Tupperware: the promise of plastic in 1950s America

by Alison J. Clarke

From Wonder Bowls to Ice-Tup molds to Party Susans, Tupperware has become an icon of suburban living. Tracing the fortunes of Earl Tupper's polyethylene containers from early design to global distribution, Alison J. Clarke explains how Tupperware tapped into potent commercial and social forces, becoming a prevailing symbol of late twentieth-century consumer culture.

Invented by Earl Tupper in the 1940s to promote thrift and cleanliness, the pastel plasticwares were touted as essential to a postwar lifestyle that emphasized casual entertaining and celebrated America's material abundance. By the mid-1950s the Tupperware party, which gathered women in a hostess's home for lively product demonstrations and sales, was the foundation of a multimillion-dollar business that proved as innovative as the containers themselves. Clarke shows how the “party plan” direct sales system, by creating a corporate culture based on women's domestic lives, played a greater role than patented seals and streamlined design in the success of Tupperware.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Microhistory

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating argument hidden by some of the most boring prose I’ve ever encountered.

[Gayle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given that this has been in my “currently reading” for 14 years - it’s probably time to abandon it! I just found it on my shelves with about 30 pages left to go. Doesn’t seem like there is a lot of point to finish it at this point. Not sure why I bought this. I was interested more in the time of domesticity when Tupperware started - and the rise and rise of plastic than the actual story of Tupperware as such. I obviously lost interest as it went on as the writing was quite boring at times. I do remember quite enjoying aspects of it, but the business info not so much. I hate abandoning books, but I have no intention to start reading it again!

[Matthew Gilmore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tupperwear as oppression, Tupperwear as liberation, Tupperwear as agency... the author swings wildly across this landscape. Horribly freighted prose dripping with academese--some I read out loud just for a laugh! A better book would have been a biography of Brownie Wise, heroine of this narrative.

[Angela]

This is a very detailed history of Tupperware, too much for me. I am intrigued by the rise of Brownie Wise, and how she made Tupperware what we know it as today.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marketing genius, consummate salesperson, cult

[Jeffrey Aubuchon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an insightful account of the development of both this product and the wider industry.

[Jennifer hensel · Rating 3 out of 5]

-American culture and object relationship.
-women's role in a postwar society
-Tupperware defining a time, place, and people.
* Objects have the capabilities to translate time and symbolic meaning.

[Jackie ϟ Bookseller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly an interesting read about the invention and consumer momentum of Tupperware, a company the last three generations of my family have used, but I feel like it could have been half the length and still said the same things.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather technical history but learned a lot of interesting thing about American culture from the 1930's through 1970's.

[Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of detail. A taste of what life was like in the 30's 40'sand 50's.