The queen of Tupperware

Single mom Brownie Wise helped build a plastics empire — one house party at a time

Tupperware Queen
(Image credit: (Wikipedia))

ON AN UNSEASONABLY warm day in April 1954, hundreds of women in cowboy hats gathered outside Tupperware's Florida headquarters to dig for buried treasure. It was the pinnacle of the inaugural Tupperware Jubilee, a five-day, gold-rush-themed affair celebrating all things Tupperware.

For five hours that day, the women, a collection of dealers, distributors, and sales managers, prospected for mink stoles and freezer units, gold watches and diamond rings. One of them, Fay Maccalupo of Buffalo, dug up a toy car. When she saw the real Ford it represented, she planted her face against the hood and began to weep, repeating, "I love everybody."

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