Most Americans got by with very little during the Depression, and endured strict rationing of items like gasoline, tires, butter and meat during World War II.
After the war, consumer culture took off, fueled by years of pent-up demand and a manufacturing sector looking for postwar business. Higher paychecks and "modern" goods -- like Tupperware containers, made from a recently invented wartime plastic -- translated into ringing cash registers.
The message from advertisers was that every aspect of life could be improved with a purchase -- the drive to work, chores around the house, even a weekend barbeque.
I always wanted a car... I didn't care what it was.
- Tom Damigella
Meet Tom and Ann Damigella
Well, the definition of being a feminist today probably would fit my mother to a certain extent... But you know, that never was an issue with my mother. She didn't see that she was like leading a cause or that she was breaking ground, even though she was. But she was doing it because her first priority was to nurture and protect and create a future for her family.
- Tommy Damigella (Tom and Ann's son)
We got a telephone call. "Person to person, long distance call." Long distance? I didn't even know there was short distance and long distance. Very few people had a phone. Then I got on the phone, and [he] said, 'This is Mr. Earl Tupper... We found out that whatever you're doing, you're selling more than my entire region put together in all of New England... I would like to meet you, like to see you.'
- Tommy Damigella
Earl Tupper called Tom Damigella about his selling techniques before he established Tupperware exclusively as a home selling business.
... I said, 'Mr. Tupper, do you know that your Tupperware is dying on the shelves?' That got him. I could tell, because I could see the reaction in his mind. His Tupperware, his wonderful, beautiful Tupperware, was dying on the shelves. The word 'dying.'
- Tommy Damigella
I had to fight the husbands, because the husbands always have a mentality about their women -- she belongs in the home with the kids in the kitchen -- because when he comes home, he was the boss.
- Tommy Damigella
Six distributors in the United States were going to receive a Cadillac for the top sales... It was my amazement at the very end -- you can't fight with figures -- that Ann and I became one of the six.
- Tommy Damigella
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