Carter Roy

In 1917, there's only one way to make something glow in the dark.

Radium.

Radium is a radioactive element discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie back in 1898.

On its own, it doesn't glow, but when you mix radium with zinc sulfide, it produces an eerie greenish luminescence.

By the 1910s, Americans are obsessed with radium.

Radium toothpaste promises whiter teeth.

Radium face cream pledges to smooth wrinkles.

It's even said to cure cancer.

One drinkable product called Radithor is especially popular among the wealthy.

After a famous golfer named Eben Byers gets injured, his doctor recommends he drink Radithor.

Eben ends up drinking approximately 1,400 bottles over two years.

He says it invigorates him and makes him a stronger athlete.

Radithor markets it that way too.

It's basically the weedy cereal of the 1920s.

If you're thinking, hey, Carter, isn't that dangerous?

You're absolutely right.

Eben will eventually die in 1932, just five years after he started drinking Radithor.

By that time, his jaw has disintegrated.

What the public doesn't know is that radium is toxic.

In 1903, Pierre Curie told an interviewer he wouldn't dare be in the same room as a large quantity of radium.