These shining Lives

Next Stage Resource Guide
These
Shining Lives
World Premiere!
By Melanie Marnich
Directed by David Schweizer
April 24–June 1, 2008
The Head Theater
Contents
Setting the Stage
3
Cast/Setting
4
The Innocence of Radium
5
Radium Craze 6
Cure to Kiler 8
Chicago’s Gilded Age 10
One Helluva Job 12
Glossary 14
Bibliography 16
These Shining LIves
World Premiere!
By Melanie Marnich
David Schweizer Director
Alexander Dodge Scenic Designer
Anita Yavich Costume Designer
The Next Stage Resource Guide
is sponsored by
Justin Townsend Lighting Designer
Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen Music Composition & Sound Design
Deena Burke Speech Consultant
Gavin Witt Production Dramaturg
In case of emergency
(during performances only) 410.986.4080
Box Office Phone 410.332.0033
Box Office Fax 410.727.2522
Administration 410.986.4000
www.centerstage.org
[email protected]
The CenterStage Program is published by:
CENTERSTAGE Associates
700 North Calvert Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Editor Shannon M. Davis
Janet Foster Casting Director
Joshua Luxenberg Assistant Director
Please turn off or silence all electronic devices.
This project is supported
in part by an award from:
With additional support from:
Contributors Shannon M. Davis,
Kathryn Van Winkle, Gavin Witt
Art Direction/Design/Illustration Bill Geenen
Design Jason Gembicki, Brittany Harper
Advertising Sales Adrienne Gieszl: 410.986.4013
CENTERSTAGE operates under
an agreement between LORT
and Actors’ Equity Association,
the union of professional actors
and stage managers in the
United States.
The Director and Choreographer are
members of the Society of Stage
Directors and Choreographers, Inc.,
an independent national labor union.
The scenic, costume, lighting, and
sound designers in LORT theaters
are represented by United Scenic
Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE.
CenterStage is a constituent of Theatre Communications
Group (TCG), the national organization for the nonprofit
professional theater, and is a member of the League of
Resident Theatres (LORT), the national collective bargaining
organization of professional regional theaters.
New play development at CENTERSTAGE is made possible in part by:
Nathan and Suzanne Cohen Foundation Fund
for Commissioning and Developing New Plays
The Dramatists Guild Fund, Inc.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
These Shining Lives was commissioned and developed by Northlight Theatre, Skokie, IL.
It was also developed at the The History Theatre, St. Paul, MN, as part of their Raw Stages
Festival; at TheatreWorks, Palo Alto, CA, as part of their New Works Festival; and at Baltimore’s
CENTERSTAGE as part of their First Look Festival.
Facts from the book Deadly Glow by Ross Mullner were used with permission of the author.
CENTERSTAGE is funded by
an operating grant from the
Maryland State Arts Council,
an agency dedicated to cultivating
a vibrant cultural community where
the arts thrive.
Season Media Sponsor
Set ting the STage
These Shining Lives
by Shannon M. Davis, New Media Manager
Characters:
Catherine Donohue: young wife and mother, employed at Radium Dial
Tom Donohue: Catherine’s husband, a welder
Charlotte, Frances, and Pearl: Catherine’s co-workers and friends
Mr. Reed: Radium Dial manager
“This isn’t a fairy tale, though it starts like one.
It’s not a tragedy, though it ends like one.”
As Catherine Donohue narrates her own story, it becomes obvious that what’s most important is neither its
beginning nor apparent ending, but what happens in between—and after. She and her friends—Charlotte,
Pearl, and Frances—have loving families and good jobs painting glow-in-the-dark watch faces at Chicago’s
Radium Dial Company, and the 1920s seem full of promise. “One-of-a-kind work in a one-of-a-kind place in a
one-of-a-kind time,” as Catherine tells it. The war’s over, the economy’s booming, and Catherine bobs her hair
and treats the girls to banana splits to celebrate their new prosperity. She and her husband Tom have two
healthy kids, and even though he tells her that they don’t need a second income, she knows that eight cents
per watch will add up.
That’s the fairy tale part. The tragedy comes when Catherine and her colleagues begin falling ill, one by one,
with horrible, mystifying ailments. When the cause of their symptoms finally becomes clear, Catherine and
Tom must choose how to deal with the inevitable reality. “How do you want me to say it?” a sympathetic
doctor asks, struggling to deliver their prognosis. “Like we can take it,” says one of the women. Catherine
and her friends must find a way to deal with their own inconvenient truth: that the job they love has
betrayed them.
These Shining Lives, a world premiere play by Melanie Marnich, takes as a lens the strength and determination
of women considered expendable in their day, exploring their true story and its continued resonance.
Catherine and her friends are dying, it’s true; but theirs is a story of survival in its most transcendent sense,
as they refuse to allow the company that stole their health to kill their spirits—or endanger the lives of those
who come after them. When one of the women voices their fears, that “Nothing will fix this,” Catherine
agrees, “No. But someone has to let people know it’s broken.” So, knowing their fates are sealed, they launch
an uphill battle to hold companies responsible for employee safety. It’s a story that’s far too timely and has a
lasting legacy—as recent events continue to prove, locally and beyond.
We’re pleased to welcome back Melanie Marnich, who joined us last winter for a First Look workshop of These
Shining Lives. Continuing the legacy of Silkwood, Norma Rae, North Country, The China Syndrome, and our own
recent production of Naomi Wallace’s Things of Dry Hours, These Shining Lives takes its place in the canon
of works that honor the survivors, the fighters against circumstances beyond their control. Her shimmering
dramatization draws its strength from the women whose story—not fairy tale, and not tragedy—it tells. ●
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The Cast
(in alphabetical order)
Cheryl Lynn Bowers* Pearl
Kate Gleason* Frances
Jonathan C. Kaplan* Tom Donohue
Erik Lochtefeld* Mr. Reed
Kelly McAndrew* Charlotte
Emma Joan Roberts* Catherine Donohue
If one woman were to tell the truth
about her life,
The world would split open.
Mike Schleifer* Stage Manager
—Muriel Rukeyser
Jason Linett* Assistant Stage Manager
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
And we have come,
Despite ourselves, to no
True notion of our proper work,
But wander in the dazzling dark
Amid the drifting snow
Dreaming of some
Lost evening when
Our grandmothers, if grand
Mothers we had, stood at the edge
Of womanhood on a country bridge
And gazed at a still pond
And knew no pain.
The Setting
“Girls on the Bridge”
—Derek Mahone
Chicago & Ottawa, Illinois.
1920s–1930s
There will be no intermission.
This play was in part inspired by
Deadly Glow: The Radium Dial Worker
Tragedy by Ross Mullner, PhD, MPH
(1999), the source of many images in
the following pages.
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The Innocence of Radium
Lavinia Greenlaw
With a head full of Swiss clockmakers
she took a job at a New Jersey factory
painting luminous numbers, copying the style
believed to be found in the candlelit backrooms
of snowbound alpine villages.
Holding each clockface to the light,
she would catch a glimpse of the chemist
as he measured and checked. He was old enough,
had a kind face and a foreign name
she never dared to pronounce: Sochocky.
Power
Adrienne Rich
Living in the earth-deposits of our history
Today a backhoe divulged out of a crumbling flank of earth
one bottle amber perfect a hundred-year-old
cure for fever or melancholy a tonic
for living on this earth in the winters of this climate.
Today I was reading about Marie Curie:
she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness
her body bombarded for years by the element
she had purified
It seems she denied to the end
the source of the cataracts on her eyes
the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends
till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil
She died a famous woman denying
her wounds
denying
her wounds came from the same source as her power.
Special thanks goes to Robert
Vietrogoski and the Special
Collections and Archives at the
UMDNJ–University Libraries for their
research assistance.
Dramaturgy by Gavin Witt,
Resident Dramaturg and
Kathryn Van Winkle,
Dramaturgy Fellow.
For a joke she painted her teeth and nails,
jumped out on the other girls walking home.
In bed that night she laughed out loud
and stroked herself with ten green fingertips.
Unable to sleep, the chemist traced each number
on the face he had stolen from the factory floor.
He liked the curve of her eights;
the way she raised the wet brush to her lips
and, with a delicate purse of her mouth,
smoothed the bristle to a perfect tip.
Over the years he watched her grow dull.
The doctors gave up, removed half her jaw,
and blamed syphilis when her thighbone snapped
as she struggled up a flight of steps.
Diagnosing infidelity, the chemist pronounced
the innocence of radium, a kind of radiance
that could not be held by the body of a woman,
only caught between her teeth. He was proud
of his paint and made public speeches
on how it could be used by artists to convey
the quality of moonlight. Sochocky displayed
these shining landscapes on his walls;
his faith sustained alone in a room
full of warm skies that broke up the dark
and drained his blood of its colour.
His dangerous bones could not keep their secret.
Laid out for X-ray, before any button was pressed,
they exposed the plate and pictured themselves
as a ghost, not a skeleton, a photograph
he was unable to stop being developed and fixed.
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Radium
Craze
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Z
Cure
Fen-Phen
to
Killer
The diet that every
woman has been
waiting for!
Diets, exercise—and, if you’re lucky, a good metabolism.
All carbs, low carbs, no carbs. Eat in the zone. So many fads,
still so much fat to fight. Fen-phen promises wonderful anti-obesity
powers, fueled by twin powers of fenfluramine and phentermine.
taking it
Some protest, “Flim-flam;” we say, “Phooey!” even if thousands of women
if the FDA
complain of heart disease and pulmonary hypertension as a result. Even
as we can be?
thin
as
be
to
deserve
has insisted it be taken off the market. Don’t we all
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Modern Miracles—continued from cover
knows that Home brings a sense of security to a man; and to every
woman, her home means a setting for gracious living. Industry and
science have collaborated to create the modern marvel of asbestos
cement siding, which has made building safer and more durable.
This material is not only attractive and easy to handle, but strong,
tough, and fireproof as well.
Once upon a time, asbestos items were worth their weight in gold,
fit for emperors and kings. No longer reserved for the high and the
mighty, this miracle stone adorns the average home in sheetrock,
vinyl floor tiles, ceiling tiles, plasters and stuccos, roofing tars and
shingles, acoustical ceilings, putty and caulk. Industrially, its uses
include brake pads and shoes, stage curtains, fire blankets, and
other forms of fireproofing. Unconfi rmed reports reached this
correspondent of instances of asbestosis – a scarring of the lung
tissue so severe that the lungs can no longer function ; mesothelioma
– a cancer of the lungs and the chest cavity, usually fatal within 12
months of diagnosis; and cancers of the lung, gastrointestinal tract,
kidney, and larynx. A spokesman reassured us, however, (cont pg 85)
I
n the best tradition of medical geniuses from
Hippocrates to Galen, bleeding can be used to treat
any number of conditions, using lancing or leeches
to remove a controlled amount of excess or “bad” blood,
usually a symptom of dyscrasia, an
imbalance among the four humours
long known to regulate our being
and behavior. All diseases and
disabilit ies result from an excess
or deficit of one of these four:
black bile, yellow bile, phlegm,
and blood. Bleeding can help
restore the balance.
Unfortunately, not
everyone survives
bleeding; as with
purges, emetics, or
enemas— other
proven means
of regulating
imbalanced
humours —the
treatment can
be fatal. George
Washington, for
instance, did not
survive being bled
for a sore throat.
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The Wor l d’s Best Cur e -a ll Reme dy
“Life can be hectic,
and rest hard to find.”
— Mrs. Amelia Pike, Jr.
Sleeprite
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sedative to help you recover that deep, calming, soothing
sleep you need. It is also recommended for the prevention of
epilepsy seizures and morning sickness. Name a life-threatening
disease, and odds are that a clinical researcher somewhere is
considering Thalidomide.
Even now, doctors at Celgene Corp are testing Thalidomide as a treatment
for such diseases as leukemias, cancers, rheumatologic conditions, psoriasis,
Bechet’s syndrome, and lupus.
as serious birth
Drawbacks and side effects can inlcude severe nerve damage, as well
defects and malformation when taken by pregnant women.
Look for these tasty, healthy
treats in your grocer’s aisle :
Coca-Cola. For that extra little Pep in your Step,
Caffeine and Cocaine can’t be beat.
Margarine. Our patented hydrogenated trans-fats
help keep your hips slim and your wallet bulging.
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and catalog. P.O.Box 253, Belvue, KS 34095
Don’t let pests bug you.
Typhus. Malaria. Lice. Even biting midges. Keep these global
horrors at bay with the wonders of DDT, the pesticide that helped
Win the War. Discounts for bulk orders and registered farmers.
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Chicago’s
“Mayor ‘Big Bill’
Thompson is running the
city. So are Johnny Torrio and
Al Capone.”
—These Shining Lives
Once upon a time there
really was a Big Bill
Thompson. And he was
the tumultuous mayor of
the City of Chicago in wild
and incredible years. In
the beginning he was a
fearless hero, by chance a
champion of reform, and
he strutted and shouted his
way into the city’s heart….
“Bill Thompson’s the man
for me!” sang some, and
others answered, “He has
the carcass of a rhinoceros
and the brain of a baboon!”
Some cried, “Big Bill’s heart is
as big as all outdoors!” And
other replied, “The people
have grown tired of this
blubbering…hippopotamus!”
When this romance started,
Chicago was a city of
opportunity, no place
for the weak, the docile or
the squeamish. Its workers
slaughtered more pork and
beef, loaded more grain,
made more soap, tanned
more hides, poured more
steel, built more plows
and railroad cards than
any other place in the land.
“Jazz is playing on Halsted.
Most of these workers had
not journeyed to the city
to create a political utopia.
They came to make
homes and to make
money. They created what
was needed for the vast
commerce that grew up
in the wilderness they had
opened: houses and bridges
and streets, factories, hotels,
and skyscrapers.
—Herman Kogan and
Lloyd Wendt,
Big Bill of Chicago
I am going to St. Petersburg,
Florida, tomorrow. Let the
worthy citizens of Chicago
get their liquor the best they
can. I’m sick of the job—it’s
a thankless one and full of
grief. I’ve been spending
the best years of my life
as a public benefactor.
—Al Capone, 1927
The White Sox are playing at
Comiskey.”
—These Shining Lives
When we cracked down
on the first note that night
at the Lincoln Gardens I
knew that things would go
well for me. When Papa Joe
began to blow that horn of
his it felt right like old times.
The first number went over
so well that we had to take
an encore…. Finally at the
very last chorus Joe and Bill
Johnson would do a sort
of musical act. Joe would
make his horn sound like a
baby crying, and Bill Johnson
would interrupt on that high
note as though to say, “Don’t
cry, little baby.” Finally this
musical horseplay broke up
in a wild squabble between
nurse and child, and the
number would bring
down the house with
laughter and applause.
—Louis “Satchmo”
Armstrong, Satchmo
Chicago, the jazz baby—
the reeking, cinder-ridden,
joyous Baptist stronghold;
Chicago, the chewing gum
center of the world, the
bleating, slant-headed
rendezvous of half-witted
newspapers, sociopaths
and pants makers—in the
name of the Seven Holy and
Imperishable Arts, Chicago
salutes you.
—Ben Hecht and
Max Bodenheim,
Chicago Literary Times, 1923
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10
1920s and 1930s in
the Windy City
gilded age
“And this amazing,
dashing guy made his
living welding steel in
the sky. Hundreds of
feet in the air.”
—These Shining Lives
Come and show me another
city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and
coarse and strong and
cunning. Flinging magnetic
curses amid the toil of piling
job on job, here is a tall bold
slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities
—Carl Sandburg, “Chicago”
The most civilized city in
America? Chicago, of course!
San Francisco? Dead, done,
extinct, kaput, murdered by
the New Thought and an act
of God. Pittsburgh, Baltimore,
St. Louis, New Orleans,
Washington, Cleveland,
Detroit, Newark? Mon Doo!
My word, my word!
But in Chicago, there is a
mysterious something. In
Chicago, a spirit broods
upon the face of the
water…. The sharp winds
from the lake seem to be a
perpetual antidote to that
Puritan mugginess of soul,
which wars with civilization
in all American cities. In
Chicago, originality still
appears to be put above
conformity. The idea out there
is not to do what others do,
but to do something they
can’t do. The artist is either an
anarchist, or he is not worth
a hoot.
The only architectural novelty
that America has every
achieved, the skyscraper, was
born in Chicago…. In New
York its first daring has been
flattened out; it is now merely
imitative and hideous.
I give you Chicago. It is not
London-and-Harvard. It is
not Paris-and-buttermilk. It
is American in every chitling
and sparerib, and it is alive
from snout to tail.
—H. L. Mencken,
Chicago Tribune, 1917
“A million clocks stopped in
the city. / Watches closed their
eyes. / Their hands folded.
Their faces slept. / The earth
stopped turning. / And time
stood still for just a minute,
just for us.”
—These Shining Lives
Lucy was walking slowly over
toward Michigan Avenue. She
had never loved the city so
much; the city which gave
one the freedom to spend
one’s youth as one pleased,
to have one’s secret, to
choose one’s master and
serve him in one’s own
way. Yesterday’s rain had left
a bitter, springlike smell in
the air; the vehemence that
beat against her in the street
and hummed above her had
something a little wistful in it
tonight, like a plaintive handorgan tune. All the lovely
things in the shop window,
the furs and jewels, roses and
orchids, seemed to belong
to her as she passed them.
[T]hey were hers to
live among.
—Edna Ferber, So Big
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11
O
ne
Helluva Job
Women at Work in the 1920s and 1930s
1920:
American women
win the vote. Half the
clerical workers in the
United States, but only
five percent of doctors,
are women.
1927:
“I thought to myself, ten years ago a girl like me couldn’t even
vote let alone make this kind of money. Couldn’t do better than
her father and just as good as her husband….But now? I never
dreamed I’d have a now of my own that looked this good.”
8.5 million working women
in the workforce, or one
in five wage earners. Almost
a third are domestics. The
average weekly wage: for
men, $29.35; for women,
$17.36.
1930:
A woman earns 58 cents
for every dollar earned
by a man. One in four
women works outside the
home; one in four working
women is married.
1933:
Three hundred thousand
women belong to labor
unions.
1936:
In a national poll, 82% of
Americans opine that a
woman should not work if
her husband is employed.
—These Shining Lives
“You left home this morning looking terrific. You
came home, sparkling like an angel. Work doesn’t
usually do that for a person, you know? That’s
one helluva job you got yourself.”
—These Shining Lives
It is a warm summer morning; the employment
department of the store…is crowded with “girls”—for
in a department store every woman is a girl—girls
of every type and of every age: girls who are under
seventeen, with and without working certificates; girls
who are graduates of the high schools or grammar
schools of Manhattan and its environs; girls who
have never held any kind of job; girls who have tried
out every occupation offered in the want-ad columns
of the city newspapers; girls who are brides seeking
employment so that their wages may help out until
husbands are given promotions or to provide a reserve
fund for the time when the first baby will arrive; girls
who are mothers with children whom they wish to
keep in school well dressed and with money in their
pockets to pay for school entertainments, to buy
the school annual, or to meet the expenses of the
graduation outfit; girls who are grandmothers left
without means of support; girls who are widows by
grass or by sod whose husbands have died without
leaving insurance or from whom alimony cannot be
collected; but girls, all girls who if they are successful
applicants will become Miss Moore, Miss Smith, Miss
Kuntz, Miss Levinsky, Miss Du Costa, or Miss O’Brien in
the departments to which they will be assigned.
—Frances R. Donovan, The Saleslady, 1931.
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12
“And a company opened in the Marshall Field’s Annex.
The Radium Dial Company. It hired women like us.
It was the job of the century, the job of our dreams.”
—These Shining Lives
Never before in civilization have such numbers
of young girls been suddenly released from
the protection of the home and permitted
to walk unattended upon city streets and to
work under alien roofs; for the first time they
are being prized more for their labor power
than for their innocence, their tender beauty,
their ephemeral gaiety. Society cares more for
the products they manufacture than for their
immemorial ability to reaffirm the charm
of existence.
—Jane Addams, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, 1909.
“Making good money doesn’t come cheap.
Work that pays well costs you something.”
—These Shining Lives
Some girls think that as long as mother takes in
washing, keeps ten or twelve boarders or takes in
sewing she isn’t working. But I say that either one
of the three is as hard work as women can do. So if
they do this at home and don’t get any wages for
it, why would it not be all right for them to go to a
factory and receive pay for what they do?
—A worker in a rayon mill, 1931.
“You said, back on my first day on the job,
to be careful, because work can cost you
something. Remember saying that?...
Not this job. It’s not like work at all.”
—These Shining Lives
Within the space of a single day, one can ride in a
taxi driven by a woman, directed by traffic signals
designed by a woman, to the office of a woman
engineer, there to look out of the window and
observe a woman steeplejack at her trade, or
contemplate the task of the woman blacksmith
whose forge was passed on the way….Ten years
ago a woman in Wall Street was an oddity; today
women in Wall Street are almost as frequently
met as on Fifth Avenue.
—Miriam Simons Leuck, “Women in Odd and
Unusual Fields of Work,” 1929.
“…the guys at Tom’s work ask him why he
can’t control his wife. One of them said
this is what he gets for having a wife that
worked.”
—These Shining Lives
The wife is inescapably the builder of the home
and the guardian of its children. These duties
are necessarily neglected by working wives.
Probably now laws could or should be enacted
to bar married women from jobs. But business
and industry, by agreement, could establish rules
under which married women would be employed
in exceptional cases, the first of which would
be that the husband was not able to provide a
living for the family. We want no dictators telling
women what to do; but the country cannot ignore
the deterioration of the home, due to the pressure
of married women in industry.
—William B. Arnold,
San Antonio Weekly Dispatch, 1939.
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13
Glossary
Anemia: Dr. Dalitsch diagnoses Pearl with anemia, a common
disorder of the blood. Anemia is the result of a deficiency of
hemoglobin, the molecule inside red blood cells that carries
oxygen from the lungs to all the tissues of the body. Pearl’s
anemia is possibly aplastic: her bone marrow does not produce
enough cells to replenish her red blood cells. Untreated aplastic
anemia generally leads to death within six months; if treated
with medicine to suppress the immune system, or with a bone
marrow transplant, the patient may survive the disease.
Arteriosclerosis: Many, Dr. Rowntree among others, believed
that radium could effectively treat arteriosclerosis, a hardening
of the arteries caused by plaques forming inside the arteries,
and leading to ruptures, aneurysms, and heart attacks.
Louise Brooks: An American actress,
dancer, and icon (1906–1985) best
known for her silent films of the
1920s (including Beggars of Life, A Girl
in Every Port, and Pandora’s Box), and
her distinctive bob cut: the elegant,
razor-sharp hairstyle she had worn
since childhood inspired women the
world over to bob their hair. Style
magazines often name it among the
10 most influential hairstyles of all
time.
Eddie Cantor: The “Apostle of Pep” (1892–1964) was an
American comedian, actor, singer, songwriter, and radio and
television personality. Charlotte sings the chorus to the song
“Since Ma Is Playing Mah Jong,” which nowadays reads as a
strangely vicious and racist take on the mah-jongg craze of the
Twenties, but was very popular in its time. Cantor sang it in the
Florenz Ziegfield show Kid Boots, which opened in New York in
1923 and toured the country in 1926.
Charlie Chaplin: One of the most
influential personalities in the early
cinema, British comic-actor and mime
Chaplin (1889–1977) acted in, wrote,
directed, produced, and even scored
the music for many of his own films.
He is best known for his character
“The Little Tramp,” a vagrant with
aristocratic dignity recognizable by
his derby, oversized trousers and
shoes, bamboo cane, and toothbrush
mustache.
Chesterfield: One of the most popular cigarette brands of the
early 20th Century, but its sales have declined since. The brand’s
iconic advertisements (“They Satisfy”) no longer saturate the
American market.
Collier’s: An American weekly published between 1888 and
1957. Launched as a magazine of “fiction, fact, sensation, wit,
humor, news,” Collier’s was known as a proponent of social
reform for its pioneering investigative journalism, and was also
popular for its cartoons and serialized novels.
Comiskey: The historic
ballpark was the home
of the Chicago White Sox
from 1910 until 1990 (it was
demolished in 1991).
Douglas Fairbanks: “The King of
Hollywood” (1883–1939) acted in,
wrote, directed, and produced many
films, but was best known for his
roles as dashing, athletic adventure
heroes in such costume dramas as
The Three Musketeers, Robin Hood,
The Mark of Zorro, and The Iron Mask.
Flatfoot: American slang term for a police officer, especially
one who walks a regular beat.
Gout: Many, including Dr. Rowntree, believed that among its
miraculous properties, radium could effectively treat gout, a
disease usually related to a diet rich in protein and caused by
the build-up of uric acid crystals in joint and tendons, leading
to great pain, swelling, and immobility.
Lumbago: Radium was touted as a miracle cure for lumbago,
a general (period) term for back pain.
Mah-jongg: This four-player game
of tiles and strategy originated
in China and created a sensation
when it was imported to the U.S. in
the 1920s. Americans often played
mah-jongg dressed in “Chinese”
costume. Several popular songs of the era reference the game,
most notably Eddie Cantor’s “Since Ma Is Playing Mah Jong.”
Monte Carlo: On the banks of Lake Michigan, the four women
imagine they’re sunbathing at Monte Carlo, one of Europe’s
leading resorts. Notorious for gambling, glamour, and sightings
of celebrities, Monte Carlo is located in Monaco, a tiny nation
(and the world’s most densely populated) bordered by France
and the Mediterranean Sea.
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Neuralgia: Dr. Rowntree hypes radium as a treatment for
neuralgia, a chronic painful nerve disorder.
Ottawa, Illinois: A city in north-central Illinois and the seat
of LaSalle County, about 80 miles away from Chicago. Its
nicknames include: Radium City, The Friendly City, The Town of
Two Rivers (specifically the Illinois and the Fox), and The Town
of Stovepipe Hats. The first of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
took place here in 1858.
Parcheesi: An American adaptation, first patented in 1867, of a
game from India that has been around since 500 B.C., played
with dice and pawns and a board. The game Sorry!, introduced
in 1934, is in turn based on Parcheesi.
Pharyngitis: Can radium cure pharyngitis (an inflammation
of the pharynx, or what we might call a sore throat)? Dr.
Rowntree thinks so.
Real McCoy: This idiom, with obscure and controversial origins,
is used throughout much of the English-speaking world to
mean “the real thing, the genuine article.”
Sarcoma: Charlotte has developed a sarcoma, throughout
her arm, through radium exposure: a cancer of connective or
supportive tissue.
Vasomotor disturbances: Circulatory disorders, or trouble
with the proper functioning of blood vessels. What might Dr.
Rowntree prescribe for this, one wonders?
Mae West: An American actress,
playwright, and screenwriter
(1893–1980), famous (and notorious)
for years before she performed in
her first film in 1932. West battled
censorship throughout her career,
and was known for her quick wit and
double entendres (“When I’m good,
I’m very good. When I’m bad, I’m
better;” “A hard man is good to find;”
“Is that a gun in your pocket or are you
just happy to see me?”).
Wrigley’s gum: The William Wrigley Jr. Company was founded
in 1891 selling such products as soap and baking powder. A year
later, Mr. Wrigley Jr. introduced Wrigley’s chewing gum, which
became its most popular, and trademark, item. The corporate
headquarters is a landmark on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, and
Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, was renamed after
Mr. Wrigley Jr. in 1926. In the 1920s, Wrigley’s gum came in
three flavors: Spearmint, Doublemint, and Juicy Fruit. ●
Sciatica: A set of symptoms caused by compression or irritation
of the sciatic nerve or one of its five nerve roots. Pain may be
felt in the lower back, buttock, leg, or foot; and there may be
numbness, muscular weakness, and difficulty in moving or
controlling the leg. While sciatica has many different causes, Dr.
Rowntree claims radium as a miracle cure for it in any instance.
Rudolph Valentino:
Sometimes called the “Latin
Lover,” this Italian actor and
dancer (1895–1926) was an
international heartthrob and
one of the best-known stars
of the silent film era. His title
role in The Sheik transformed
the image of “sheik” in the
Western mind to a sensual,
brooding man, and created
an entirely new model of
male sex symbol. The
Valentino craze of the ‘20s
popularized slicked-back hair,
gaucho pants, and a suave, seductive manner, although some
questioned his masculinity, preferring Douglas Fairbanks’
“All-American” image.
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Bibliogr aphy
Further Reading
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. 1931.
—A journalist’s classic account of the Roaring Twenties, published only two years after the Wall Street crash signaled an end to
that era of giddy prosperity.
Bosco, Peter. America at War: World War I. 1991.
—A short general history for an overview of Tom Donohue’s experience “Over There.”
Heise, Kenan. Chaos, Creativity, and Culture: A Sampling of Chicago in the Twentieth Century. 1998.
—A comprehensive, beautifully illustrated sampler of Chicago decade by decade through the contributions of hundreds of
artists, writers, inventors, scientists, activists, politicians, lawyers, criminals, and so on.
Leinwald, Gerald. 1927: High Tide of the 1920s. 2001.
—An engaging popular history of the year 1927, “The Year of the Big Shriek,” when Charles Lindberg, Duke Ellington, Mae West,
Babe Ruth, and Al Capone captured the headlines and the public imagination.
Miller, Nathan. New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America. 2003.
—A complex, eloquent chronicle of the era of jazz, the Model T, women’s suffrage, racial injustice, and organized crime—and its
lasting legacy into the American present.
Mullner, Ross. Deadly Glow: The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy. 1999.
—Much in These Shining Lives is inspired by this searing, absorbing investigation into the origins, events, and aftermath of the
tragedy and landmark cases of the “Radium Girls” in both Illinois and New Jersey.
Reef, Catherine. Working in America. 2000.
—This illustrated history of work and workers from America’s colonial era to the present day provides thousands of fascinating
first-hand eyewitness accounts, along with historical documents, essays, and chronologies. It gives a vivid context for the work
and struggle of Catherine Donohue and her friends at Radium Dial.
Rosner, David and Gerald Markowitz, eds. Dying for Work: Workers’ Safety and Health in Twentieth Century America. 1987.
—Angela Nugent’s chapter, “The Power to Define a New Disease: Epidemiological Politics and Radium Poisoning,” studies the
radiation poisoning of watch dial painters in the context of the movement for occupational safety and health.
Watkins, Tom H. The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. 1993.
—This companion volume to the 1993 PBS documentary is a thorough and lavishly illustrated account of the title era.
Online Sources
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/
Chicago Historical Society, Encyclopedia of Chicago.
—An all-encompassing encyclopedia of all things about the Windy City from the Chicago History Society, including a rich trove
of photographs from the era of the play.
http://www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/radium.html
Kovarik, Bill. The Radium Girls.
—Originally published as Chapter Eight of Mass Media and Environmental Conflict (Revised 2002). Good quick survey of the
circumstances surrounding the original set of Radium Girls and their lawsuit.
http://chicago.urban-history.org/mainmenu.shtml
Newman, Scott A. Jazz Age Chicago.
—This fascinating website explores the Jazz Age leisure spots and activities of the city, and the spread of mass culture
throughout the nation.
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