"My name's Joy, by the way." Jennifer Lawrence said as she introduced her character in the recently released trailer of "Joy."
In an article from Curbed, Jennifer Lawrence will portray the role of Joy Mangano, the peddler of Miracle Mops and queen of infomercials.
In her teenage years, Joy Mangano started working part time at an animal hospital in Huntington, as reported from an article in New York Times. The article from Curbed added that during her part time job, she invented a fluorescent flea collar that would safeguard runaway dogs and cats from oncoming traffic at night.
Years later, when she and her three children were living in Smithtown, she had grown discontented with ordinary household mops. She said, "I found they didn't last very long. I'd constantly be throwing them out or using sponges or paper towels to get the floors really clean."
She invented the Miracle Mops to solve her problem. It is a sturdy plastic mop with easy-to-grip interlocking handles that allow users to wring it out without getting their hands wet and it has cotton head, as the article from New York Times described it.
When she started selling the prototype in Long Island to her friends, family and other people, they listened. However, she admitted in the interview from New York Times that she was discouraged. She said, "They said, 'A mop is a mop is a mop.' But I knew that wasn't the case. There was nothing like this out there. I thought the whole mop industry was being overlooked."
The article from New York Times added that in 1992, she went to QVC, the cable television shopping network, and told her that they didn't sell mops. In contrast, she volunteered herself to demonstrate it live. Afterwards, the 18,000 mops were sold in 20 minutes.
The Youtube user Some Old Videos posted the video of Joy Mangano advertising her Miracle Mop.
With the advertisement, the mop sales exceed $1 million per year by 1995, as reported from The New York Times. In December 1999, she sold Ingenious Designs to USA Networks, as reported from Curbed.
Aside from Miracle Mop, she has 50,000-square-foot factory for The Rolykit, which retails for $14.99, Piatto Bakery Box at $19.99 a pop, the Huggable Hangers worth $9.99 for five hangers, and the Jewel Kit for $39.99 a box.
In the meantime, the movie "Joy" will be in theaters by December 2015. Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro will join Jennifer Lawrence in the movie and it is directed by David O. Russel.
