Customer Reviews

Tupperware Unsealed: Brownie Wise, Earl Tupper, and the Home Party Pioneers

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Having been in the Tupperware Family all my life, i found this book to be fascinating, truthful, and completely up front and interesting - My parents were one of the original distributors so i know what is true and what is not - But the author did great research and wrote it in such a delightful way - I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the true story behind Earl Tupper and Brownie Wise and the early pioneers who worked themselves silly(sometimes literally!) to make Tupperware become a household name!

I was amazed at the details Bob Kealing related in the book. He really brought Brownie Wise (as well as Tupper himself) to life. The story is not a "slam job" but an even-handed look at the rise and fall of a strong-willed single mother. Brownie Wise was an integral part of Tupperware's meteoric rise. Sadly, as a woman, she was all too easily cast aside. This book relates a sad chapter in the history of Tupperware that I had no idea of. The authors detailed accounts made it easy to connect with the main characters in a way some historical novels never do. I also loved the way he put you "at the scene" by relating details of significant events taking place at the same time as the story. I predict you will be pleasantly surprised at the level of details and straight-forward writing style of this book. Excellent story about one of America's first successful business women.

Bob Kealing transformed meticulous research about the "Queen of Tupperware" into a fascinating story. The interlinking saga of Tupperware and Brownie Wise moves from the early days of the little known plastic container company to the heights of 1950s corporate America. Kealing points to the important contributions Brownie Wise made in home party sales which ultimately made Earl Tupper a very rich man. The surprising downfall of Wise shocked her legions of fans and women who valued her as a role model. She was a promoter & mentor to all the women who for the first time were able to gain financial success. This book is also an important addition to Orlando area history. The small town of Kissimmee eventually grew because of its proximity to Walt Disney World. However, Kealing points out that there was a rich history before Disney World arrived. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in long buried histories.

Our family is one of the original Tupperware pioneers mentioned in this book. I was very impressed with the author's ability to really capture an honest and accurate account of Brownie's spectacular rise to power in Tupperware as well as her eventual demise in the business world of the 50's. This book gives credit where it is due to all the early players that were responsible for creating this truely unique American Company. There has always been more to the Brownie Wise and earl Tupper relationship then people today understand and this book does tell the full story well.

I grew up in Orlando and lived less than 2 miles from the Tupperware Headquarters mentioned in Kissimmee. That said, this outstanding book took me to an earlier time and put me right in the middle of the concept and birth of a fantastic business with an unusual distribution method over the traditional methods of the time. The places, players, decisions and disagreements are all here and "you" are part of the action.

My husband says to me- "Only you would buy a book about Tupperwear".

I found this book in a sleepy book & yarn store in Apalachicola and I bought it because I was/am in the middle of a "Mad Men" infused mid-century obsession. Let me say that I like to read books a chapter or two a night and I usually have several going at once. Not this time! Not be cliche, but I couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened to Brownie Wise. Her true-life story was fascinating. She's the kind of person or character you really root for. Tupperwear Unsealed is an amazing story combining an iconic American business, a resilient woman and a post-war time capsule.

My husband then teased me when I spent and entire Saturday reading the whole thing. "How interesting could tupperwear possibly be?" He said. (Hint- that's why the inventor hired the subject, Brownie Wise).

Be the trendsetter in your group and read this book before some lucky actress gets this highly desirable role and it winds up in a theater near you.

Kudos to the author, a working TV reporter, for bringing us this unsung heroine and business pioneer. If you have any interest in women in business, or how women started to enter the workplace after WWII, or if you're interested in Florida when people went there for health reasons (before Disney), or if you just like strong female lead characters... you will eat up every page of this book.

It has a permanent place on my bookshelf.

I can't stop thinking about Tupperware Unsealed: Brownie Wise, Earl Tupper, and the Home Party Pioneers by Bob Kealing. It hit me emotionally, and I've been thinking about and talking about this incredible story ever since I put the book down. It reminded me of all the things I just love about this business and of my early days in direct sales.

Brownie Wise was a single mom from Detroit going door-to-door selling Stanley products when she came across Earl Tupper's innovative plastic products. She'd been so successful with Stanley that she'd hoped to advance into a corporate position with them. But, the Stanley folks shut her down, saying it would never happen because she was a woman. Yet, Brownie believed in herself, she was willing to work hard, and she set her sights on moving forward. If not this, she would find something else.

Earl Tupper was selling his wares - or trying to - at the largest department store in the country, J.L. Hudson in Detroit. The fantastic food savers were just sitting, gathering dust on the shelves, when Brownie saw an opportunity. She realized that Tupper's product line needed to be demonstrated, to be properly appreciated. So she began purchasing the products wholesale and created the presentation model in a party experience so she could show people what a great food preserver the Tupperware was.

The book details her meteoric rise to the top and how as the First Lady of Tupperware, Brownie helped create the model for the party plans we know today. She planned the first direct-sales convention and was the first woman on the cover of Business Week. The 1950s ended up being a time of phenomenal growth for Tupperware, due almost entirely to her efforts and the systems she put in place.

Her distributors were going out and doing 20 parties a month at a time when households only had one car. The Tupperware ladies would wait for their husbands to get home and then run out and do a party - or two or three in one evening! These ladies worked tirelessly and taught their teams to do the same. As they became more successful it was challenging for them to keep up the schedule, necessitating the building of teams big and fast. In fact, the first "car program" was implemented by Tupperware simply so that their best distributors would have a car to go out and do more parties!

I just loved reading about the discipline, philosophy, and replicable nature of Brownie Wise's plan. What I think is so important is to recognize that when one person goes out, creates momentum, and builds a vision for others - and gives others a definite directional message - great things follow. There was a "Tupperware Way" and the company was consistently on message, setting the standard, and rewarding excellence.

The book goes on to detail unfortunate developments that are also cautionary tales about the pressures on companies as they grow quickly and those stories struck me emotionally, as well. The book provides such interesting insight into a part of our history that we think we already know. I just can't recommend it highly enough.

You should know the story of Brownie Wise, the driving force behind making Tupperware a household name. She was written out of Tupperware history, but her influence shouldn't be discounted. She was a trailblazer, ahead of her time, and we can learn so much from her accomplishments and her way of doing business.

As Brownie Wise was my half-brothers mother,I knew her all of my life. When my brother died a year ago January, I felt a very sad chapter had been closed. While Brownie was an great idea person she was not a business woman and left Jerry with virtually nothing. Bob did an excellent job of getting into the public head of Brownie and his research was wonderful. The totally true story never needs to be told and this is the most unbiased version I have come across including the PBS special of her.