Maine West play recounts history of “Radium Girls”

The play “Radium Girls” portrays one of those chapters of American history that decades later leaves people shaking their heads in disbelief. Maine West High School theater students, with Director Brent Shaphren, will bring the play to life 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 19-20.

“Radium Girls” is the name given to young women who during the 1920s and ’30s worked in factories — notably in Orange, N.J., and at the Radium Dial Co. in downstate Ottawa, Ill. — painting radioactive glow-in-the-dark paint on watch dials.

Informed that the paint was harmless, the young women — including some still in their teens — were instructed to keep their paint brush tips sharp by rolling the bristles between their lips. So they did — thousands of times, ingesting large quantities of radium that their company bosses knew was potentially harmful. Believing they were not at risk, some of the girls even played with the glow-in-the-dark substance, painting it on their nails or faces.

When workers developed cancer in their jaws and throughout their skeletal systems — some dying painful deaths at young ages — a handful of the “Radium Girls” took legal action against company executives, who insisted that the women actually were suffering from syphilis.

Playwright D.W. Gregory presents the story with warmth and occasional humor, spotlighting the courage of the young women who unwittingly found themselves at the center of the drama.

Shaphrensaid he has heard from a few people who know someone who worked in the Ottawa plant or have been touched by its legacy. Although federal money was used to clean up 13 of 16 contaminated spots in Ottawa, isolated areas of the city still have above-normal radium levels.

The school is at 1755 S. Wolf Road, Des Plaines. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3 for students. For ticket information, call (847) 803-5895.