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As vice-president of the Tupperware Plastics Co. from 1951-1958, Brownie Wise was responsible for developing the Hostess Party Plan and sales organization, and for creating the annual "Jubilee," a pep-rally and awards ceremony for dealers and distributors.
Born Brownie Humphrey in Buford, GA, in 1913, Brownie met Robert Wise at the Texas Centennial in 1936, where the couple saw an exhibition highlighting a bright future at Ford Motors. Brownie and Robert married and moved to the Detroit, MI, area where he worked as a machinist, later opening a small machine shop. They had one child, Jerry, and divorced some three years later, in 1941. Brownie Wise never remarried.
During the late 1930's and early 1940's, Brownie contributed to a correspondence column of the Detroit News under the pen name "Hibiscus." In Detroit, she worked briefly at an ad agency and in a millinery shop, and during World War II, she worked as an executive secretary. After the war, Brownie and her mother, Rose Stroud Humphrey, began selling Stanley Home Products. When Brownie's son became ill in 1949, they moved to Miami, FL, where they began a direct selling business they called Patio Parties. Through this business, they distributed Poly-T (Tupperware), Stanley Home Products, West Bend, and other household goods through an innovative home party plan adopted by Brownie.
When she quickly became among the fastest movers of Tupperware products, Wise attracted the attention of Earl Tupper, who was still searching for a profitable outlet for his plastic containers. In 1951, Tupper recruited Brownie to develop the Hostess party plan for Tupperware, and named her vice president of the company. Wise suggested locating the company headquarters in Kissimmee, FL, and she oversaw the design and construction of the campus. The company's meteoric success brought her national recognition. Since Tupper himself shunned public exposure, Wise became the public head of the company throughout the 1950's. She was both honored guest and invited speaker at national sales and marketing conferences, where she was often the only woman in attendance. The darling of women's magazines, there were scores of admiring articles about her in the sales industry and general business press.
Tupper and Wise clashed over the management and direction of the business in late 1957 and the board of directors forced her out in January, 1958. She filed suit against the company for conspiracy and breach of contract, but settled out of court for a year's salary -- about $30,000. Shortly thereafter, Tupper sold the company for $16 million, relinquishing all involvement with it.
After she left Tupperware, Brownie co-founded three direct sales cosmetics companies, Cinderella (1958-59), Carissa (1963) and Sovera/Trivera (1966-69). She also was president of Viviane Woodard Cosmetics (1960-62), and consulted for others. Along with two other former Tupperware executives, she undertook a real estate development venture in Kissimmee, but her level of success in the later ventures never reached what she had accomplished at Tupperware. Wise died in December, 1992.
Last updated: July 20, 2004.
