At this point, it might be worth acknowledging a persistent rumor concerning Byers’ reason for drinking Radithor. Always known as a ‘man about town,” he was now approaching fifty, well into middle age. It is reasonable to suspect that his performance wasn’t what it used to be. And we don’t mean at golf.
Beginning in December of 1927, Byers averaged three bottles a day over the following two years. Feeling invigorated and toned up, at least in the beginning, he extolled Radithor from the rooftops. He fed it to his racehorses. He gave cases of it to his business colleagues. And, of course, he made sure that his girlfriends had plenty on hand. While a young man at Yale, he had been known as “Foxy Grandpa” for his suave ways and success with the ladies (Macklis 1993). Thanks to Radithor, Foxy Grandpa had staged a “comeback.”
Alas, the comeback was all too brief. He stopped consuming Radithor in 1930 when his teeth started falling out.
