American Experience : Tupperware (2004)
Directed by Laurie Kahn-Leavitt
Genres - Historical Film |
Sub-Genres - Biography, Inventions & Innovations, Social History |
Run Time - 60 min. |
Countries - United States |
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Synopsis by Andrea LeVasseur
Harvard historian Laurie Kahn-Leavitt (A Midwife's Tale) writes and directs the documentary film Tupperware!, narrated by Kathy Bates. She and her team spent a year doing research at the Smithsonian Archives and interviewing around 300 people involved with the company. The story starts with the invention of Tupperware by scientist Earl Silas Tupper. Then homemaker Brownie Wise got the idea to sell Tupperware to other housewives through the magic of Tupperware home parties. In 1958, the business partnership between Tupper and Wise ended, but Tupperware ladies continued to proliferate. As a lucrative business, Tupperware marked a time of social change where many different classes of women were encouraged to become financially independent. Tupperware! is scheduled for a 2004 broadcast on PBS as part of the American Experience series.
Characteristics
Keywords
entrepreneur, homemaker, invention, plastic, trends, leftovers, selling, charm [personality], self-confidence, self-improvement