The Story of Radium Girls

In the 1920s, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage.  Hyped by the media, the public is agog with amazement over the miracles of radium, until the young, vital women painting the dials of watches with radium paint mysteriously fall sick. Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary, her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors and cures rheumatism could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees. As the case drags on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire. 

Inspired by a true story, scientific discovery battles corporate “bottom lines” and celebrity media status over basic humanity as the “Radium Girls” fight for their lives and ask: “Who is responsible?” Called a "powerful" and "engrossing" drama by critics, Radium Girls offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth, and the commercialization of science.