Meet the mop millionairess behind Jennifer Lawrence's Joy
Meet the mop millionairess behind Jennifer Lawrence's Joy


	
	

	

		
		






	

	
	
	
	    
		
	


	

		
		

		

     
     

	

	
	
	

	
	
	

	




	
		





	

	
	

	
	















	

	
    

	




	
	
		
	






	
	

	
		




	

	
	

	
	





	
	
	
		
	
	

	





	

	
		
	


		
			
		

		
	












		
		

		
		

		
		









		
		




	
	

	

		





	

	
	

	
	









	
	

	



	
	

		

			
			

				
				

				

				
				
				
				
				

				
				

				

				
	
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
		
	

			

			

			
			
	

	


		

		
		

	
	
	
	
	
	
	

	
	
		
	
	

	
		
		
			
				Joy Mangano with Jennifer Lawrence at the New York premiere of Joy
			
		

		
		
			
				
				    Credit: Rex/Startraks Photo
			   
			
		
	



	

	
	






	







		

						
							
							    
									





	

	
	

	
	





	
	
	

	
    

	
		
		
			
				
				
				
				
				
				

				

				
					

	
	
		
		
		

		
		

		
		
        
        

		
		

		
		

		

			

				
			
				
				
                
                    
		24 December 2015 4:00pm GMT
	




                    
                
			

			
			
				
			

		

	


				

				

			
            
		
	




							    
							

						
                        

				

				
  
  

	

	
	

	
	



  
  
    When Joy Mangano stepped in front of the QVC cameras for the first time in 1992, she had a great deal riding on her performance. Aged 33, she was a single mother to three children who had invested her life savings (and  $100,000 borrowed from friends and family) into a small business based around her invention, the Miracle Mop.
But two years into her venture, sales were slow and the money was running out. Convincing the successful shopping channel to stock and promote her product had seemed to be the break she was looking for. But QVC were used to selling obscure fitness equipment and imitation gem stones.
A cotton mop that rinsed itself was not something their hosts seemed able to sell in significant numbers. When Mangano was told that the channel were looking to return the last of her stock due to lack of interest, she saw her dreams of business success fading rapidly.
So she made QVC a proposition: give her the opportunity to go on air and pitch her product direct to the channel’s millions of viewers in her own words. If the Miracle Mop still didn’t sell she would take the remaining stock off their hands. “As far as I was concerned, QVC wasn’t demonstrating the product properly,” she told Gregory K Ericksen in his book Women Entrepreneurs Only.  “They were showing stills of the mop and they really didn’t know the product…I was saying to myself I know they’re wrong. This is a great product. I knew it would sell if I demonstrated it.”  
  







One executive - Doug Briggs, who later became president of QVC - saw enough in Mangano’s natural passion and charisma to give her 20 minutes on air. “I knew there and then that the whole future for Miracle Mop depended on this opportunity. And I can tell you I was very, very nervous.”







	

	
	

	
	









	
	

	



	
	

		

			
			

			
				
				

	
	
	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	
	
	
	
	
	


	

	

	

	


	
	

	
	
	
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
		
	




			

			
			

		

		
		

	
	
	
	
	
	
	

	
	
	

	
		
		
			
				Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop, with her best-selling products
			
		

		
		
	



	

	
	




  
  

	

	
	

	
	



  
  
    This scene is recreated with surprising poignancy in Joy, the new film from American Hustle director David O Russell.Starring Jennifer Lawrence as Mangano, Robert De Niro as her father, and Bradley Cooper as the QVC exec, Joy could be least likely Oscar contender in years. Somehow, it turns the story of a suburban housewife- who made millions selling mops on TV into a modern-day fairy tale.
Mangano had nothing planned that day in the QVC studios. There was no script and she had little time to prepare her demonstration. When the little green light on the camera turned to red and the host asked her about the mop, Mangano spoke naturally as if she was telling a friend about her invention.
She had come up with the idea while mopping her own floors at home, becoming frustrated that her usual mops wore out quickly, failed to fully absorb mess and that rinsing them took a lot of effort. So she had one made out of a continuous loop of cotton with grapple handles that could be twisted to ring out the water effortlessly. She knew how much of a difference it had made to her own life - and wanted to show other ordinary mums that  it could change theirs too. And so she did.
  







Mangano was pretty but homely; confident but warm. On top of that she had a passionate and sincere belief in her own product. Up until that point, she had seen herself as an inventor and aspirant entrepreneur. What she was about to find out was that she was a natural TV host and salesperson too. “The QVC phone lines went crazy with thousands and thousands of calls,” she said. “People couldn’t order the Miracle Mop fast enough. We sold 18,000 mops in 20 minutes. My company had to work 24 hours a day to keep up with demand.”







	

	
	

	
	









	
	

	



	
	

		

			
			

			
				
				

	
	
	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	
	
	
	
	
	


	

	

	

	


	
	

	
	
	
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
		
	




			

			
			

		

		
		

	
	
	
	
	
	
	

	
	
		
	
	

	
		
		
			
				Jennifer Lawrence with the cast of Joy, including Robert De Niro as her father and Isabella Rossellini as his girlfriend
			
		

		
		
			
				
				    Credit: Twentieth Century Fox
			   
			
		
	



	

	
	




  
  

	

	
	

	
	



  
  
    It was 20 minutes that would not only change her life forever but also the fortunes of QVC and, arguably, the very nature of marketing and consumerism in the United States and beyond. For the first time but certainly not the last, Mangano had shown that it was possible to sell a product by first selling yourself. “People identify with me because I am a regular person with cleaning and household needs just like anybody else out there,” she recently said. “I tell them that here’s a quality product and I’m going to show them what it does.”
Even back then, before the fame and fortune, Mangano had a hint of glamour about her. Her hair was big and glossy, the shoulders of her jackets were subtly padded. She was a suburban mom of Italian American descent, born and raised in Long Island, New York. She was ordinary but with just a hint of the aspirational about her. When she talked about mopping floors, it perhaps rendered the subject slightly less grim and depressing.
  







Perhaps the viewing public fancied a bit of the Mangano lifestyle and thought the mop might be a way in. Decades on, QVC and Home Shopping Network are awash with everyone from the Kardashians to Nigella Lawson and Victoria Beckham using the same canny marketing technique: pitching their products as gateways to a newer, brighter, happier lifestyle. They all have Mangano to thank.


  
  

	

	
	

	
	



  
  
    Within 10 years, Mangano’s company, Ingenious Designs Inc, had sold in excess of $200 million worth of Miracle Mops. The company later sold to Home Shopping Network for an undisclosed fee but Joy continued to appear regularly on TV selling not just mops but a series of her own inventions which proved to be just as popular. Her Huggable Hangers (with a soft coating to prevent your clothes from slipping) became QVC’s best selling product of all time. It’s not unheard of for her to appear on TV at midnight and end up with more than $1 million in sales by 1am.
The home-shopping industry boomed thanks to the likes of Mangano. Even the advent of the internet couldn’t stop the relentless growth of QVC and HSN - the two giants of the industry. By 2010, QVC boasted sales $7.4 billion and HSN $2 billion. Each reaches just under 100 million U.S. households and broadcasts live 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas.
  







Joy Mangano isn’t the only household name spawned by the home shopping industry - her main rival competition is the so-called “Queen of QVC” Lori Greiner, who has developed more than 350 products and holds more than 112 patents - but no-one can match the sort of obsessiveness she seems to inspire among home-shoppers. ’’I think my products have been successful because they have mass appeal,'' Mangano told the New York Times. ''I'm just like everybody else out there. I'm a mom, I work, I have a house to clean, things to organise. We all have certain similar needs, and I address them.’'







	

	
	

	
	









	
	

	



	
	

		

			
			

			
				
				

	
	
	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	
	
	
	
	
	


	

	

	

	


	
	

	
	
	
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
		
	




			

			
			

		

		
		

	
	
	
	
	
	
	

	
	
		
	
	

	
		
		
			
				Joy Mangano selling her Huggable Hangers invention on shopping channel HSN
			
		

		
		
			
				
				    Credit: YouTube
			   
			
		
	



	

	
	








The world of home shopping is easy to mock. We’ve all seen the over-enthusiastic hosts desperately hawking a new device with which to peel potatoes or the latest contraption to help you achieve that washboard stomach. It all feels a bit cheap and tacky; watched by slobs and driven by spivvy salespeople and harebrained inventors. But the Joy Mangano story reveals a very different side to QVC. It is a story about a hidden retail behemoth that cultivated a customer base of millions and convinced them to order products in the mail long before Amazon was a twinkle in Jeff Bezos’s eye.



  
  

	

	
	

	
	



  
  
    
It provided a marketplace for someone like Mangano - who had few qualifications, no business experience and no formal training as an inventor or manufacturer - to build her simple idea into a multi-million pound industry. In the movie, she is seen struggling to pay her phone bill while she tries to get her business of the ground. Today, she presides over an empire worth $1 billion and lives in a sprawling 42,000 foot home in Long Island called Swan Manor (it has 14 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms).
On screen, her husband Tony Miranne is played by Édgar Ramírez as a hapless would-be singer. In real life, Mangano met Miranne at Pace University, had three children by him and divorced before the business started to take off. Nevertheless, the pair remain close friends to this day and Miranne still works within his ex-wife’s company as Executive Vice President Of Sales.
Joy is a story about entrepreneurialism and the slings and arrows of commerce. But it is also a deeply human tale about a woman who battled through divorce, confronted family struggles and fought against those who didn’t believe in her to become an American business icon. This is what attracted David O Russell (director of American Hustle And Silver Linings Playbook) to put her unlikely life story on the big screen. "It's about emotion and about people and humanity and what is ridiculous and ordinary about them - but where that becomes extraordinary and magical,” the director says of his film. “That's that place where we live.”
  







	

	
	

	
	









	
	

	



	
	

		

			
			

			
				
				

	
	
	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	

	
	
	
	
	
	
	


	

	

	

	


	
	

	
	
	
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
			
		
		
	




			

			
			

		

		
		

	
	
	
	
	
	
	

	
	
		
	
	

	
		
		
			
				Jennifer Lawrence as Joy Mangano, inventor of the miracle mop, in Joy
			
		

		
		
			
				
				    Credit: 20th Century Fox
			   
			
		
	



	

	
	








Joy Mangano’s first big idea came when she was just 16, while working part time at an animal hospital in New York. She would regularly see pets that had been injured on the roads at night. She devised a fluorescent flea collar that would make runaway dogs and cats more visible to cars. But the established manufacturer Hartz Mountain soon introduced the exact same product to the market before she had a chance. The product was an immediate success and Mangano felt burned. She later told the New York Times that she made a vow to herself: "Next time I had a good idea, I would bring it to market.’'



  
  

	

	
	

	
	



  
  
    
In 1978, she graduated from Pace University with a degree in business administration but lowly jobs in waitressing and airline reservations followed. After her marriage ended, she coupled work with raising her three children in a small house. But amidst her busy schedule she continued to conjure ideas for new products. The Miracle Mop was the one that she refused to let go of. “People thought I was crazy to try and mass market [the Miracle Mop],” she told the New York Times. “They told me a mop, is a mop, is a mop.”
But she raised the funds to develop her idea in 1990 and used a corner of her father’s car work shop to set up her own office. The first year saw them take just $10,000 in orders. But after her breakthrough on QVC, she was quickly able to move the company into profit, pay off her debts and expand quickly.
  










	








Today, her 50,000-square-foot factory produces numerous Mangano-designed products. The Rolykit is a space-saving storage unit that unfurls for use. Piatto Bakery Box stores baked goods in a collapsible container. The Jewel Kit is Joy Mangano's luxe velvet-lined jewellery box. Then, of course, there are Huggable Hangers and the Miracle Mop, which continue to sell by the millions.



  
  

	

	
	

	
	



  
  
    
What makes Mangano such a unique subject for a biopic is that she doesn’t fit any of the established heroine roles. The lone woman fighting against the odds has been done in films such as Erin Brokovitch or Reece Witherspoon’s The Good Lie. But these are inherently romantic tales about campaigns for justice that tap neatly into the the stereotype of misty eyed female compassion. Meanwhile, women who succeed in business are rarely the protagonists in Hollywood movies; all too often they are the hard nosed boss or callous bitch (The Devil Wears Prada, Working Girl).
Joy gives us something rather more nuanced. “For me personally, there was no path,” she says of her rise. “A mom and a woman way back then, to sit at a coffee table and say, ‘Yeah, I’m an inventor’? It was like, ‘Okay. She needs to go to therapy.’ ”
  





				

				

			

		
		

	
	
	

	
	
	

	
	
	

	
	
		
			
				
			
	

	


	

