Tupperware

The bowl that burped and shunned the shops

- DELWYN MALLETT

YEARS BEFORE SEXY lingerie parties courtesy of Ann Summers, housewives were gathering in their homes to have fun buying items with no discernible erotic appeal Tupperware. Now, after 77 years of partying, the fun has gone out of the brand and it is facing bankruptcy.

It may only be polyethylene food containers but in its day Tupperware was revolutionary, gaining a place in the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art and providing income for women confined to home by the social mores of the day. On its introduction Time magazine gave Tupperware a rave review, commenting that the new plastic containers could 'withstand almost anything? House Beautiful was equally fulsome in its praise, impressed by the 'simplistic yet chic' design, describing it as 'fine art for 39 cents. Despite the praise, Tupperware initially flopped commercially, yet by the 1990s it was estimated that 90% of US homes had at least one piece of Tupperware on the shelves.

Born in Berlin, New Hampshire, in 1907, Earl Silas Tupper was the only child of poor farmers Ernest Tupper and the colourfully named Lulu, who, despite her name, was not an exotic dancer but a hard-pressed wife who took in lodgers and washing to supplement income.