The Glowing Girls
More than 100 years ago, young factory workers in New Jersey started getting sick. This is the story of how they stood up for themselves—and changed the country forever.
This play is HISTORICAL FICTION—a story based on true events from the past.
Art by Randy Pollak
CHARACTERS
Choose the character you will play. *Characters have a large speaking part. The underlined characters are real people.
PROLOGUE
N1: Our story begins more than 100 years ago in Orange, New Jersey.
N2: Many men are off fighting in World War I.
N1: Dozens of young women have taken jobs at a new factory.
N2: They work hard all day, painting watch faces for soldiers.
N1: Sometimes they go dancing at night.
N2: In the dark, their skin glows, giving off an eerie green light.
N1: That glow is caused by a substance they work with all day: radium.
N2: At the time, people think it’s a healthy glow.
N1: Small amounts of radium are even added to makeup and toothpaste. Some doctors give it out as medicine!
N2: But radium isn’t healthy.
N1: And it’s not a matter of if it will kill these young women—but when.
SCENE 1
United States Radium
Corporation (USRC) factory
April 1918
N2: Women sit at long tables on the factory floor.
N1: They paint watch dials while chatting happily.
Kate: It’s simple work. And the pay is great!
Molly: Plus, we get to do our part for the war.
Grace: My brothers are fighting overseas. It sure does feel good to help!
N2: Kate gathers the new workers. She holds a tiny paintbrush.
Kate: OK, ladies, listen up. We use the lip, dip, paint method. First, you wet the brush between your lips to get a fine point.
N1: Kate slips the brush into her mouth.
Kate: Then you dip it into the radium paint, paint a number, and repeat. Got it?
N2: Arthur Roeder, then a lower-level leader at the company, enters quietly.
Grace: Excuse me, Kate. Is this safe? You must get paint in your mouth—
Roeder (interrupting): Safe? It’s more than safe! Haven’t you seen the ads for radium water? People pay big money for this stuff. You lucky girls are getting it for free!
N1: Grace hesitates, then slips the brush between her lips.
SCENE 2
The USRC factory
June 1922
N2: Four years later, the factory is quieter.
N1: The war has ended, but radium is still all the rage.
N2: Grace got a new job at a bank. But Molly and Kate still work at the factory.
N1: Molly puts her paintbrush down to rub her jaw.
Kate: Teeth still bugging you?
Molly: I had two pulled last month, and three more are loose. My dentist is stumped.
Kate: You know, Jane just quit. She’s had problems with her back. And did I tell you about my cousin Irene?
Molly: She worked here during the war.
Kate: Yes. Well, she’s terribly ill. She’s been confined to bed for months now.
Molly: It can’t all be connected, right?
N2: Kate looks worried as she puts the brush between her lips.
Build Knowledge
World War I (1914-1918)
Richard W. Strauss, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Paint made with radium was used to make glowing watch faces. These watches helped soldiers tell time in the dark.
This story begins in the United States during World War I. Over the course of the war, almost 5 million American men fought overseas. They were joined by more than 40,000 women who served as nurses, ambulance drivers, and translators. Still more women did their part by filling factory jobs that male soldiers left behind. This was huge for American women at the time. They could not vote, and very few worked outside the home.
Historical Images Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
U.S. troops in France, 1917
SCENE 3
Dr. Harold Madison’s waiting room,
May 1924
N1: Grace limps into the waiting room. She stops short.
Grace: Kate? Is that you?
N2: Kate looks up. Her face is swollen, but she smiles.
Kate: Grace! How are you?
Grace: I’m fine, just some trouble with my foot. Are you still at the factory?
Kate: I quit. I had to miss too much work. The dentist can’t figure out what’s wrong with my teeth.
Grace: I just had one pulled last week.
Kate (nodding): I’m worried. Molly’s illness started with toothaches.
Grace: Molly’s sick too?
Kate: She . . . died last year.
Grace (shocked) : What? Everyone from the factory seems to be ill.
Kate: I’m not sure radium is as healthy as they say it is.
Grace: I think it’s time we visit USRC.
Shutterstock.com (Background, Radium); Science Source (Ad); INTERFOTO/Sammlung Rauch/Granger, NYC/The Granger Collection (Marie Curie)
The Radium Craze
Radium was discovered by scientists Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. Because of its glow, beauty companies started adding radium to products. Some doctors even gave it as medicine.
SCENE 4
USRC, the next day
N1: Grace limps into the factory with Kate.
Kirkland: Can I help you ladies?
Grace: Yes. We used to work here. We were wondering if you had heard of any dial painters getting sick.
Kate: We’ve been having trouble with our teeth. Other girls have bad backs—
Kirkland: Are you saying this factory made you sick? That is nonsense! See yourselves out!
N2: Roeder enters the room. He is now president of USRC.
Kirkland: Sir, we have a problem.
Roeder: I heard. Not to worry. Girls have been blaming their illnesses on us for years. They can’t prove they got sick working here.
Kirkland: Can we prove they didn’t?
Roeder: I’ve hired scientists to look into it. We’ll show everyone that these girls are trying to squeeze money out of an honest company.
SCENE 5
Arthur Roeder’s office
Two weeks later
N1: Dr. Cecil Drinker sits across from Arthur Roeder.
Roeder: So what do you say, Drinker? Can we put this behind us?
Drinker: I’m afraid not, Mr. Roeder. I examined some of your dial painters in a dark room. They glowed. They are covered in radium.
Roeder (chuckling): Well sure! They wear their best dresses to work so they can sparkle in the dance halls.
Drinker: You’re not hearing me. Radium is dangerous. It’s making your workers sick.
Roeder: Well then, I’ll just make sure your report never gets out.
Daily Herald Archive/SSPL/Getty Images (Factory); Library of Congress (Newspaper)
Dangerous Work
Radium is radioactive. That means it gives off energy that can damage your body. There were several U.S. factories that hired women to paint watches. It’s likely that thousands of workers died as a result.
SCENE 6
Dr. Madison’s office
March 1925
N2: Grace, Kate, and Dr. Madison sit in his office.
Madison: Kate, how are you doing?
Kate (crying): I had to miss Irene’s funeral. I couldn’t make it up the stairs into the church.
Grace: At least two former dial painters have died. It’s got to be the radium that’s causing this!
Madison: I agree. Radium is radioactive. That means it can damage our bodies.
Kate: How can we prove it?
Madison: I’ve found a way to test your bodies for radium.
N1: Madison takes a device out of his medical bag.
Madison: This new electroscope will read the radiation coming from your skeleton.
Kate: My skeleton?
Madison: That’s right. Radium is similar to calcium. Your body sends it right into the bones. But while calcium makes bones strong, radium rots them from the inside out.
Grace: That must be why our problems are with our teeth and bones!
N2: Madison shakes his head at the electroscope as the test results appear.
Madison: I’m sorry to say that we were right, girls. You have radium poisoning.
Kate: How do you treat it?
Madison: There is no cure. I’m so sorry.
N1: Kate begins to cry.
Grace (angrily) : We may not be able to save ourselves, but the company won’t get away with this.
SCENE 7
Newark, New Jersey Courthouse
June 1928
N2: It took almost two years for Grace to find a lawyer willing to help her.
N1: In those years, more dial painters died. USRC still said radium wasn’t dangerous.
N2: But Grace took USRC to court—and won.
N1: She and her lawyer made a statement outside the courthouse that day.
Berry: At last, I have good news. USRC will pay each woman $10,000, plus $600 per year for the rest of their lives. The company will also pay their medical bills.
Reporter: Grace! How do you feel?
Grace: It’s not enough, but it’s something. I can’t wait to tell Kate. She was too ill to be here today.
Reporter: How did you find the courage to stand up for yourself?
Grace: I didn’t do this for myself. I did it for the girls who are sick. There are more of us than we might ever know.
EPILOGUE
Underwood Archives/Getty Images (Radium Girls)
Bold and Brave
These are the real women who took USRC to court. That’s Grace Fryer all the way on the right.
N2: Grace Fryer died on October 27, 1933.
N1: But she would not be forgotten. Her bravery inspired others.
N2: More factory workers took radium companies to court.
N1: Her case also led to the creation of a special government agency.
N2: It protects American workers to this day.
N1: In that way, the Glowing Girls’ legacy lives on forever.
ACTIVITY:
Inference
You’ve just read “The Glowing Girls.” Now it’s time to do this activity.
What to do: Imagine that you’re Grace, writing in a journal after the court case. Make inferences to complete each sentence below. For help, you can reread the play.
Tip: An inference is something that is not stated but can be figured out from clues in the text.
When I started working at USRC, I was worried because
Hint: Look in Scene 1 for clues.
I ignored my worries and did the job because
Hint: Look in Scene 1 for clues.
But I was right to worry, and that became clear when
Hint: Look in Scenes 3 and 6 for clues.
