BROWNIE WISE PAPERS, ca. 1928-1968
#509

15 cu. ft.: 26 DB, 7 F/O, 27 sound recordings

by: Mimi Minnick, July 1995

Biographical Note

Brownie Humphrey was born in Buford, Georgia in 1913, the daughter of Rosabelle Stroud Humphrey and Jerome Humphrey, a plumber. According to longtime friend Kay Robinson, Brownie knew that there were few business opportunities for women in the South, and that "unless she wanted to work in sales, she would have to leave the South." After meeting Robert Wise at the Texas Centennial in 1936, where the couple saw an exhibition highlighting a bright future at Ford Motors, Brownie and Robert married and moved to the Detroit area where he worked as a machinist, later opening a small machine shop. The couple divorced in 1941, about three years after the birth of their only child, Jerry. Brownie Wise never remarried.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Brownie contributed to a correspondence column of the Detroit News under the pen name "Hibiscus." Her columns were largely autobiographical, but used elements of fantasy and romance to address a uniquely female urban community. In Detroit, Wise worked briefly at an ad agency and in a millinery shop. During World War II, Wise got a job as an executive secretary at Bendix. After the war, Brownie and her mother, Rose Stroud Humphrey, began selling Stanley Home Products. When Jerry became ill in 1949, they followed a doctor's advice and moved to Miami where they began a direct selling business they called Patio Parties. Through this business, the mother daughter team distributed Poly-T (Tupperware), Stanley Home Products, West Bend, and other household goods through an innovative home party plan adopted by Brownie.

Thomas Damigella in Massachusetts, and Brownie Wise in South Florida, quickly became among the fastest movers of Tupperware products, attracting the attention of Earl Tupper, who was still searching for a profitable outlet for his plastic containers. Because Americans were still skeptical of plastics and because the Tupper seal required demonstration, early attempts at department store sales had been unsuccessful. Some independent dealers had more success selling through demonstrations at state fairs or door-to-door, but sales and distribution remained low. The experiences of Damigella and Wise convinced Tupper to offer the products on a home party plan. He partnered with Norman Squires, the originator of Hostess Home Parties, to pursue this strategy.

In 1951, Tupper recruited Brownie to develop the Hostess party plan for Tupperware, and named her vice president of the company. She is credited with developing the party plan and sales organization, and with creating the annual Jubilee, a pep-rally and awards ceremony for dealers and distributors; it was her idea to locate company headquarters in Kissimmee, and she oversaw the design and construction of the campus. With the company's meteoric success came national recognition. Her public role was all the greater because Earl Tupper shunned all public exposure; Wise was the public head of the company throughout the 1950s. She was both honored guest and invited speaker at national sales and marketing conferences, where she was often the only woman in attendance. Scores of laudatory articles about her appeared in the sales industry and general business press, and she became the darling of the women's magazines, including features in McCalls, Charm and Companion.

Tupper and Wise clashed over the management and direction of the business in late 1957 and the board of directors forced her out in January, 1958. She filed a $1,600,000 suit against the company for conspiracy and breach of contract, but settled out of court for a year's salary -- about $30,000. Shortly thereafter, Tupper sold the company to Dart/Rexall and relinquished all involvement with it.

Beginning in 1958 and through the 1960s, Brownie co-founded three direct sales cosmetics companies, Cinderella (1958-59), Carissa (1963) and Sovera/Trivera (1966-69). She also was president of Viviane Woodard Cosmetics (1960-62), and consulted for Artex and others. In addition, she undertook a real estate development venture in Kissimmee with Charles McBurney and George Reynolds (both former Tupperware executives). She seems never to have achieved the same level of success in these later business ventures. Wise continued to live in the Kissimmee area, moving from Waters' Edge, the spectacular 1920s mansion she occupied during the Tupperware years, to a home George Reynolds designed for her in. She was active in her church and as an artist, working in clay and textiles. During the last eight years of her life she was in declining health. She died in December 1992.

Scope and Content Note

The Brownie Wise Papers constitute an essential complement to the Earl Tupper Papers, acquired in 1992, and to the museums rich collections of Tupperware products. Together these collections document not only the founding and early business history of Tupperware, but also significant areas of American history in which the museum has a demonstrated interest. The Brownie Wise Papers illuminate aspects of an American consumer culture which achieved its apex in the post-World War II years; in many ways, Tupperware and the Tupperware party reflect the key defining elements of the fifties. Of special significance is the story these papers tell of a successful woman business executive and working mother, in an era whose women have more often been characterized by June Cleaver and Harriet Nelson. The Tupperware story offers rich insights into the society and culture of the era, illuminating issues of gender, consumerism, and technological development.

There are approximately 15 cubic feet of materials, including photographic and audiovisual materials. The collection is organized into three series.

Series 1: PERSONAL PAPERS, ca. 1928-1968. A scrapbook touches on her life as a girl in the 1920s. Souvenir photographs of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exhibition at which she met her future husband, letterhead of his Detroit business, travel postcards, war ration books, income tax returns and a scrapbook chronicling her writings under the penname Hibiscus for the Detroit News, give a glimpse into her life during the late 1930s and early 1940s. For the 1950s, there are records of taxes and household expenses. The collection also includes some of her 1940s and 1950s dress patterns; as a woman in the public eye, Wise's trim figure and fashionable attire were much discussed.

Series 2: STANLEY HOME PRODUCTS, PATIO PARTIES, POLY-T PARTIES, HIBISCUS SALES AND GARDENIA SALES, ca. 1947-1959. This series includes records of Wise's innovative direct sales businesses for the period before she was recruited by Tupperware. Files include order forms, correspondence with sales agents, and instructions on sales methods. There are sales records, invoices, shipping documents, accounting records and sales force newsletters from the Miami Tupperware dealership known as Hibiscus Sales, which Wise opened in 1949 with her mother. Until her death in 1959, Brownie's mother Rose Humphrey, continued to operate the Miami dealership as well as Gardenia Sales, which supplied Tupperware to Puerto Rico. There are accounting records and dealer correspondence documenting this enterprise.

Series 3: TUPPERWARE HOME PARTIES, ca. 1951-1959. This series includes files of Wise's business correspondence, notes and memoranda, and speeches. There is some business correspondence with Earl Tupper, who remained at the firm's manufacturing plants in the Northeast. Also included are publicity reprints and newsclippings, as well as public relations scrapbooks from 1951 to 1958. There are nearly complete runs of Tupperware Sparks and the Tupperware Sentinel, company publications prepared for the sales force, as well as catalogs, recruitment publications and other company literature.  The series is divided into six subseries as follows:

• Subseries A: Business Files and Correspondence, 1951-1959;  1988-1989

• Subseries B: Speeches to Tupperware Sales Force, 1951-1957

• Subseries C: Speeches to outside groups and Sales Organizations, 1952-1957

• Subseries D: Tupperware publications, 1949-1966 (not inclusive)

• Subseries E: Brownie Wise "Idea" files, n.d

• Subseries F: Publicity, 1951-1957

Series 4: TUPPERWARE HOME PARTIES, ca. 1951-1959. Wise's business activities in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a co-founder and consultant in direct selling cosmetics enterprises also are well documented. Companies include Cinderella (1958-59), and Vivian Woodard (1960-62), Carissa (1963), Aloe Vera (1966-68), Trivera (1967-68), and Sovera (1967-69). Organized files include sales handbooks and dealer/distributor literature written by Wise, correspondence, reports and recommendations for clients, samples of advertising and marketing materials, and sales force newsletters.

Series 5: OTHER DIRECT SALES CONSULTING, ca. 1958-1971. Handbooks, franchise agreements and correspondence document aspects of her work for ABCWare, Vacronware, Artex and others direct sales companies during the 1960s.

Series 6: OTHER BUSINESS VENTURES, ca. 1958-1967. Includes files from several of Wise's late 1950s real estate development ventures, and from the Brownie Wise Sales Success course.

Series 7: PHOTOGRAPHS, ca. 1930-1968.

Includes personal photographs of Brownie Wise at home, travelling, and with her son, but the bulk of the material is comprised of publicity photographs or people and events, primarily for the Tupperware years, but also including some from Sovera and other cosmetics companies for which she consulted.

Series 8: AUDIO RECORDINGS, ca. 1953-1957; 1977; n.d. Includes reel-to reels, 78s, 33 1/3s and one audiocasette of Tupperware Home parties meetings, motivational speeches, and songs.

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