History and Hearsay

The Untold Story of the Radium Girls: The Women Who Glowed in the Dark

Christina Season 3 Episode 3

"The Untold Story of the Radium Girls: The Women Who Glowed in the Dark"

  • The shocking and tragic story of factory workers poisoned by radium, shedding light on industrial negligence.

0:00 - Intro 
0:48 - Wrist Watches 
2:28 - Radium
3:48 - The Luminous Material Corporation
5:45 - Dial Painters - Ghost girls
14:45 - Dr. Sabin
19:28 - Amelia Maggia "Mollie"
29:08 - How Radium effects the body
31:01 - Other girls get sick
32:30 - Irene Rudolph 
36:57 - Buying off Doctors
38:22 - Grace Fryer
39:42 - Hiring their own experts 
43:10 - The Turning Point
46:59 - Finding a Lawyer & The lawsuit
52:55 - The Radium Dial Lawsuit 
55:22 - The aftermath
55:34 - A Note for Collectors
56:14 - OSHA & The Radium Girls Legacy 
56:59 - Book Recommendation 

SOURCES: 
BOOK: The Radium Girls by Kate Moore 
https://www.theradiumgirls.com/the-girls 
http://www.annclinlabsci.org/content/5/2/75.full.pdf
Clip from Radium City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPpRrUI3PyE  
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/radiumcity 
https://www.officialwatches.com/blogs/articles/the-radium-girls
"Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910–1935" by Claudia Clark (1997)
U.S. National Library of Medicine: "The Story of the Radium Girls”
"Deadly Glow: The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy" by Ross Mullner (1999) 
PBS American Experience: "The Poisoner’s Handbook”
"A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness" by NHK-TV (2007)
Smithsonian Magazine: "The Radium Girls and the Generation That Survived" (2017)
Marie Curie’s Scientific Papers and Autobiographies
New York Times Archives: Coverage of the Radium Girls Trial (1928)
The New Yorker: "The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off" (1932)