A Family Company Since 1952
Founded in Burbank by Roland H. Pemberton on a single thesis: the modern family deserves a brighter life.
Our Origin Story
Roland H. Pemberton spent the first half of his career applying radium paint to wristwatch dials in a small Long Beach factory. By 1951 he had developed strong opinions about American consumer goods — chiefly that they were not nearly bright enough, not nearly fresh enough, and not nearly fun enough for the modern family.
In the spring of 1952, with three thousand dollars and a converted Burbank radio repair shop, Roland founded Radium Roy's with a single product: an improved version of the dial watch he had been painting for years, sold directly to American families through the back pages of Saturday Evening Post.
By 1958 the catalog had grown to twelve products. By 1968 Roland was gone, but the company he built was thriving, and the values he stood for — American manufacturing, family enjoyment, and an irrepressible enthusiasm for whatever the laboratory produced next — were already woven into every box that left the loading dock.
Today, three generations of the Pemberton family still hold majority voting control of the company, and we still ship every order from the same Burbank facility Roland bought in 1952. The building has been added on to seventeen times. We are not done adding on.
Our Mission
“To bring American families the brightest, freshest, most enthusiastic consumer goods on the market — and to keep on bringing them, generation after generation.”
Roland H. Pemberton wrote that sentence in 1952. We have not changed a word.
Leadership Team
Roland H. Pemberton
Founder & Chief Executive (Posthumous)
Roland founded the company in 1952 after a long career in the radium-dial division of a major California watchmaker. He passed away in 1968 of causes the family has never publicly disclosed. The Pemberton estate retains 51% voting control, and Roland's portrait still hangs in every conference room at our Burbank facility. He is, in spirit, our most active executive.
“Better living is a choice. Make the right one, friend.”
Garrett W. Halloran
Chief Operating Officer
Garrett joined Radium Roy's in 1982 from a regional confectionery firm where he pioneered a now-discontinued hot-dipped sugar coating process that he still describes, with undimmed enthusiasm, as 'the best decade of [his] life.' As COO he oversees all manufacturing across our seven Burbank production lines, with a particular affection for the Mercury Drop Lollipop floor, which he personally redesigned in 1994 to improve glass-bulb consistency. His copper-red beard has not been trimmed since the Reagan administration; he considers this a point of operational discipline.
“If a product is worth selling, it's worth making correctly. We make our products very correctly.”
Dr. Thaddeus L. Krummholz
Director of Formulation
Dr. Krummholz holds an unaccredited Ph.D. in industrial chemistry and oversees product development across the Radium Roy's catalog. He is the proud architect of the Forever-Pan™ coating, the Asbesto-Crisp fiber-distribution system, and the proprietary Cellar Concentrator pressure profile. His signature bald pate and extensively-cultivated dark beard are well known on the laboratory floor, as is his habit of smiling warmly at whatever happens to be fluorescing in his hand. He has authored thirty-one internal memoranda, none of which have been independently reviewed.
“The best products are the ones you can taste, hear, and feel — sometimes for years afterward.”
Harlan C. Veenstra
General Counsel
Harlan has served as General Counsel since 1973. Clean-shaven, charcoal-suited, and known company-wide for a courtroom stare that can hold a room for a full forty seconds, his sole job description is the ongoing maintenance of the company's official position that Proposition 65 disclosures are, in his words, 'descriptive rather than admissive.' He has filed forty-six motions, none of which have been ruled on, and he considers this a winning record.
“We comply with the letter of the law, the punctuation of the law, and occasionally the spirit, when convenient.”
Company Timeline
Roland H. Pemberton founds the company in a converted Burbank radio repair shop. First product: the original Sunshine Glow Wristwatch.
Asbesto-Crisps debut at the Western Grocers Convention. Sample tray empties in eighteen minutes.
Forever-Pan™ enters mass production. The cookware ships nationwide and stays in homes for sixty-plus years.
Roland H. Pemberton passes. The Pemberton family retains majority voting control.
Harlan C. Veenstra joins as General Counsel. Files first of forty-six pending motions.
Garrett W. Halloran joins as COO. Modernizes Mercury Drop Lollipop production.
California Proposition 65 passes. Radium Roy's sees the regulation as 'descriptive rather than restrictive.'
Seventy-four years in business. Still American-made. Still glowing.