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Title details for Life of the Party by Bob Kealing - Available

Life of the Party

The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire

by Bob Kealing
Kimberly Farr
Audiobook
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The incredible story of Brownie Wise, the Southern single mother—and postwar #Girlboss—who built, and lost, a Tupperware home-party empire
Before Mary Kay, Martha Stewart, and Joy Mangano, there was Brownie Wise, the charismatic Tupperware executive who converted postwar optimism into a record-breaking sales engine powered by American housewives. In Life of the Party, Bob Kealing offers the definitive portrait of Wise, a plucky businesswoman who divorced her alcoholic husband, started her own successful business, and eventually caught the eye of Tupperware inventor, Earl Tupper, whose plastic containers were collecting dust on store shelves. 
 
The Tupperware Party that Wise popularized, a master-class in the soft sell, drove Tupperware's sales to soaring heights. It also gave minimally educated and economically invisible postwar women, including some African-American women, an acceptable outlet for making their own money for their families—and for being rewarded for their efforts. With the people skills of Dale Carnegie, the looks of Doris Day, and the magnetism of Eva Peron, Wise was as popular among her many devoted followers as she was among the press, and she become the first woman to appear on the cover of BusinessWeek in 1954. Then, at the height of her success, Wise's ascent ended as quickly as it began. Earl Tupper fired her under mysterious circumstances, wrote her out of Tupperware's success story, and left her with a pittance. He walked away with a fortune and she disappeared—until now. 
 
Originally published as Tupperware Unsealed by the University Press of Florida in 2008—and optioned by Sony Pictures, with Sandra Bullock attached to star—this revised and updated edition is perfectly timed to take advantage of renewed interest in this long-overlooked American business icon.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 12, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780451483393
      • File size: 257885 KB
      • Duration: 08:57:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Kimberly Farr performs this chronicle of pioneering female executive Brownie Wise's rise to national prominence while running Tupperware's sales division in the 1950s. Farr emphasizes Wise's ambition and can-do attitude as the divorced mother works her way from the secretarial pool to management, rebranding herself a widow and model Tupperware sales rep. Farr's winning characterization of Wise adds meaning even to some of the driest details of running a business--from production problems to distribution delays--and she capitalizes on moments of drama, particularly the tumultuous relationship between Wise and Tupperware creator Earl Tupper, which ultimately ended in Wise's being fired. An interesting piece of history and a portrait of a trailblazing woman. A.F. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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