{"id":84213,"date":"2022-04-28T11:29:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T15:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=84213"},"modified":"2022-04-28T11:30:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T15:30:26","slug":"your-ancestors-party-5-facts-about-tupperware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/your-ancestors-party-5-facts-about-tupperware.html","title":{"rendered":"Your Ancestor\u2019s Party: 5 Facts about Tupperware"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about a phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s: housewives hosting Tupperware parties. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A recent episode (Season 4, episode 3) of the Netflix series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel<\/em> featured Mrs. Maisel (Midge) hosting a Tupperware party. This season of the series, set in 1960, would have been a decade into women holding Tupperware parties. Tupperware provided women a chance to earn money selling a product that everyone could use, and the flexibility they needed to conveniently earn some money long before telecommuting and online meetings were a thing.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: a Tupperware party in the 1950s, as shown in a company advertisement. Credit: Tupperware Corporation; Prelinger Archives; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tupperware was invented in 1946 by chemist Earl Tupper. His idea for non-breakable plastic containers included a lid that was based on a paint can lid and allowed a seal that guaranteed nothing would leak. The rest, as they say, is history. The following five facts tell more of the Tupperware story.<\/p>\n

(1) Not Every Plastic Container Is Tupperware<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tupperware, named after its inventor Earl Tupper, is synonymous with plastic kitchen storage containers. Today, people refer to almost any kitchen container as Tupperware, like they refer to all photocopy machines as Xerox. But in reality, there are other companies that manufacture plastic storage items. At the time that Tupper invented his containers, food leftovers were stored in non-sealable containers made out of glass and other breakable materials, or metal.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Texas), 6 October 1983, page 38<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(2) Tupperware Was Originally Sold in Stores<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most people are familiar with Tupperware parties \u2013 but before the home parties, Tupperware was like any other retail item: it was sold in stores. Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t a success. Independent saleswoman Brownie Wise started offering Tupperware at home parties and selling the plastic containers directly to consumers. This allowed her to demonstrate the product and show women how the containers benefitted them, in their home.<\/p>\n

Learning of her success, Earl Tupper collaborated with Brownie and the Tupperware party sales force was born. But the success of the long-standing home parties doesn\u2019t mean that Tupperware didn\u2019t find itself back in stores at some point. In 2001 Tupperware could be found at some Target stores, but by the Fall of 2003 the program stopped.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tennessee), 19 February 1948, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(3) Help Wanted<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, you might become a Tupperware consultant by contacting Tupperware or talking to another consultant \u2013 but in the early days, help wanted ads in the newspaper helped Tupperware get its start. These advertisements for business opportunities invited interested parties (women weren\u2019t always specified) to contact Earl Tupper and provide information about qualifications. The mention of a possible income of $500 a week, equivalent to over $5,000 today, must have been quite inviting in post-war 1949.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Key West Citizen (Key West, Florida), 26 February 1949, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As mentioned above, Brownie Wise began giving home parties selling Tupperware. She also placed newspaper advertising looking for women to help build her party business idea.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Flint Journal (Flint, Michigan), 8 June 1949, page 30<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brownie used all kinds of tactics to show the usefulness of Tupperware, including tossing a bowl filled with water at her parties to demonstrate the lid\u2019s unique seal.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Huntsville Times (Huntsville, Alabama), 10 September 2011, page 15<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because of her success in selling the product, Earl Tupper invited Brownie to join the company in 1951.<\/p>\n

(4) The Party Has Gone from the Home to Social Media<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first Tupperware parties were held in homes, but today you can choose a home party or a virtual one via social media. Anyone can attend an online party, and best of all you don\u2019t need to clean your house. The only bad part is you miss out on the food and demonstrations of how different pieces can be used.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio), 20 May 1953, page 23<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(5) There\u2019s a Tupperware Code<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newer Tupperware has coded bottoms that help you know what is dishwasher, freezer, microwave, and food safe. This article<\/a> from \u201cTaste of Home\u201d explains what symbols to look for and what they mean.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: codes on the bottom of a Tupperware container. Credit: Gena Philibert-Ortega.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My Favorite Tupperware Piece<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of Tupperware and have some favorite pieces. Probably the one I love the most is called the \u201cPick-A-Deli Keeper,\u201d but most likely you, like me, refer to it as the pickle keeper. The selling point of this product is that you don\u2019t have to reach into the cold juice of a pickle jar to fish out that one pickle you want for lunch. This product allows you to pull the pickles out of the juice and then place them back again. Although you might think of it as a pickle keeper, you can use it for olives, mozzarella, tofu, jalapenos, or really any marinated foods. You can also use it to store snacks like carrot or celery sticks.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Tupperware \u201cPickle-Keeper\u201d with the lid off, showing the handle that can be lifted to choose a pickle; holes in the bottom of the handle\u2019s base allow the juices to stay in the container while the handle is lifted and the pickle extracted. Credit: Gena Philibert-Ortega.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s your favorite Tupperware piece? Did you ever host a party? Did you sell Tupperware? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> An online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, is not only a great way to learn about the lives of your ancestors \u2013 the old newspaper articles also help you understand American history and the times your ancestors lived in, the activities they engaged in, and the news they talked about and read in their local papers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about a phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s: housewives hosting Tupperware parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":84241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12467],"tags":[58147,21423,58145],"class_list":["post-84213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inventions-patents","tag-earl-tupper","tag-inventors-and-inventions-or-patents","tag-tupperware"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/photo-0428-2022-featured-graphic-tupperware.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84213"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84239,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84213\/revisions\/84239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}