23rd January: Tupperware

On this date in 1942 Earl Tupper bought his first manufacturing plant to make Tupperware. 10 things you didn't know about Tupperware:

1. Earl Silas Tupper was an American born-Costa Rican businessman and former landscaper, whose company had gone out of business in the 1930s. He'd found work in a plastic factory. He became interested in plastic to the extent that he even bought some of the factory's moulding machines to play with at home.
2. After WWII, the company were keen to find peacetime uses for plastic - enter Earl Tupper, who came up with the idea for Tupperware and developed it. The first Tupperware product ever developed was a bathroom drinking glass.
3. This was closely followed by the Wonderbowl, an airtight container which expelled air from inside as it was sealed, making a burping sound. The idea for the burping lids came from the seal on a can of paint.
4. In the shops, the products weren't a huge success at first, because nobody understood the way the burping lids worked. A saleswoman named Brownie Wise came up with a novel idea to boost sales - the Tupperware Party. The first party was held in Detroit in 1949. They spread rapidly and Tupper was so pleased with the result that he made her vice president of marketing in 1951.
5. However, the relationship between Tupper and Wise later soured and he fired her in 1958. Officially, it was because he disagreed with her idea of holding bigger Tupperware parties and rallies called jubilees in which top sellers would be rewarded. This, he said, was too expensive. This was just an excuse, however. He wanted to sell the company and didn't think anyone would buy a company with a woman in a high position. Rexall, later Dart Industries, bought Tupperware in 1958.
6. The first Tupperware party in the UK was held by Mila Pond in Weybridge.
7. In the 1950s there was a strict dress code for Tupperware sellers. Ladies must wear skirts with stockings or tights and white gloves. Today, it's more relaxed. The flamboyant cross-dressing ‘Aunt Barbara’ is the top Tupperware seller in North America.
8. Tupperware isn't so popular in the UK these days - operations in the UK and Ireland were closed in 2003, because people didn't like the direct sales model. A proposed re-launch in 2011 was cancelled. However, it remains popular elsewhere. Tupperware is sold in around 100 countries and it's said a Tupperware party is held somewhere in the world every 1.4 seconds. Over 500,000 Tupperware parties are held each year in France alone.
9. The Guinness Book of World Records named Tupperware as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th Century.
10. Eleganzia, Wonderlier, MiniMax, Go Flex, Compactware, FridgeSmart, Stuffables and UltraPro are all names that Tupperware products have been sold under in order to appeal to a younger market.