The movie Radium Girls (2020) explores a largely forgotten part of history on which the movie is based.
Marie Curie and husband discovered Radium in 1898 and they receive the Nobel Prize for their discover in 1903. This touched off a tremendous interest in the element which brought about the desire to bring this marvelous substances to the people. A soft drink simply named Radium appeared in 1920 which provided ever benefit you can image just a few years after Radium Cream hit the market guaranteeing to make you look younger, and radium pills for impotency, tooth pain, warts, blemishes, cancer, and tuberculosis. In the mist of the fascination with the new element, a Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky invented a luminous paint made from radium, zinc, and a clear adhesive which he called Undark. Dr Sochocky founded United States Radium whose primary product was luminous watch dials. A competitor founded another company, American Radium 3 years later which became central to the story of the Radium Girls in the Film.
The movie is about the girls that worked at American radium painting watch dials in the 1920s. The dials were handprinted with Undark to form a small line at each number of a watch dial so it could be read in the dark. The workers had to have good eyes, a steady hand, and work for low wages. The ideal workers were young women 15 to 25. They received 1 cent for each dial they painted and worked 10 hours a day 6 days a week. Most of the girls made $10 to $15 a week.
The work was relatively easy; wet the fine tipped brush by licking it, dip it in Undark luminous paint, make a fine straight stripe of the dial, and then repeat the process over and over all day, lick, dip, stroke, lick, dip, stroke.....
You know exactly what is going to happen to young girls who ingest radium. Sickness grows among the girls, they develop aplastic anemia, bone cancer, etc. The company doctor who is not really a doctor tells the girls they have syphilis and the company harasses the sick girls. This leads to a lawsuit and you can probably guess who wins.
The story ends with the girls getting a settlement from the company but the real story of the radium girls continues well pass the end of the movie and doesn't really end until 2005, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission declined to renew the licenses for companies creating consumer products that contain radium.
The movie is well acted although flat in places. It is a powerful story and sensitively told. However, I found too much literary license taken when it was not necessary. The true story is powerful enough without creating stuff. There is no evidence to support the company doctor telling the girls they have syphilis. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a company doctor. And there are other minor inaccuracies.
To those that like dramas about the misdeeds of big corporations hurting employees will probably like this movie. I put it in a category as mildly entertaining but informative. For me, the most dramatic part of the movie occurred after the movie ended and the screen went dark with the following statement on the screen.
If you put a Geiger Counter on the grave a radium girl,
it will click for a thousand years.
Marie Curie and husband discovered Radium in 1898 and they receive the Nobel Prize for their discover in 1903. This touched off a tremendous interest in the element which brought about the desire to bring this marvelous substances to the people. A soft drink simply named Radium appeared in 1920 which provided ever benefit you can image just a few years after Radium Cream hit the market guaranteeing to make you look younger, and radium pills for impotency, tooth pain, warts, blemishes, cancer, and tuberculosis. In the mist of the fascination with the new element, a Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky invented a luminous paint made from radium, zinc, and a clear adhesive which he called Undark. Dr Sochocky founded United States Radium whose primary product was luminous watch dials. A competitor founded another company, American Radium 3 years later which became central to the story of the Radium Girls in the Film.
The movie is about the girls that worked at American radium painting watch dials in the 1920s. The dials were handprinted with Undark to form a small line at each number of a watch dial so it could be read in the dark. The workers had to have good eyes, a steady hand, and work for low wages. The ideal workers were young women 15 to 25. They received 1 cent for each dial they painted and worked 10 hours a day 6 days a week. Most of the girls made $10 to $15 a week.
The work was relatively easy; wet the fine tipped brush by licking it, dip it in Undark luminous paint, make a fine straight stripe of the dial, and then repeat the process over and over all day, lick, dip, stroke, lick, dip, stroke.....
You know exactly what is going to happen to young girls who ingest radium. Sickness grows among the girls, they develop aplastic anemia, bone cancer, etc. The company doctor who is not really a doctor tells the girls they have syphilis and the company harasses the sick girls. This leads to a lawsuit and you can probably guess who wins.
The story ends with the girls getting a settlement from the company but the real story of the radium girls continues well pass the end of the movie and doesn't really end until 2005, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission declined to renew the licenses for companies creating consumer products that contain radium.
The movie is well acted although flat in places. It is a powerful story and sensitively told. However, I found too much literary license taken when it was not necessary. The true story is powerful enough without creating stuff. There is no evidence to support the company doctor telling the girls they have syphilis. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a company doctor. And there are other minor inaccuracies.
To those that like dramas about the misdeeds of big corporations hurting employees will probably like this movie. I put it in a category as mildly entertaining but informative. For me, the most dramatic part of the movie occurred after the movie ended and the screen went dark with the following statement on the screen.
If you put a Geiger Counter on the grave a radium girl,
it will click for a thousand years.
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