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Earl Silas Tupper (1907-1983) was the inventor of Tupperware — the airtight plastic container that bears his name.
Born on a farm in Berlin, NH, Tupper was innovative even as a child. He built devices that made his family's farm work easier, received a patent for a frame used to dress chickens for sale, and came up with the idea of selling the family produce door-to-door, dramatically increasing sales.
After he graduated from high school, Tupper began a landscaping and nursery business, which was fairly successful until the Great Depression forced it into bankruptcy. Tupper moved on to a job with Viscoloid, the DuPont plastics division in Leominster, MA. Tupper said that, although he only worked there for one year, his education in design, research, development and manufacturing began there. In 1938, Tupper went out on his own, first subcontracting for DuPont, and then supplying American troops with gas masks and other plastic supplies during World War II. When the war ended, Tupper decided to move into plastic consumer goods.
First, though, he had to come up with a plastic that was easier to mold and to work with. He was given some polyethylene slag by DuPont; it was a black, malodorous by-product of the crude oil refinement process. After a great deal of trial and error, Tupper came up with a method to transform the slag into a more resilient, solid, grease-free plastic, that was also clean and translucent. At the same time, he developed an air-tight seal, modeled on the lid of a paint can.
By 1946, Tupper was manufacturing all different kinds of containers, including unbreakable bathroom tumblers, cigarette cases, and food containers. Most people didn't understand how to use the lids properly, however, and sales were slow. In 1948, Tupper became aware that salespeople from Stanley Home Products were selling far more of his product than anyone else. They were holding "home parties," where they demonstrated the products and sold them straight to the consumer. After meeting with the representatives, Tupper decided to pull his product from store shelves and sell exclusively through home parties. Modeled on the home party plan pioneered by Stanley Home Products and expanded and refined by Brownie Wise, a representative from Florida, the home party plan became and remains the exclusive outlet for Tupperware.
Wise was named Vice President of the company (named Tupperware Home Parties) in 1951, a position she held until 1958, when she was forced out of the company by the board of directors. Tupper sold the company for $16 million later that year. Tupperware Home Parties had become a national phenomenon, and have since spread to countries all over the globe.
Last updated: July 19, 2007.
