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Throughline

The Queen of Tupperware

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.715K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Who ushered housewives into the workforce and plastic storage containers into America’s kitchens? Today on the show, the rise and fall of Brownie Wise, the woman behind Tupperware's plastic empire — and a revolution in women’s work.

Guests:
Alison Clarke, author of Tupperware, the Promise of Plastic in 1950s America
Bob Kealing, author of Life of the Party

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems.

0:12.0

More information is at waltonfamilyfoundation.org.

0:16.3

All right, all right, all right. Time for my nightly ritual. It's the end of the day, and I'm doing what I do every night,

0:23.8

putting away the leftover food from dinner so I can repurpose it for my son's lunch the next day.

0:28.9

Chickpeas, peas.

0:32.0

Standing in front of my tub or a drawer, which is basically a repurposed shoe rack in my kitchen closet.

0:38.2

The problem is, you know, living in an apartment, I wouldn't mind having, like, an entire closet

0:44.1

full of Tupperware, but that's... Oh boy. That's not what I have. I'm playing the game of

0:51.4

finding the right lid for the right Tupperware.

0:56.1

We've all been there, right?

1:01.2

It's fair to say that as a young mom, Tupperware is a big part of my life.

1:05.1

I'm out here saving 10 peas and half a carrot because you know what that is?

1:06.4

Tomorrow's snack.

1:10.9

But if I'm honest, Tupperware has been a key constant my whole life.

1:28.6

Extra pretzels, but the bag broke, throw it in some Tupperware. You know, we don't want it getting stale. Dinner at my in-laws' house, I'm coming home with Tupperware. Chances are you too have used Tupperware at some point in your life. It's a part of our daily lives. And it's so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget that Tupperware, which has come to mean all kinds of food storage, is actually an iconic American brand.

1:34.6

And when it first hit the market in the mid-20th century, Tupperware revolutionized American kitchens.

1:42.7

This is Tupperware.

1:45.5

The airtight plastic containers that keep good foods fresher, longer.

1:50.1

You can freeze it, stack it, any which way.

1:55.0

So salads keep there, and gelatin desserts keep there.

2:01.5

Tupperware came onto the scene after World War II,

2:05.0

right when many American women were leaving wartime factory jobs

...

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