188:. Since the beginning of Flotill, Tillie was a prominent figure in the company's marketing as a manager who could relate to the concerns of female consumers. With the launch of Tasti-Diet Foods, Tillie became the center of the advertising campaigns, constructing a story of a woman who had struggled with weight and developed a solution for a problem she shared with other women. An idealized version of Tillie's success was told in articles in
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234:). The case was based on employment practices in which fulltime employees (typically native-born, white, and male) and seasonal employees (mostly immigrant and female) had different and disparate employment benefits and salaries. Although conditions at Tillie Lewis Foods were standard for the time and the industry, the lawsuit was an unwelcome challenge to her reputation.
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Tillie stated she married Louis
Weisberg in 1916. Weisberg was a partner in Mosalina Products/Hochheiser & Weisberg, a wholesale grocery business that imported pomodoro tomatoes from Italy along with many other delicacies. After her marriage ended, Tillie travelled to Italy where she worked in a
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area and established tomato and multiple agricultural products canning in both the San
Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties. Her company became the fifth largest canning business in the United States by 1950. She changed hiring practices during the 1930s Great Depression by inviting people of all races,
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organizer, in 1940 when he helped her negotiate a contract with her employees. In 1941, Tillie signed what she called "the first full union contract in the history of agricultural labor in the United States", keeping her company strike free while other companies dealt with labor struggles. Tillie
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on imported tomato products by 50% and
Florindo del Gaizo, the part-owner of the cannery, who was worried about losing his American customers, became her primary investor, providing her with tomato seeds, some canning equipment, and money. Returning to the U.S., Tillie settled on
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to grow the tomatoes. After persuading farmers in the area to experiment raising the tomatoes, she convinced
Pacific Can Company to build a plant at Stockton with an option for her to buy it. By 1940, she had made
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Tillie and del Gaizo formed the
Flotill Foods Corporation. When del Gaszio died in 1937, Tillie borrowed money and became the sole owner of Flotill Foods. Over the next decade, she began canning
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215:. She changed the name of her company to Tillie Lewis Foods and began selling shares on the American Stock Exchange in 1961. Tillie Lewis Foods merged with Ogden Foods (now part of
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73:; July 13, 1901 – April 30, 1977), was a highly successful entrepreneur and leader in the mid 20th century food packing industry. She was an early promoter of the
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is named for Tillie Lewis, as is Tillie Lewis Drive in
Stockton. In 2020, she was one of eight women featured in "The Only One in the Room" display at the
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in 1966, and Tillie was elected the first woman director of Ogden Foods. By 1971, Tillie Lewis Foods had sales of over $ 90 million per year.
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Jeanne E. Abrams. Family photographs, from 1911, indicate young Tillie was actually a minor player in the
Ziegfeld Follies.'
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When the agricultural industry faced labor shortages due to World War II, Tilly sponsored workers from Mexico through the
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in the nation. In consideration of their experience as a World War II producer, Flotill was selected again during the
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Her husband, Meyer Lewis, died in 1976. Tillie Lewis died in 1977 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.
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Tillie Lewis Foods was the lead defendant in what became an industrywide employment discrimination case,
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gender, and faith into her workforce. Tillie brought the first diet and diet products approved by the
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Boss Lady: How Three Women
Entrepreneurs Built Successful Big Businesses in the Mid-Twentieth Century
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foods. By 1953, a dietetic menu based entirely on Tasti-Diet products was available at the
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Empty
Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from Saccharin to Splenda
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Jewish women pioneering the frontier trail: a history in the
American West
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and became one of the largest ration assemblers for the military.
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and stated she worked in the garment district at the age of 14.
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into grocery stores and high-end hotel menus, the Tasti-Diet.
376:"Tillie opens cannery for American-grown Italian tomatoes"
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and built more canning plants. Flotill also canned fruits,
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In 1951, Tillie named "businesswoman of the year" by the
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the top tomato-producing county in the United States.
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Born to Austrian Jewish immigrants, Tillie grew up in
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In 1952, Tillie launched Tasti-Diet Foods, a line of
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114:. The federal government had recently raised the
331:. University of North Carolina Press. pp.
356:"CORPORATIONS: Tillie's Unpunctured Romance"
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232:Alaniz v. California Processors, Inc. (CPI)
564:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
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554:20th-century American businesspeople
559:20th-century American businesswomen
497:National Museum of American History
249:National Museum of American History
196:Parade: The Sunday Picture Magazine
98:Lewis (second from left), mid-1950s
228:Alaniz v. Tillie Lewis Foods et al
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173:married Lewis seven years later.
544:People from Stockton, California
549:Businesspeople from California
534:American food company founders
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67:Tillie Ehrlich-Weisberg Lewis
23:Tillie Ehrlich-Weisberg Lewis
539:Businesspeople from Brooklyn
391:"Tillie Lewis Official Dies"
325:de la Peña, Carolyn (2010).
170:American Federation of Labor
168:Tillie met Meyer Lewis, an
165:to assist Stockton farmers.
84:American Medical Association
16:American captain of industry
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77:San Marzano tomato to the
447:San Joaquin Delta College
397:. No. August 2, 1976
312:. NYU Press, 2006. p 115.
242:San Joaquin Delta College
52:Flotill Foods Corporation
417:"Rites for Tillie Lewis"
423:. No. May 2, 1977
378:Jewish Women's Archive
281:Sparks, Edith (2017).
178:artificially sweetened
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468:"Tillie Lewis Drive"
121:Stockton, California
79:Stockton, California
143:and juices. During
200:Everywoman's Woman
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501:. Retrieved
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443:"Box Office"
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49:Organization
529:1977 deaths
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246:Smithsonian
518:Categories
503:2020-07-25
255:References
156:Korean War
217:Pet, Inc.
152:C-Rations
141:baby food
137:asparagus
90:Biography
477:23 March
472:Mapquest
452:23 March
427:23 March
401:23 March
333:109-125
133:spinach
75:Italian
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116:tariff
112:Naples
69:(born
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358:TIME
337:ISBN
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191:Time
149:Army
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