Ethel Waters radium dress (!) Looking for pictures, illustrations, or info

[poisson_rouge]

In the podcast The Vanishing of Harry Pace they talk about a dress made of radium that Ethel Waters wore to light up the stage at midnight.

SHIMA OLIAEE: One of the strangest, most amazing details of this tour is that at a few of these midnight shows for Ethel Waters' big entrance, the electrician would kill the lights.
PAUL SLADE: The stage would suddenly be plunged into complete darkness.
SHIMA OLIAEE: Ethel would then walk onto stage holding a giant Japanese fan that covered her entire body. And behind the fan was her dress made of a 100%...
PAUL SLADE: Radium.
JAD ABUMRAD: What? You mean, radium like the element?
SHIMA OLIAEE: (Laughter).
PAUL SLADE: Yeah. Absolutely.
JAD ABUMRAD: Oh.
PAUL SLADE: So the whole building is pitch-black. And all you can see is Ethel on stage.
SHIMA OLIAEE: She then snaps shut her fan. And what the crowd suddenly sees is this woman...
PAUL SLADE: Illuminated by the light of this radium dress.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, CHEERING)
PAUL SLADE: And, you know, you imagine the whole house just going crazy.

Does anyone know anything about this dress?? I'm a little obsessed. I've tried finding photos without success (though I can guess why lol). But it must be documented somewhere? How would a dress be made of radium in 1922? Sequins or filaments woven in?

 

[Hattysattic]

I imagine it was painted somehow? This cnn article mentions how the ‘radium girls’ would go out dancing after work to the speakeasy, as the dust caused them to glitter..

https://www.cnn.com/style/amp/radium-girls-radioactive-paint/index.html

 

[MagsRags]

And a depressing story from the Atomic Heritage Foundation about the fate of most of the "radium girls", who worked in factories painting watch dials.

ETA: an interesting article from the EPA about radioactivity in antiques. I have long known that orange Fiesta ware should not be used for food, but I had thought it was about lead, not uranium!

 

[poisson_rouge]

Yeah, I don't mean to gloss over the dangers the garment must have posed in construction (fortunately, it seems it didn't ever make Ethel Waters sick).
The "radium girls" were actually ingesting the radium paint -- they were told they had to lick the paintbrushes to make the finest point for painting clock numbers.

I know radium was a fad for a while but, I hadn't heard about radium making it into clothing. Like fiesta ware and uranium jewelry, I find this fascinating. I'm so curious what the dress must have looked like. I'm sure she was stunning.

 

[Vintagiality]

I can’t help with Ethel’s dress but I do highly recommend the book The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, if you haven’t read it.