STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum

Query: Tupperware references/imagery

• Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 11:22:33 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
• To: sthc-l@library.ucla.edu
• From: Russell A. Johnson <rjohnson@library.ucla.edu>
• Subject: Query: Tupperware references/imagery
• Message-ID: SIMEON.10110111133.Y@bio-s-his008.library.ucla.edu

Forwarded to STHC-L (based on the "plastics" association) from 
H-SCI-MED-TECH. --Russell Johnson


--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 14:06:54 -0400
From: "Phillip Thurtle, H-SCI-MED-TECH" 
Subject: QUERY: Tupperware references/imagery
Sender: "H-NET List on the History of Science, Medicine, and 
Technology" 


I would greatly appreciate your suggestions for a film I am making (to
be aired on PBS) about the creation of Tupperware -- the plastic
product, the company, the marketing phenomenon, and the enduring icon.
My question: in what films, television shows, novels, poems, cartoons,
stories, songs, etc have you seen/heard references to Tupperware?

FYI, here's a brief film synopsis: The story of the building of the
Tupperware empire takes us into the heart of American culture in the
middle of the 20th century. This lively documentary film will make its
audience laugh, but it will also leave its audience thinking more deeply

about post-war American dreams and aspirations -- and the actual lives
of women in the 1950s and 1960s (which turn out to be far more
interesting than the stereotypes).  The Tupperware film will take an
ordinary, familiar object everyone has either owned or used, and unfold
its complex origins, associations, and implications. "Tupperware! Earl
and Brownie’s Plastic Empire" will leave its audience with strong images
and new ideas about the Cold War, gender roles, home party sales, and
the explosion of consumer culture after WWII.

(To date, the film's research and development has been funded by the MA
Foundation for the Humanities, the Smithsonian, and the Hagley Museum
and Library.  The project also received an NEH production grant
recently, for which we are very grateful.)

Thanks for your help,
Laurie Kahn-Leavitt
Producer/writer/director, "Tupperware! Earl and Brownie's Plastic
Empire"
(formerly producer/writer of the film "A Midwife's Tale")
Blueberry Hill Productions
lauriebhp@mediaone.net
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