be solved

if you would just keep me informed.

You don't have any business secrets from me.

FILM ANNOUNCER: Have you ever seen a million dollars worth of sales know-how?

Here it is: Brownie Wise with some

of the nation's foremost sales authorities.

BROWNIE WISE: Don't you realize

that I would do nothing but write letters and memos

if I had to put everything into writing?

It used to be when I had something to discuss with you,

I could pick up the telephone.

I can't do that anymore, apparently;

you have not chosen to talk to me.

FILM ANNOUNCER: One of the speakers is Paul McAdam,

who uses Brownie's book, Best Wishes,

as part of his talk.

NARRATOR: Earl was annoyed that Brownie hadn't asked his permission

to give out copies of her book,

a collection of her motivational talks.

BROWNIE WISE: Did you have in mind

that I was planning to get rich on this book?

If so, and it sounds that way, I'm surprised at you.

Yes, I bought , books for T.H.P. without any okay.

I also built the pavilion,

designed and contracted for the lakes

and the garden wall, et cetera, et cetera, without any okay.

Let's see some "okays" I got on other projects, shall we?

NARRATOR: Tupperware projected its sales would reach $ million.

Several bigger businesses approached Earl

wanting to buy the company, which he owned outright.

He considered cashing out.

McBURNEY: He wanted to sell the company,

and he felt he couldn't sell it with a woman the head of it,

and certainly a woman

with such great power over the whole system,

over the whole organization.

NARRATOR: After almost seven years together,

the relationship between Earl and Brownie

neared the breaking point.

Just before Christmas, ,

he raised questions about her expenses

for jubilees, prizes, clothing and landscaping.

I think she made a mistake

in her figures that last year, and...

This was one of the things--

she would not take her books up to Rhode Island.

NARRATOR: Earl ordered Brownie

to bring the books to New England immediately.

She refused, claiming she was ill.

EARL TUPPER: Personal.

Dear Brownie: From your recent conduct,

you seem to resist coming up here.

There can be no justification

for refusal or unreasonable delay,

since I'm president of the corporation.

Sincerely, Earl S. Tupper.

P.S.: Let's go for a happy new year!

BROWNIE WISE: In what way have I not carried out your wishes?

Believe me, if I haven't, it's because I haven't been able

to find out what your wishes are,

because I have certainly never been secretive with you

about what's going on.

NARRATOR: On January , ,

Earl finally got on a plane and flew to Florida.

THAYER: I didn't know that she was fired.

She told me that she fell and hurt herself,

and that she wasn't able to work anymore.

MAN: She told me what had happened:

"Tupper said I'm fired.

"You know, there goes my life.

I'm through with life."

McDONALD: He did not want to give her anything.

And... and I was very vocal

and said, "Well, that's just not right."

And that's when he came up with, uh, $,.

Yeah.

She didn't have a contract-- no employment contract.

And the clothes that she wore--

she never owned those clothes.

That's what we... we were told.

She didn't even own it.

She didn't own nothing!

She kind of just sort of, like, disappeared.

And then people ask questions,

but then nobody really gives you an answer, you know.

It was, I thought, too sudden

for her to have... have quit or retired,

so I assumed something had gone awry.

She was the queen, you know,

and all of a sudden the queen was gone.

NARRATOR: That summer

Tupperware put on its first jubilee without Brownie.

This one had a pirate theme.

FILM ANNOUNCER: Official uniform is eye patches, bandannas and cutlasses.

And new things in Tupperware are shown by Gary McDonald.

Here is the new brush comb.

NARRATOR: Three months before Jubilee,

Brownie had started a new home-party company--

Cinderella Cosmetics.

MAN: We had our cream of Tupperware at this particular jubilee.

We were worrying

whether or not she would romance them over into Cinderella.

McDONALD: They had a double-page ad in the Kissimmee newspaper

announcing the launch of Cinderella Cosmetics

with Brownie Wise--

uh, the famous Brownie Wise-- as president of the company.

NARRATOR: In the ad, Brownie invited the Tupperware dealers

to come learn about her new business, Cinderella.

Gary McDonald and Hamer Wilson--

Brownie's former chief lieutenants--

were now in charge.

No one knew what would happen next.

TAHANEY: And I believe that leadership prevailed.

Hamer, uh, made a very wise decision.

He said, "You know, rather than try to hide this or bury it,

"why don't we just face it head on?

And, in fact, I'll tell you what."

And he turned to me and he said,

"Pat, why don't you go down to the Sentinel

and see if you can buy about , copies of this paper?"

And he said, "We'll just pass them out."

And he made it, uh, very clear that anybody in that audience--

and I can hear that speech even today--

that anybody in the audience, anybody out there

that would like to get up and go out the door

and go with Brownie Wise's new organization,

please feel free to do it.

And not a soul-- not a soul--

stood up and walked out that door.

MAN: And, uh, I think that was her downfall.

Uh... uh, she was an idol on a pedestal.

From that day on, she fell off of that pedestal.

WEBER: I think they were smart enough to know

that Tupperware was where their bread and butter was.

And I think at that time Tupperware was doing so well

that you didn't really want to rock the boat.

And I said, "Brownie, I don't think I could do it

"because I wouldn't have the belief or the feeling

for... for these products that I have for Tupperware."

I said, "As far as I'm concerned,

I'm stuck with Tupperware."

"Well," she says, "well, I'm sorry.

Then that means... means that our relationship has ended."

And I said, "Well, I'm sorry, too."

NARRATOR: Brownie lost more than her job.

She also lost her sales force, the people who adored her.

The Tupperware ladies Brownie had trained

were able to carry on without her.

Cinderella Cosmetics folded after just one year.

McBURNEY: After even some time,

Brownie really never felt the exhilaration of the business

and never really displayed it again.

Pity.

CONLOGUE: I never saw her again,

which is also sad, because I really liked her.

TATE: But I thought she had retired wealthy.

I really did.

Wasn't all that... That wasn't all true.

NOVAK: When my husband and I went on a vacation trip to Florida,

we went to see Tupperware Home Parties headquarters

for the first time,

and of course I inquired about Brownie.

I expected to see at least pictures of her around.

But no one seemed to know who Brownie was

or the fact that she might have been important.

They appeared to have erased her right out of their files.

At the time she was really purged from the company,

so all the photographs of Brownie, uh,

anything to do with jubilees, anything that she was in,

certainly any... anything to do with Brownie Wise

was, uh... was totally removed from the offices.

CONLOGUE: Well, I think that they didn't want

the legend of Brownie Wise to continue.

NARRATOR: The staff even dug a pit behind headquarters

where they buried the remaining copies

of Brownie's book, Best Wishes.

In , less than a year after firing Brownie,

Earl Tupper sold his company

to Justin Dart of Rexall Chemicals for $ million.

Earl divorced his wife, gave up his U.S. citizenship

and bought himself an island in Central America.

THAYER: Brownie never talked about Tupperware.

She didn't even seem to want it around.

She didn't use any of the pieces

that I thought would be very useful for her or anything.

I think leaving Tupperware the way that she did

had an effect on her life.

It, uh, caused her to more or less withdraw.

FILM ANNOUNCER: Now let's go to a little town in New Jersey

where things are really popping.

Yes, there's a party going on at Mrs. Betty Martin's house.

It's a Tupperware party, and it's really fun.

NARRATOR: As Earl and Brownie retired from the world,

the Tupperware ladies took Tupperware across the globe,

hosting parties in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.

Tupperware became the biggest

and most successful international party-plan company

of its time.

Earl Tupper died in .

The patent on his burping seal expired the next year,

and his design idea was widely copied.

Brownie lived modestly and died in ,

just a few miles from Tupperware headquarters.

The marketing techniques Brownie perfected were copied

by every successful home-party company.

I think a lot of what Tupperware was about, uh, for me, uh,

is enjoying and participating in the success of women.

DINAH SHORE: ♪ I love the dear hearts and gentle people ♪

♪ Who live in my hometown.

I was the one that was able to help my mother

when she didn't have any more money.

I was the one that was able to do things for my sisters

that they couldn't afford to do.

SHORE: ♪ They read the Good Book...

MARY SIRIANI: If you are traveling through the country

at that time

and your car broke down,

don't call a garage.

You call... look under the Yellow Pages

for "Tupperware."

Someone will come right out.

They'll bring you to their home.

They'll take your car.

They'll lend you a car.

They'll feed you.

They'll give you money.

[ crowd cheering, applauding]

Just amazing-- that's the feeling

of the beginning of the company.

That's what it was like then.

It really was.

And, you know, we... we were just Tupperware...

you know, a Tupperware family.

That's... that's what you had to call it.

It really was-- super.

SHORE: ♪ And it's back in Tennessee

♪ Where your friendly neighbors smile and say hello ♪

♪ It's a pleasure and a treat to meander down the street ♪

♪ That's why I want the whole wide world to know ♪

♪ I love the dear hearts and gentle people ♪

♪ Who live in my hometown.

♪ Because those dear hearts and gentle people ♪

♪ Will never, ever let you down. ♪

♪ They read the Good Book from Fri-- 'til Monday ♪

♪ That's how the weekend goes

♪ I've got a dream house I'll build there one day ♪

♪ With picket fence and rembling' rose ♪

♪ I feel so welcome each time that I return ♪

♪ That my happy heart keeps laughing like a clown ♪

♪ I love those dear hearts and gentle people ♪

♪ Who live and love in my home town. ♪

[ song ends with soft scatting]

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head ♪

♪ Up in my head, up in my head ♪

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head ♪

♪ Up in my head to stay.

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head ♪

♪ Deep in my heart, down in my toes ♪

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling all over me ♪

♪ All over me to stay.

That was a good one.

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head ♪

♪ I've got it up in my head ♪

♪ I've got it up in my head ♪

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head ♪

♪ Up in my head to stay.

I'm trying to think of what the words are.

INTERVIEWER: ♪ I've got that...

♪ Tupper feeling deep...

♪ Up in my head...

Is it "Up in my head?"

I thought it was...

♪ Deep in my heart

♪ Down in my toes

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling all over me ♪

♪ All over me to stay.

MAN: Yeah.

I got to tell you something.

I used to hate that song.

Oh, dear.

This song has got so much...

so many mixed feelings.

It brings about such incredible enthusiasm

for thousands of people,

and such incredible dread for thousands of others.

It was years later that I realized

it's also sung in churches.

It's like a little-kid church song.

I didn't even know that.

Yeah... ♪ I've got that Tupper feeling... ♪

I'm just going to sing the last verse

because I'm not going to do them all, okay?

♪ Up in my head

♪ I've got it deep in my heart ♪

♪ I've got it...

And bend over... ♪ Down in my toes

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling ♪

♪ All over me, all over me to stay. ♪

Yay! And the crowd goes wild!

[ clapping]

♪ I've got the Tupper feeling all over me ♪

♪ All over me

♪ All over me

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling all over me ♪

♪ All over me to stay!

[ women's a capella chorus humming Tupperware theme song]

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling up in my head... ♪

♪ I've got it♪

♪ Deep in my heart

♪ I've got it♪

♪ Down in my toes

♪ I've got that Tupper feeling all over me... ♪

♪ I've got it♪

♪ All over me to stay.

Hey!