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Project History

THE RESEARCH
I GOT A RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP at the Smithsonian Institution and immersed myself in the amazing plastic collections at the Smithsonian Archives Center. While there, I read through the Celluloid Corporation papers, the papers of the man who invented Bakelite, the Formica Corporation papers, the DuPont Nylon papers, etc, and I screened every plastics story in the Industry on Parade film collection. But what jumped out at me were the papers of Earl Silas Tupper, the papers of Brownie Wise, and a collection of early Tupperware films given by one of Tupperware’s first distributors. The story of Tupperware’s early years was a film that was waiting to be made, staring me in the face. The story had drama, the footage and still images were fabulous and funny, and the Tupperware parties would take me into the heart of American culture in the 1950s.

EARL TUPPER, the self-taught reclusive inventor of Tupperware, and Brownie Wise, the single divorced mom who convinced him to sell Tupperware exclusively at home parties, were an unlikely team. But for seven years in the 1950s, Earl and Brownie did join forces, and together they built a multi-million dollar plastic empire.
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