'The Radium Girls' Page at Spirit of America Bookstore

“Dust samples collected in the workroom from various locations and from chairs not used by the workers were all luminous in the dark room.
Their hair, faces, hands, arms, necks, the dresses, the underclothes, even the corsets of the dial painters were luminous. One of the girls
showed luminous spots on her legs and thighs. The back of another was luminous almost to the waist . . .”
— text censored by U.S. Radium from a 1925 report by Prof. Cecil Drinker of Harvard

During the 1920s and 1930s, American watchmakers and clockmakers and other manufacturers took advantage of the 'glow in the dark' properties of radium-228 by painting the radioactive element on watch dials and clock faces and even tourist souvenir knick-knacks. The workers doing the painting – often low-wage women and minorities – were told that there were no health dangers; the workers were even encouraged to lick the brush before re-dipping into the paint, to get a nice point. Ten years later, the workers started getting radiation sickness and dying an early death. After settling two cases out of court, the corporations absolved all responsiblity by denying the problem and then shutting down the companies.

Ailing plant worker Grace Fryer decided to sue U.S. Radium but it took two years for her to find a lawyer, then the slow-moving courts held out for months. At their first appearance in court on January 1928, five factory workers – Grace Fryer, Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice - were parties to the suit. News media gave them a lot of attention, and dubbed them 'The Radium Girls'. The case was settled before going to a jury, with each plaintiff given $10,000 up front as well as full coverage of all medical & legal expenses, plus $600 per year and $12 a week for the rest of their lives {2017 dollars equivalent $143,000 and $8,600 and $190 respectively}.

In 1937, five women suffering from radiation sickness found an attorney that would represent them against former employer Westclox/Radiant Dial in front of the Illinois Industrial Commission (I.I.C.); in the spring of 1938, the I.I.C. ruled in favor of the women, but Radiant Dial had shut down and disappeared. Too late for the 'radium girls', but worker safety rules were strengthened in Illinois and elsewhere.

"Letter To The Editor" short story [Cosmopolitan Magazine 1937] by James H. Street
adapted into 1937 film "Nothing Sacred" and 1953 Broadway musical "Hazel Flagg" {both below}

The Radium Girl mystery novel in Kindle format by Will Silver

"The Radium Girl: An Exciting Phineas Fogg and Maggie Adventure" [2017]
by Will Silver
Set in turn-of-the-Century steampunk London; when Scotland Yard asks for help from Phineas Fogg and his engineering assistant Maggie to solve the case of a murdered man found in the Thames and a broken safe; Fogg quickly discovers that the man and the safe are dusted with a new and mysterious material called radium . . .
Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [3/2017] for $2.99

"Glow" YA novel [9/2017] by Megan E. Bryant ISBN 978-080752963-8
http://www.amazon.com/Glow-Megan-Bryant-ebook/dp/B06W2M1CWK/
http://www.amazon.com/Glow-Megan-Bryant/dp/080752963X/

United States Radium Corporation, the parent company of Radium Dial
The Radium Dial Company
successor Luminous Processes, which closed in 1978

Madeline Piller re-started the recent local interest in the 'Radium Girls' in Illinois in 2006
http://www.life.illinois.edu/delucia/lab_group_files/mpiller.html

Movies & Television, Stageplays, Other Media
Most of the movies here are NOT about the 'radium girls' per se but instead show the cultural fascination
with radium as the 'MacGuffin', the plot element that people will kill for . . .

"The Stronger Love" [Famous Players-Lasky Aug 1916]

50-minute silent drama aka 'Nell of Thunder Mountain'; two mountain families have a longstanding feud which is intensified with the discovery of a radium deposit and the destruction by federal revenuers of a moonshine factory . . . • Produced by Oliver Morosco; directed by & starring Frank Lloyd; written by Alice von Saxmar & Julia Crawford Ivers; also starring Vivian Martin, Edward Peil Sr., Jack Livingston, Alice Knowland, Herbert Standing, John McKinnon, Louise Emmons • credits at IMDb
There is one surviving print, an incomplete acetate copy at the Library of Congress

"Brace Up" silent drama [Bluebird/Universal March 1918]

glass slide ad for 'Brace Up' 1918 silent feature

Details scarce at IMDb and elsewhere; IMDb plot keywords include telepathy, smuggling, rescue, secret service, radium • Produced, co-written & directed by Elmer Clifton; co-written by Waldemar Young; starring Herbert Rawlinson, Claire Du Brey, Alfred Allen, Sam De Grasse
VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • bare credits at IMDb

"The Great Radium Mystery" 18-chapter serial
[Universal Film Mfg. Co. 1919-20]

The Great Radium Mystery 18-chapter serial - poster for Chapter 9

Plot details not found; Chapter Titles: 1. The Mystic Stone, 2. The Death Trap, 3. The Fatal Ride, 4. The Swing For Life, 5. The Torture Chamber, 6. The Tunnel of Doom, 7. A Flash In The Dark, 8. In The Clutches of A Mad Man, 9. The Roaring Volcano, 10. Creeping Flames, 11. Perils of Doom, 12. Shackled, 13. The Scalding Pit, 14. Hemmed In, 15. The Flaming Arrow, 16. Over The Cataract, 17. The Wheels of Death, and 18. Liquid Flames • Directed by Robert Broadwell & Robert F. Hill; written by Frederick Bennett; starring Eileen Sedg-wick, Cleo Madison, Bob Reeves, Bob Kortman {as The Buzzard}, Ed Brady, Jefferson Osborne, Robert Gray {as The Hawk}, Gordon McGregor {as The Rat}, Fred Hamer
{this film is considered lost} • partial credits at IMDb • bare movie entry at Wikipedia

"Chains of Evidence" silent mystery
[Hallmark Pictures Corp. March 1920]
Plot details not found; IMDb plot keywords: radium, gang, murder, radio, reporter • Directed by Dallas M. Fitzgerald;
written by John J. Glavey & J. Clarkson Miller; starring Edmund Breese, Marie Shotwell, Anna Lehr, Wallace Ray, Joseph
Granby, Peggy Worth, James F. Cullen, George Cooper, Edward Elkas, Glenn Kunkel, Eva Gordon, Joseph P. Mack
VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • partial credits at IMDb

"Danger Island" 12-chapter b&w serial [Universal Pictures Aug 1931]

red poster for 1931 serial 'Danger Island'

color half-sheet poster for 1931 serial 'Danger Island'

The daughter of a man who has discovered radium on an African island is 'helped' by two people whose real goal is to take the discovery for themselves • Chapter Titles: 1. The Coast of Peril, 2. Death Rides The Storm, 3. Demons of The Pool, 4. Devil Worshippers, 5. Mutiny, 6. The Cat Creeps, 7. The Drums of Doom, 8. Human Sacrifice, 9. The Devil Bird, 10. Captured For Sacrifice, 11. The Lion's Lair, and 12. Fire God's Vengeance • Produced & co-written by Henry MacRae; directed by Ray Taylor; co-written Basil Dickey & Ella O'Neill; starring Kenneth Harlan, Lucile Browne, Tom Ricketts, Walter Miller, William L. Thorne, Beulah Hutton, Andy Devine, George Regas, Everett Brown, George Magrill, and Jack Leonard {as the ape}
VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"Larceny On The Air" [Republic Pictures/British Lion Jan 1937]

A young doctor pressures the Bureau of Pure Foods & Drugs to use radio broadcasts to expose a number of fraudulent patent medicines, with his bitterest attacks being aimed at Kennedy Radium Products, the manufacturer of a tonic called 'Radium Rejuvenating Tablets', which he claims is a slow cause of death; the manufacturer tries every means to defeat and discredit the persistent doctor. • Produced by Nat Levine & Sol C. Siegel; directed by Irving Pichel; written by Richard English & Endre Bohem; starring Robert Livingston, Grace Bradley, Willard Robertson, Pierre Watkin, Smiley Burnette, Granville Bates, William Newell, Byron Foulger, Wilbur Mack, Matty Fain, Josephine Whittell, Charles Timblin, Billy Griffith, William Hopper, Frank Du Frane, Florence Gill, John Holland, Carleton Young
Alpha Home Ent. b&w DVD [2/2009] for $5.98
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia
watch full movie [9/2015 upload; 52:57] online at YouTube

"Nothing Sacred" [Selznick Intl./United Artists Nov 1937]

Tagline "See The Big Fight!" • Filmed in Technicolor™ in Los Angeles area and New York City • An eccentric young woman who worked as a 'radium girl' in a watch factory learns that she is not dying from radium poisoning, but when a reporter asks to tell her story, she pretends to still be sick . . . {French title 'La Joyeuse Suicidee' - The Joyful Suicide} • Produced by David O. Selznick; directed by William A. Wellman; written by Ben Hecht & James Street; uncredited writing by Robert Carson, Moss Hart, Sidney Howard, George S. Kaufman, Ring Lardner Jr., George Oppenheimer, Dorothy Parker, Budd Schulberg, David O. Selznick & William A. Wellman; lush, Gershwinesque music score by Oscar Levant, with additional music by Alfred Newman and Max Steiner; starring Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig Ruman, Frank Fay, Troy Brown, boxer Maxie Rosenbloom {also trained Lombard}, Margaret Hamilton, Hattie McDaniel, Olin Howland, Raymond Scott, John Qualen, George Chandler, Monica Bannister, Billy Barty, Shirley Chambers, Ann Doran, Betty Douglas, Jinx Falkenburg, Hedda Hopper, Tiny Jones, Monica Lyman, Hattie McDaniel, Dorothy Rodgers, Hans Steinke, Bobby Tracy, Elinor Troy, Monty Woolley
Kino Classics Authorized Edition color Blu-ray [12/2011] for $27.97
Film Detective restored color DVD [4/2015] for $9.98
Westlake Ent. color DVD-R [1/2009] for $9.98
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia
watch official trailer [2/2010 upload; 1:58] online at YouTube
watch full color movie [10/2015 upload; 1:13:34] online at YouTube

"The Patient In Room 18" [Warner Bros./First National Jan 1938]

title card for 'The Patient In Room 18' 1938 movie

Mignon Eberhardt's Nurse Sarah Keate character works at a hospital where her off-and-on boyfriend Lance the private detective is admitted for a nervous breakdown; a wealthy patient is murdered and the radium intended for his cure is stolen, then the inept cops discover the body of another patient in the closet of Lance's room . . . • Produced by Hal B. Wallis & Jack L. Warner; directed by Bobby Connolly & Crane Wilbur; co-written by Joseph Santley, Eugene Solow & Robertson White, from the novel by Mignon G. Eberhart; starring Patric Knowles, Ann Sheridan, Eric Stanley, John Ridgely, Rosella Towne, Jean Benedict, Charles Trowbridge, Cliff Clark, Harland Tucker, Edward Raquello, Vickie Lester, Frank Orth, Edward McWade, Ralph Sanford, Greta Meyer, Walter Young, Loia Cheaney, Mary Doyle, Carole Landis {bit part}
supposedly released on Warner Archive DVD in 2010, but no such found on Amazon (2018)
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

The Patient In Room 18 mystery novel by Mignon G. Eberhart

"The Patient In Room 18" [1929] by Mignon G. Eberhart
Univ Nebraska Press 8¼x5½ pb [3/95] out of print/used
Amereon Ltd. 8¾x5¾ hardcover [5/79] for $26.95
novel entry at Wikipedia

"Scouts To The Rescue" 12-chapter serial [Universal Pictures Jan 1939]

Filmed in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Sonora, California; an Eagle Scout leads a troop of younger Boy Scouts in following a treasure map and they find a lost ghost town and a stash of counterfeit notes and a lost tribe with a secret radium deposit. Chapter Titles: 1. Death Rides The Air, 2. Avalanche of Doom, 3. Trapped By The Indians, 4. River of Doom, 5. Descending Doom, 6. Ghost Town Menace, 7. Destroyed By Dynamite, 8. Thundering Hoofs, 9. The Fire God Strikes, 10. Battle of Ghost Town, 11. Hurtling Through Space, and 12. The Boy Scouts Triumph • Directed by Alan James & Ray Taylor; original story by Irving Crump; co-written by Basil Dickey, Wyndham Gittens, George H. Plympton & Joseph F. Poland; starring Jackie Cooper {age 16}, Vondell Darr, Edwin Stanley, William Ruhl, Bill Cody Jr., David Durand, Ralph Dunn, Frank Coghlan Jr., Ivan Miller, Victor Adams, Jason Robards Sr., Sidney Miller, Dick Botiller, George Regas, Jack Mulhall, Edwin Brian, Emmett Vogan, Sam Bernard, Lee Phelps, Ed Brady, Bill Cartledge, Iron Eyes Cody, Jim Hussey, Lucien Maxell, David McKim, Eddie Parker, Tom Steele, Max Wagner, with archive footage of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Nostalgia Family b&w DVD [7/2015] for $7.99
V.C.I. Video b&w DVD [5/2007] for $23.95
full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia • watch action-packed official trailer [3:35] online at YouTube

"Hot Treasure" episode [aired 1955]
of the "Sheena: Queen of The Jungle" syndicated TV series [Nassour Studios 1955–56]

Sheena is asked to help find the murderer of an inoffensive native villager whose death seems to make no sense; meanwhile, Bob Rayburn is robbed and captured while guarding a shipment of radium. Sheena's investigation finds a link between the two crimes and she sets out to recover the radium and bring the criminals to justice • Produced by Edward Nassour; directed by Carl K. Hittleman; based on comics/characters by S.M. Eiger & Will Eisner; starring Irish McCalla & Chris Drake; the sixteen episodes on the DVD set are not specified
might be on: Alpha Home Ent. b&w DVD [9/2008] 3 disks for $11.94
bare episode credits at IMDb

"Radium City" documentary [indep Jan 1988]

1-hour 50-minute 16mm documentary featuring the Westclox factory in Ottawa, Illinois. Soon after the Curies discovered radium, industry made use of its seemingly-magical properties; clock- and watch-makers hired young women to paint radium onto the dials of their products for a glow-in-the-dark effect, telling their employees that there was no danger whatsoever. But by the 1920s and 1930s the young 'radium girls' became sick with cancer and other fatal ailments. Even after removal of much contaminated building material, parts of the town (including several graveyards) are still radioactive with radium-226.
Produced & directed by Carole Langer • VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available
watch full movie [5/2016 upload; 1:42:00] online at Vimeo for $1.99
bare credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia

"The Radium Follies" 14 min | Short [2006] /tt0893365/
To the metropolitan smart-set of the 1920's, cocktails swizzled with radium were ballyhoo'd as the "Nectar of the Gods""...the nearest god being Eben Byers - zillionaire, gadabout, and top-shelf physical specimen. This is the (mostly) true account of how Eben Byers and his fellow radium enthusiasts once flew too close to that glowing green sun. http://www.imdb.com/title

"Nuclear Hurricane" TV movie [2007] /tt1033492/
A "highly sophisticated computer system" at a nuclear power plant goes crazy. To make matters worse, it develops a capacity for reason and malice while a tropical island storm is blowing into town. https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Hurricane-Jack-Scalia/dp/B003BWQEMM/

"Uranium: Twisting the Dragon's Tail" documentary TV series [Australia 2015] /tt4847012/

In 2006, teenager Madeline Piller of Mendota, Illinois re-started local interest in the historic 'radium girls' by campaigning for funding for a life-size statue
honoring the victims of radiation poisoning at the Westclox/Radium Dial Company factory in nearby Ottawa, Illinois. That statue - by her father
William 'Bill' Piller - was dedicated on Labor Day Weekend in 2011 with several surviving 'radium girls' present.

Visiting this webpage from outside the U.S.A.? It is possible to make purchases from these coded Amazon (USA) links
via other Amazon sites: just follow these instructions.

	"Jailbird: A Novel" [1979] by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007] Vonnegut opines on labor movements and on the Sacco & Vanzetti case in chapters 18 & 19; the main plot (with Vonnegut's usual asides) is about Walter F. Starbuck, the least-important member of the WaterGate Conspiracy, who goes to prison and is released and then is sent to prison a second time. There is also an 'elaborate reference' to the story of the 'Radium Girls'. Kindle Edition from Rosetta Books [8/2011] for $4.99 Kindle Edition from Dial Press [7/2010] for $4.99 Dell mass pb [1/99] out of print/many used Dial Press 8x5¼ pb [1/99] for $13.60 Doubleday 8¼x5½ hardcover [8/79] out of print/100+ used book entry at Wikipedia
	"Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935" [1997] by historian Claudia Clark Kindle Edition from Univ North Carolina Press [11/2000] for $16.19 Univ North Carolina Press 9¼x6 pb [7/97] for $24.19 Univ North Carolina Press 9¼x6 hardcover [7/97] out of print/used
	"Deadly Glow: The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy" [1999] by Ross Mullner American Public Health Assn. 9¾x7 pb [4/99] out of print/used
	"Radium Halos: A Novel About The Radium Dial Painters" [2009] by Shelley Stout Historical fiction based on true events; narrated by a 65-year-old mental patient who worked at the radium dial factory when she was 16, telling her story through flashbacks Kindle Edition from Librifiles.com [6/2009] for $2.99 CreateSpace 8½x5½ pb [10/2009] for $12.99 CreateSpace 8½x5½ pb [10/2009] out of print/used
	"Romancing The Atom: Nuclear Infatuation From The Radium Girls To Fukushima" [2012] by Robert Johnson Kindle Edition from Praeger [8/2012] for $50.35 {sic} Praeger 9¼x6 hardcover [8/2012] for $53.00 {sic}
	"Radium Girl" mystery novel [2013] de Jean-Marc Cosset After the case of the five New Jersey 'Radium Girls' is settled out of court (for a pittance), members of the defense team – crooked lawyers, corrupt scientists, perjured doctors – begin to die and local police inspector Chad Chadwick is assigned to find the killer . . . Kindle Edition from Odile Jacob/Amazon Media EU [9/2013] for €14,99 via Amazon France Odile Jacob Thriller 22cm X 14.7cm French-language pb [9/2013] for €20,90 via Amazon France Odile Jacob Thriller French-language 8¾x5¾ pb [9/2013] import/used
	"Radium Girls" [2014] Stories by Amanda Gowin actually 15 'dark' pieces by writer Gowin, including a short stageplay; the 'radium girls' connection is probably 'The World Was Clocks' Kindle Edition from Thunderdome Press [5/2014] for 99¢ Thunderdome Press 8x5¼ pb [5/2014] for $9.99
	"Marking Time: The Radium Girls of Ottawa" [2016] by Heinz-Dietrich Suppan Outskirts Press 9x6 pb [3/2016] for $0.00

Spirit of America BookstoreThe Radium Girls

Spirit of America Bookstore
The Radium Girls