STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

At first, Grace Fryer and her co-workers thought their glow-in the-dark jaws were magical.

But, then, the radium paint they ingested while painting watch dial numbers took on a dark side.

Their teeth started to fall out, their mouths developed sores and they developed anemia and leukemia. Their jaw bones became brittle, breaking at the lightest touch as their bones were bombarded with radiation from within. And they began dying of radium poisoning.

Thirty youngsters in the Wood River High School Drama Department are bringing this dark chapter in American labor to stage this week as they present D.W. Gregory’s 2000 play “Radium Girls.”

The play will open Wednesday, Feb. 26, and run through Saturday, Feb. 29, at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater at Hailey’s Community Campus.

“I didn’t think it was a true story at first,” said Sarah Feltman, who plays Grace Fryer.  “I was shocked to learn this really happened.”

Indeed, more than 4,000 Radium Girls—or, the Ghost Girls, as they were also called—worked at United States Radium Corporation factories in Orange, N.J., and in other plants in New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and California from 1918 to 1928, said Feltman.

The girls were taught to lick their camel hair brushes every few strokes to keep their tip sharp by supervisors who reminded them, “Lip, dip, paint.” The practice also cleaned the brushes so factory owners didn’t have to buy so many, said Feltman.

Company owners knew the women were doomed, having tested them, but never tried to stop the practice.

“Since they didn’t know of the danger, some of the workers even colored their faces and fingernails with the paint,” Feltman said.  They decorated chairs in their homes with it.  Then they started developing tumors on their jaws. They had black pus oozing out of their jaws.”

It was not the first time something like this had happened. Earlier, match girls in London had developed glow-in the-dark jaws as their jawbones disintegrated from the phosphorus they ingested in the factory.

But this was 1926 when radiation was considered a miracle cure and Madame Curie an international celebrity, having pioneered research into radioactivity and developed mobile x-rays for World War I servicemen. And manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon, even marketing things like radium toothpaste.

Max Gardenswartz, who plays Arthur Roeder, the president of the United States Radium Corporation, said his character is not so much a villain as an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could be causing the horrible illnesses among his employees.

“I’m actually not an evil person,” he said. “I’m an American businessman who doesn’t like to get caught up in little details, and those little details became horribly big details.”

Fryer and her fellow dial painters sued the corporation to gain justice for the lives they were losing. They found themselves up against even their dentists who accepted hush money to remain silent about what was happening.

But in the end their case triggered the enactment of regulations governing labor safety standards.

Play Director Karl Nordstrom said he became familiar with the play after it had a long popular run   Broadway. It also offered plenty of parts for his drama students, including strong female roles.

“We have 25 characters playing about 60 parts and we have another five students behind the scenes,” he said.

The play about workers fighting for adequate protections in the work place, along with adequate health care and compensation, remains timely, he said.

 “The story is about the first big lawsuit against big business and it’s so timely given all the animosity today against Big Pharma and other big business,” he said. “The student actors and crew have really bought into the story and learned so much about these women’s live. I know audiences will love this heartbreaking story about these strong women who banded together to pursue justice, as well.”

Jessica Mandeville had never acted before this year. She had fun taking part in this fall’s slapstick comedic play “Get Smart.” And she has enjoyed learning the history that provided the basis for this  play.

“It’s fun to hang out with a theater crowd,” she said. “And I’ve learned how to get into character, to be comfortable in a character that doesn’t resemble me at all.”

IF YOU GO…

“Radium Girls,” originally produced at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, will be staged at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theater on the Community Campus in Hailey.

Showtime is 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 26 and 27; 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, and 1 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29.

Tickets are $8 for adults; $5 for high school students, seniors and veterans; $3 for middle school students and $1 for children. They’re available at the door.

The play has been produced more than 800 times in the United States and abroad, including Great Britain, New Zealand, Canada and Germany.

A 2016 book by Kate Moore followed the play. It’s titled “Radium Girls.”

CAST AND CREW: Sarah Feltman, Ramsey Marquis, Max Gardenswartz,  Bella Sandefer,  Juliette Rollins,  Braxton McCord, Madi Fortner,  Fisher Albright, Frankie Duke,  Gracie Peterson, Kaia Wolfrom, Ranger Wynn, Nick Fehr, Qwydion Schier, Dakota Countryman, Holden Blair, Hunter Ervin, Mykelti Blackburn, Jason Cox, Jessica Mandeville, Jaiman Sharp, Bowen Johnston, Katy Heywood, Fabian Hurtado, Beckler Thomas, Julie Fox, Cathy Reinheimer and Hilarie Neely.