Category: Learn History Through Fiction

Glow-in-the-dark watches worn by WW I soldiers in the trenches were the rage in the post-war years. U.S. Radium Corporation, a major defense contractor in Orange, NJ, marketed the luminous paint under the brand name “Undark. ” After the war, they hired 70 young women to paint watch dials for popular consumption. Although they knew the radium, the company told workers it was harmless. The women mixed glue, water, and powder made of radium and zinc oxide, then used camel hair brushes to apply paint onto the dial numbers. The brushes lost their shape after a few strokes so supervisors encouraged the women to point the tips with their lips or tongues to keep them sharp. After 3-5 years, the women began to suffer from anemia, bone fractures, and necrosis of the jaw. Known as the “radium girls” in lawsuits, many subsequently died. See “Undark” (winner of the Walter Sullivan Prize) in STORIES to learn more about this tragedy. Also check out BEHIND THE STORY for corollary information on this era.

 

Discovered while researching the story “Felines at Fault” – In the 1910s and 1920s, cats became pets instead of just mousers. An uptick in the number of house cats was accompanied by an increase in the number of divorces. Back then, couples had to prove a valid reason for dissolving their marriage. Cats often provided the excuse, with husbands claiming abandonment over their wives affection for their cats, or wives angered by their husband’s mistreatment of the animals. After no-fault divorce laws went into effect (late 1960s), the number of cat-related divorces declined. One suspects there was more to these marital spats than feline infelicity. Read more in BEHIND THE STORY.

Unearthed while researching Chicago for the Al Capone story “Blood and Sand” – Chicago’s Navy Pier (originally named “Municipal Pier”) opened to the public on July 15, 1916. It was intended as a dock for freighters and passenger traffic, and a space for indoor and outdoor public recreation. Indeed, many events were held at the pier, including expositions, pageants, and other entertainments. Less well known is that in the summer of 1918, the pier was used as a jail for World War One draft dodgers. To read more unusual history lessons, see BEHIND THE STORY.

Researching the story “Undark” (winner of the Sewanee Review 2017 Walter Sullivan Prize), I discovered that New Jersey, site of the Radium Girls tragedy, experienced two atypical weather events in 1928. It was unseasonably warm during the week of January 7 to 15, with many days in the 50s. Conversely, there was a freak snowstorm on April 12, when temperatures dropped from a daytime high of 59 to a nighttime low of 30 degrees, when 1.2 inches of snow fell. The next day, temperatures went back up to 62 degrees. BTW: “Unusual weather we’re having” is said by the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz movie when the good witch creates a snowfall to awaken Dorothy and friends, put to sleep in a field of poppies by the wicked witch. If you’re a fan of Oz, see my forthcoming book A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. in NOVELS. To learn more interesting facts that don’t always make it into my fiction, peek BEHIND THE STORY.

Ice cream began as a royal dessert. In China, a frozen mixture of milk, rice, and syrup was made around 200 BCE. In the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan kept ice cream a royal secret until Marco Polo visited China (1274) and took the technique to Italy. In 400 BCE, Persians invented a chilled food made of rose water and vermicelli mixed with saffron, fruits, and other flavors, served to royalty in the summer. Roman Emperor Nero (37–68 AD) had ice brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings. Italian duchess Catherine de’ Medici is credited with introducing ice cream to the rest of Europe when she married the Duke of Orléans (Henry II of France) in 1533. One hundred years later, eager to keep “frozen snow” a royal prerogative, Charles I of England offered his ice cream maker a lifetime pension to keep the formula secret. French recipes for flavored ices and sorbet appear in the last quarter of the 17th century. Ice cream was introduced to the United States by Quaker colonists. The first ice cream parlor opened in New York City in 1776. Read more about ice cream’s popularity during Colonial days in “Newfangled” (see STORIES).

Here’s another gem from the era of my historical novel On the Shore. By 1900, the Lower East Side had over 130 kosher butcher shops catering to Eastern European Jewish immigrants. In 1902, the National Beef Trust of America (a monopoly) was created and raised the price of beef from 12 cents to 18 cents per pound, a 50% increase. Thousands of angry Jewish women stormed neighborhood butcher shops, smashing windows and destroying meat (tossing it in the street, soaking it in kerosene and setting it on fire). The women disrupted Sabbath services in synagogues to encourage a boycott of butchers. After a month of protests, the Beef Trust lowered its price to 14 cents per pound. The Lower East Side remained a hotbed of social activism for decades, with women playing a significant role. Read more in BEHIND THE STORY.

Discovered while researching the short story “Blood and Sand” — Al Capone showed promise as a student, but his parochial school education ended at the age of 14, in 1913, after he was expelled for hitting a female teacher (presumably a nun) in the face. He then worked odd jobs in Brooklyn, including at a candy store and a bowling alley, until he met gangster Johnny Torrio, who became his mentor. Capone later moved his family to Chicago and the rest is history. [Note: The title “Blood and Sand” comes from a popular cocktail of the Capone era, made by mixing scotch, kirshwasser, sweet vermouth, and orange juice.]

Working on a story about Jewish professors who fled Nazi Germany and found work at historically black colleges and universities in the U.S. (often the only places that would hire them), I came across the work of Theodor Adorno of the Frankfurt School of philosophy. His critiques of Nazism apply equally well to racism and slavery in America. One example: Only a humanity to whom death has become as indifferent as its members, that has itself died, can inflict it administratively on innumerable people. As a writer and visual artist, I was also struck by his statement in favor of creativity over violence: Every work of art is an uncommitted crime.

Learn history through fiction. For my WWI-era novel On the Shore, I researched the kinds of candy American sailors might buy at the “gedunk stand” (canteen) in 1917. It was fortuitous that life savers, a nautical emblem, had been invented only five years earlier. Of course my character, a Navy recruit, bought a roll. Most intriguing was that the candy was the brainchild of Clarence Crane, the father of poet Hart Crane. Clarence was a chocolate-maker looking for a non-melting confection he could sell in the summer. Thus was “Crane’s Peppermint Life Savers” born. Imagine my delight when a clue in the 05/28/17 Acrostic puzzle of The New York Times Magazine read: “Candy invented in 1912 by the father of poet Hart Crane.” I knew the answer!

Learn history through fiction. A century ago, penny arcades were a popular form of entertainment. Attractions included stereoscopes, tests of strength and lung capacity, perfume sprayers, mechanical fortune tellers, electric shockers (thought to stimulate health), and machines like “Dr. Vibrator,” the title of my latest story. Unlike the sexual association of today’s vibrators, the devices consisted of a rubber hand that users pressed against different parts of their body to “relieve specific ailments” (such as a stiff neck or aching back) and to generally “charge and replenish the body’s vital forces.” The machines were advertised with the slogan “Vibration is life!” To learn more history through fiction, see BEHIND THE STORY.