When it comes to leftovers, these days, any plastic — or glass — container will do. But for decades, that plastic storage container was Tupperware, created by Earl Tupper right here in Massachusetts. Though the Tupperware brand declared bankruptcy earlier this year, the name and the containers have been ingrained in American cultural history.

In her “American Experience” documentary “Tupperware!,” filmmaker Laurie Kahn explores the story of Tupperware and its journey from home-party novelty to cultural phenomenon.

Kahn said Tupperware inventor Earl Tupper was self-taught and never got past high school. But Tupper made up for his lack of book smarts with his abundant creativity.

“As I’m going through the papers of Earl Tupper in the Smithsonian archives, I’m seeing things like the fish-powered boat, which was a fish and a strap to a boat. And I’m thinking, ‘Earl, how are you going to steer this?’,” Kahn told Callie Crossley on this week’s Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.

Tupper, who was working at a plastics factory in Leominster, got his big break in the 1950s when he got his hands on polyethylene, which was being sent to plastics factories all around the country to make a peace-time product after World War II.

“He fiddled and diddled with his machines and finally came up with his ‘wonder bowl’ with its very famous burping seal,” Kahn said.

Tupper began selling the product in department stores, and despite the novelty of a container that wouldn’t break when dropped, Tupperware wasn’t selling. Kahn said although the product was revolutionary, people didn’t know how to use it. They needed hands-on demonstrations, which is how Brownie Wise, a divorced single mother in Detroit, Michigan, who was buying and selling Tupperware herself, entered the picture.

“She called up the factory one day to complain that her order was late yet again, and she insisted on speaking to Mr. Tupper himself,” Kahn said. “So Earl Tupper gets on the phone, she chews him out and he says, ‘What are you doing? You’re selling more than all the department stores.’ And she said, ‘Home parties. Take it out of the stores and only sell it at home parties.’ And he said, ‘I want to hear more.’ He flew her out east and hires her on the spot. And so these two people who never got past high school, who had big, big dreams for themselves but couldn’t realize them, met up and realized sort of what they wanted beyond their wildest dreams. “

The Tupperware home party offered sellers — most of whom were women — a chance to earn money to support themselves and their families while also creating community.

“Here was an opportunity that Brownie was offering anybody, and she really meant it: urban, suburban, rural, if you were divorced, didn’t matter what religion you were, it didn’t matter what race you were,” Kahn said. “Here’s an opportunity of something that you can do part-time, you can control your own hours and you’re not going to threaten your husband. ‘Honey, I’m just having parties.’”

Tupperware took off nationally and eventually internationally, but though the name has become a stand-in for any plastic container, the brand itself has suffered in recent years, despite fond memories from its many fans.

“I think that the company missed an opportunity in the 1980s and ‘90s when Earl’s patents were running out. The company had such a stellar reputation as being the best of the best. And if they had diversified at that point into all things domestic, I think they’d still be alive today.”

Guest:

  • Laurie Kahn, founder of Blueberry Hill Productions, director, producer and writer of the “American Experience” documentary, “Tupperware!”