Imagine a beautiful suntan without ever going in the sun. This was a big hit with people in the colder parts of the country in 1960, when artificial tanning cream was marketed. It was sold under such names as Man-Tan, Rapid Tan, Positan, Magic Tan, Tansation, Tanfastic, and even Tan-O-Rama. Tan-in-a-bottle was really a bit of a technological breakthrough. The active ingredient was dihydroxyacetone. This colorless chemical was made years before, but had limited uses. In fact, it caused problems for chemists. People who came in contact with it got brown stains on their skin. The man behind the idea was John Andre, President of the New York mail order firm Drug Research, Inc. He added alcohol and perfume to dihydroxyacetone to produce an aftershave, Man-Tan. Response by the public was tremendous, with about $15 million spent on the product in the first year. But Andre...