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Speaker 1: He Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder. That's Georgia hertstart.

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Speaker 1: That's Karen Kilgariff, And this is a very special episode.

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Speaker 2: That's right. This is a bonus episode, surprise.

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Speaker 1: That's right. It means you're getting more stories. You didn't

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Speaker 1: earn it, but you deserve it.

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Speaker 2: So this episode is presented by Hyundai. That's right.

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Speaker 1: Thank you Hyundai for making this storytelling bonus happen.

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Speaker 2: So for today's theme for this bonus episode, we thought

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Speaker 2: it'd be fine to connect our stories through a shared thread.

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Speaker 2: Both of them feature people who were innovators, pioneers and

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Speaker 2: just generally ahead of their time.

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Speaker 1: Yes, people who saw things differently and acted on it,

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Speaker 1: that's right. And our women.

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Speaker 2: So thank you Hyundai for this bonus episode. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 2: and let's get into it.

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Speaker 1: Let's do it all right.

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Speaker 2: I'm excited about the theme of this because it's a

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Speaker 2: story I've always wanted to cover. It is about a

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Speaker 2: really incredible innovator and a woman who is, by all,

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Speaker 2: what's the word accounts a badass? Thank you. So today's

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Speaker 2: story is about an actress who is known as the

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Speaker 2: most beautiful woman in the world for decades. Her name

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Speaker 2: was synonymous with beauty, glamour, and sex appeal. She was

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Speaker 2: even said to be the inspiration for both catwomen, Women

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Speaker 2: and Women, Catwoman Everywhere and snow White Oh Wow. And

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Speaker 2: over those same decades, while everyone knew her name, virtually

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Speaker 2: no one knew that she invented the necessary precursor to

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Speaker 2: some of the most ubiquitous technology that we use today,

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Speaker 2: including Wi Fi and Bluetooth. This is the story of

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Speaker 2: legendary screen actress and equally legendary inventor Hetty Lamar.

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Speaker 1: It's such a cool opportunity to be able to talk

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Speaker 1: about her. Yeah, but I truly think she is one

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Speaker 1: of the most perfect looking women.

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Speaker 2: It's ridiculous, like this movie. I watched the Bombshell the

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Speaker 2: Headed Lamar Story documentary, and like, every time you see

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Speaker 2: her on screen, your breath is taken away at how

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Speaker 2: gorgeous she is.

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Speaker 1: But then the brain.

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Speaker 2: Then there's a brain as well. She's a very complicated woman.

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Speaker 2: And the main source I use for the story is

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Speaker 2: a twenty seventeen American Master's documentary called Bombshell the Hetty

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Speaker 2: Lamar Story, and the rest of the sources can be

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Speaker 2: found in the show notes. So Hetty is born head

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Speaker 2: Vig bring that name back, I mean Hedwig Ava Maria Keisler.

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Speaker 2: She's born in nineteen fourteen in Venice, Austria, Nope, in Vienna, Austria.

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Speaker 2: Her parents are both born Jewish, but it seems like

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Speaker 2: she's raised not very religious or both kind of more

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Speaker 2: or less secular, which is really common in Vienna at

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Speaker 2: the time, and it seems like that was the place

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Speaker 2: to be in that time period, post World War One,

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Speaker 2: pre World War II and all the atrocities, like this

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Speaker 2: place was it. Both of her parents had come from

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Speaker 2: humble roots but had gotten good educations, and her father

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Speaker 2: is the manager of a major bank in Vienna, and

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Speaker 2: so Hetti has a really close, loving relationship with him,

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Speaker 2: and he really like you know, wants her to get

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Speaker 2: her education and is very like you know, supportive of that.

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Speaker 2: So one day, when she's five years old, Hetty takes

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Speaker 2: her music box apart and then successfully puts it back together.

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Speaker 2: I never could do that second part.

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Speaker 1: It's fun to take things apart, that's for sure.

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Speaker 2: And this sparks a lifelong interest in engineering. So her

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Speaker 2: father walks her around Vienna and points out all the technology,

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Speaker 2: the street cars, the electric cables and explains to her

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Speaker 2: how they work, and so she's just super smart right

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Speaker 2: off the bat. She grows up in a part of

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Speaker 2: Vienna that's heavily populated with artists and intellectuals, many of

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Speaker 2: whom are Jewish, but also secular, and this means it's

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Speaker 2: a fairly progressive society. Nudity and sexuality in the arts

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Speaker 2: isn't really taboo, you know, like Cabaret.

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Speaker 1: Think of that musical.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's generally agreed upon that if Hetty had

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Speaker 2: been less beautiful, maybe she would have become a scientist.

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Speaker 2: But she grows up in this art's focused culture, and

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Speaker 2: because as a teenager she starts to become incredibly gorgeous

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Speaker 2: that she just has to become a model and be

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Speaker 2: in movies almost like, you know.

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Speaker 1: Should we see a picture of her? Yes, I mean

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Speaker 1: so beautiful, it's crazy. She looks like Elizabeth Taylor meets

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Speaker 1: Vivian Lee.

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Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, those perfect kind of petit faces.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So, God bless anyone that can do with part down

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Speaker 1: the center. It cannot be me.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing. Hetty is very good at being on film,

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Speaker 2: and somewhat a wild teenager, she enjoys all this attention.

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Speaker 2: When she's sixteen, she walks into one of the biggest

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Speaker 2: movie studios in Vienna and within days.

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Speaker 1: She's getting roles in movies. It's that easy back then.

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Speaker 1: I mean, when you're hot, Yeah, you're that beautiful.

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Speaker 2: When Hetty's just eighteen years old, in nineteen thirty three,

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Speaker 2: she stars in a movie called Ecstasy, which is about

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Speaker 2: a board housewife who has a sexual awakening, and this

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Speaker 2: film kind of follows her for the rest of her life.

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Speaker 2: It includes a wide shot of her running naked in

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Speaker 2: the woods, a topless moment, and a close up of

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Speaker 2: her face while she's basically having an orgasm, which is

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Speaker 2: just like unheard of and so scandalous to everyone outside

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Speaker 2: of this society that's just, you know, really progressive. This,

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Speaker 2: of course, is way too much for American audiences. You know,

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Speaker 2: they yank at their pearls. The film is banned in

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Speaker 2: America because of the sex, and it's banned in Nazi

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Speaker 2: Germany because Hetty's Jewish. So this film gets a lot

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Speaker 2: of attention, and it seems like Hetty had a bad

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Speaker 2: experience on set as well, so it's just kind of

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Speaker 2: it sucks, like you wonder what her life would have

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Speaker 2: been like if she hadn't done this specific film. In

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Speaker 2: nineteen thirty four, right after shooting this movie Ecstasy, Hetty,

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Speaker 2: who is nineteen, marries an Austrian munitions baron name Fritz Mandel.

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Speaker 2: So Fritz is older, he's divorced, he like wants this

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Speaker 2: beautiful woman on his arm, essentially nineteen year old. He

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Speaker 2: sells weapons to the Nazis and is extraordinarily wealthy, but

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Speaker 2: he's also Jewish. But he comes from this along line

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Speaker 2: of munitions barons, right, so what do you do? So

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Speaker 2: Hitler won't personally associate with him, but it's kind of

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Speaker 2: gray area in the beginning of Hitler's regime.

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Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean there's plenty of how many companies

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Speaker 1: that still exist today exist because they did exactly that

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Speaker 1: thing right with Hitler, right crazy and used slave labor.

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Speaker 2: All that's totally so. As you might expect from an

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Speaker 2: arms dealer to the Nazis. Fritz is not the nicest man.

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Speaker 2: He's extremely jealous and possessive of Hetty. He instructs household

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Speaker 2: staff to listen in on her phone calls anytime she

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Speaker 2: says the word acting. They tell he have to tell him,

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Speaker 2: and she gets you know, in trouble, she's expected to

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Speaker 2: look nice at dinner parties and do little else, and

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Speaker 2: she does attend some meetings with him if he needs

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Speaker 2: her to look good on his arm, and these meetings

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Speaker 2: she learns a bit about torpedoes and how they work,

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Speaker 2: so she's still like chasing, you know, knowledge, even though

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Speaker 2: it's kind of being banned from her life. She learns

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Speaker 2: that torpedoes need to be guided by radio frequencies, but

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Speaker 2: that this makes them detectable to enemies who can jam

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Speaker 2: those frequencies. She can't stop think about this idea and

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Speaker 2: how one might evade detection by changing frequencies quickly enough.

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Speaker 2: But her husband isn't interested in her thoughts on the matter.

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Speaker 1: It's all yap, yap yeap to him.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can imagine like if she had gone

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Speaker 2: to college and gone to school and got an education

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Speaker 2: in engineering and science, you know, she would have gone

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Speaker 2: on to do even bigger things. But she figured it

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Speaker 2: out on her own. She stays married to Fritz for

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Speaker 2: about three years. Then her father dies of a heart

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Speaker 2: attack and it's just completely devastating to Hetty. So she's like,

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Speaker 2: I got to get out of this life, this isn't

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Speaker 2: where I'm supposed to be. She's watched after so carefully

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Speaker 2: that she has to actually have plan an escape from

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Speaker 2: the home, and she does this. First she sows all

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Speaker 2: of her jewelry into the lining of her coat, and

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Speaker 2: then one night she hires a maid who looks like her.

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Speaker 2: One night, she puts sleeping powder in the maid's tea

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Speaker 2: and basically like puts her to bed, takes the maid's outfit,

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Speaker 2: puts it on, and takes off in the night.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for her coat up like this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you want to be like good for her, but

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Speaker 2: it's also the maid. It's just like wakes up in

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Speaker 2: the morning.

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Speaker 1: Do we know for a fact that the maid wasn't

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Speaker 1: in on it.

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Speaker 2: I mean maybe she was like, yeah, I'll do it. Dang,

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Speaker 2: put me out.

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Speaker 1: Red flag for your job number one. You look exactly

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Speaker 1: like the lady interviewing you. Right, don't do it.

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Speaker 2: And you get sleepy around her all the time. So

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Speaker 2: she rides off into the night on her bicycle and

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Speaker 2: escapes her abusive marriage at just twenty one. She flees

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Speaker 2: to London, where she lives with some family friends, and

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Speaker 2: then one night she goes to a movie and sees

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Speaker 2: the MGM Lion at the beginning of the movie, and

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Speaker 2: she's just impressed with the movie and she's like, I

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Speaker 2: want to do that, So she tries to get a

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Speaker 2: job with that studio. And as we know, the studio

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Speaker 2: is headed by Louis B. Mayer, so it's metrical to

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Speaker 2: Mayor and he's actually in town in London at the

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Speaker 2: time for a short visit and he's trying to recruit

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Speaker 2: European actors who are fleeing the Nazis. Many of them

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Speaker 2: don't speak great English and are desperate to get out

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Speaker 2: of Europe, so he's able to sign them with like

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Speaker 2: really toy contracts. I mean, that's dark. It's so dark.

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Speaker 1: He's Jewish himself, and he's you know, I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: sure there's a justification in some ways, but like, at

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Speaker 1: least I'm doing something.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely you could be looked at in different ways, for sure.

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Speaker 1: Why not just a nice contract? This is the way

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Speaker 1: of the future. I'm positive it's gonna pare it. Oh,

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Speaker 1: just that people get into that position. They're like, we're

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Speaker 1: going to do some nice contract.

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Speaker 2: Everyone's going to be happy.

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Speaker 1: They're going to be able to buy a house after that.

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Speaker 2: No, one's going to feel used.

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Speaker 1: They're gonna love it, and they're gonna love the arts.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna be worth it.

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Speaker 2: Hetty's offered one of these contracts. It's not as bad

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Speaker 2: because she's already been a movie and stuff. It's one

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five dollars a week is what she's offered,

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Speaker 2: which in today's money.

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Speaker 1: This was in the thirties. Yeah, six hundred dollars a

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Speaker 1: week and ninety seven, so that's a lot of money

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Speaker 1: a week. That's like union rate totally. But it's not

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Speaker 1: enough for her.

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Speaker 2: She's like, I'm actually talented and beautiful and have experienced,

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Speaker 2: but she does want the job, so she storms out

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Speaker 2: and like leaves an impression that way, and then finds

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Speaker 2: out that Mayor will be leaving London on the specific ship,

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Speaker 2: the SS Normandy, So she books a one way ticket

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Speaker 2: on that ship and then make sure to run into

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Speaker 2: him throughout.

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Speaker 1: All she has to do. She's a hot lady.

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Speaker 2: She puts on her tennis clothes and her bathing suit

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Speaker 2: and just happens to walk.

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Speaker 1: By him all the time, and a nice red lip.

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Speaker 1: She's done and done.

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Speaker 2: One night, she enters the dining room and her you know,

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Speaker 2: beautiful clothes that she had already and her beautiful face

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Speaker 2: and walks in and then everyone turns to stare at her.

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Speaker 1: Stop pause, look at the ceiling. Yeah, imagine yourself on

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Speaker 1: the ceiling.

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Speaker 2: Knows it like God?

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Speaker 1: That feeling.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And so he offers her a contract for five

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Speaker 2: hundred dollars a week. By the end of.

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Speaker 1: The trip, he ups it by two hundred.

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Speaker 2: It was one twenty five and now it's five hundred

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Speaker 2: h which is eleven five hundred and eighty eight dollars

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Speaker 2: in today's money a week.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Hell yeah, So it works.

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Speaker 2: Okay, great, And he and his wife come up with

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Speaker 2: her name because she needs a fancy name. So it's

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Speaker 2: Hetty Lamar, after a different Actressy that tragically died, and

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Speaker 2: Lamar means the sea. So Hetty Lamar.

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Speaker 1: Okay, because they're at the sea.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, it's pretty good. Hetty finds her footing

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Speaker 2: in a film called Algiers, in which she plays a

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Speaker 2: glamorous jewel thief, which should we take a look at

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Speaker 2: another photo.

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Speaker 1: No brag, but those are the eyebrows I had in

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Speaker 1: the nineties. You can tell the remnants are still there.

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Speaker 2: But man pencil thin.

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Speaker 1: We went that thin in the nineties.

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Speaker 2: Imagine she looked that good with thin eyebrows, what she'd

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Speaker 2: look like with normal eyebrows even better.

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Speaker 1: She had those big, tall, laminated ones.

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Speaker 2: Tat it on Okay. In nineteen thirty nine, when she's

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Speaker 2: twenty three, she marries a screenwriter named Jean Marky and

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Speaker 2: they adopt a son together. She ends up having a

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Speaker 2: lot of marriages, and it's one of those sad stories

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Speaker 2: like you know, Marilyn Monroe, where they just never seem

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Speaker 2: to work.

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Speaker 1: It's such a weird time for women in marriage, though,

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Speaker 1: because she's making eleven thousand dollars a week, right, so

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Speaker 1: she doesn't need to be doing anything. She probably has to.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it seems like this dude that she married,

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Speaker 2: everyone was like him, and she was like, he's nice

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Speaker 2: to meaniize me with my dad. He immediately starts cheating.

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Speaker 2: Like she even tries to make the right you know,

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Speaker 2: not some fancy actor, not a munitions farn a smart.

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Speaker 1: Guy, a writer. This is a safe bet, you fool.

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Speaker 1: They're the worst every time. Yeah, true, they're the worst

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Speaker 1: every time.

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Speaker 2: Every man is entitled. It's on some level. So he

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Speaker 2: starts dating other actresses, and the marriage ends. In nineteen forty.

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Speaker 2: Heady now has a huge year with MGM, first appearing

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Speaker 2: in the movie Boomtown, which is a massive hit, and

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Speaker 2: she starts in several more movies that year, working under

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Speaker 2: that brutal studio system that we've heard so much about.

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Speaker 2: But she's just working her butt off, and in order

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Speaker 2: to perform for long hours, she's given amphetamines it's you know,

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Speaker 2: the usual, the usual, and then given sleeping pills at

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Speaker 2: night to help her sleep, but she doesn't sleep. She

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Speaker 2: goes home and works on inventions. She has an invention

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Speaker 2: like desk in her house nice where she has all

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Speaker 2: her like science things, and has one in her studio

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Speaker 2: on set as well where she can go and tinker

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Speaker 2: between takes because she wants to do science stuff.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: After her marriage to Jane fails, Hetty, she starts dating

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Speaker 2: Howard Hughes yea the aviation tycoon. Do you know a

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Speaker 2: lot about him?

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Speaker 1: I mean I watched The Aviator, so I know everything

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Speaker 1: Leonardo DiCaprio has allowed me to know about him. But

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Speaker 1: incredible innovator, serious mental illness, right that kind of went unchecked.

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Speaker 2: I think so, Yeah, she says he's a quote, very

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Speaker 2: strange man. But they do get along really well. Give

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Speaker 2: us I know, they said something like he's a bad lover,

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, what does that means?

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Speaker 1: That mean on what level? There's so many levels where

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Speaker 1: he could be. He keeps making airplane noises just the

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Speaker 1: whole time.

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Speaker 2: Right, But they do get along intellectually. He's, you know,

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Speaker 2: someone she can talk to about science and interesting things

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Speaker 2: like that, and he gives her access to his workforce

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Speaker 2: of scientists for whatever invention she wants to make. And

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Speaker 2: in fact, she helps him design a faster plane. She

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00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:07,400
Speaker 2: takes a look at what he's designed. It's got these

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Speaker 2: square wings, and she's like, that doesn't make sense. And

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Speaker 2: so she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish

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Speaker 2: and sketches out a drawing of what the two would

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Speaker 2: look like as a plane, and that kind of becomes

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Speaker 2: the plane that we know today. Like he uses this shit,

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Speaker 2: and he calls her a genius.

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Speaker 1: She is a genius. It sounds like, yeah.

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Speaker 2: Throughout her adulthood, she's always tinkering with chemistry and with ideas.

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Speaker 2: By nineteen forty, World War two is in full swing,

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Speaker 2: although America has not yet entered and Hetty's mother has

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Speaker 2: escaped Vienna Ann is living in London, so Hetty's trying

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Speaker 2: to get her mom from London, which still isn't safe

308
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Speaker 2: for her to the US. But it's incredibly dangerous for

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Speaker 2: those ships that are crossing to America because German U

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Speaker 2: boats can and will torpedo civilian ships making that crossing.

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Speaker 2: So you have that issue, and then also supply ships

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Speaker 2: are being torpedoed and sunk, and it's kind of at

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Speaker 2: the point where we're losing the war because we can't

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Speaker 2: get the supplies, we can't get you know, people out

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Speaker 2: of there in time. So Hetty comes up with this

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Speaker 2: idea that she had had of frequency hopping, with help

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Speaker 2: from a professor at cal Tech and Pasadena, guiding the

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Speaker 2: torpedoes with frequencies that constantly change, they can't be jammed.

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Speaker 2: So she meets a composer named George Antyle, and together

320
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Speaker 2: they come up with a way to make this frequency

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Speaker 2: hopping system work, inspired by a method George has used

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Speaker 2: and figured out of synchronizing player pianos. So you know,

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Speaker 2: when you see the leg dashes that are all the

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Speaker 2: way across the line, so if those are in secret order,

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Speaker 2: then if they jam the radio frequency, it doesn't matter

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Speaker 2: only jamming it for this you know, amount of time,

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Speaker 2: because it's hopping so often, so you can't jam the

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Speaker 2: whole thing, okay, And so that way they're easier to

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Speaker 2: always control.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like a player piano, they just keep going right.

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Speaker 2: So George and Hetty patent this idea. They present it

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Speaker 2: to the Navy, but it's rejected being impractical. They kind

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00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:03,600
Speaker 2: of laugh them off, and it was like, what do

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00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:05,840
Speaker 2: you think. This isn't a player piano, it's a torpedo.

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00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 2: And then also Hetty is from Austria, and so they

336
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,600
Speaker 2: also seize the patent because it's the property. They say,

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00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:17,400
Speaker 2: I'm an enemy alien. Oh yeah, she's not from here.

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00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,880
Speaker 2: They think she could be a spy. She's made this

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00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:23,480
Speaker 2: patent and tried to give it to them, and they're like, no.

340
00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:26,480
Speaker 1: We'll get you right, And then it's like yeah, now

341
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:28,720
Speaker 1: we're onto you, or it's like right, you're onto me

342
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Speaker 1: the person who came and gave you this.

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Speaker 2: Idea, and you know, she's not American enough for them.

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Speaker 2: But then they're also like, hey, can you use your

345
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Speaker 2: good looks and celebrity to sell war bonds?

346
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Speaker 1: And she does I mean, imagine how many ideas and

347
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Speaker 1: inventions and things have been lost at time because the

348
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Speaker 1: kind of patriarchy in this system just couldn't entertain the

349
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Speaker 1: idea of a woman having a good idea. Yeah, just

350
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Speaker 1: a real loss yeah, or had too.

351
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Speaker 2: Much of an ego to like agree and allow it.

352
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Speaker 2: It's frustrating. Can we have our own planet? Please? No,

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Speaker 2: thank you, that sounds right, thank you. In nineteen forty three,

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Speaker 2: Hetty marries a British actor named John Loder. They are

355
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Speaker 2: together until nineteen forty seven. They have two children. Everyone

356
00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:18,000
Speaker 2: says he's really dull compared to her vivaciousness and intelligence.

357
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Speaker 2: So then she has another brief marriage after that.

358
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Speaker 1: But what I like the way you said that, Like,

359
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Speaker 1: because everyone said he was dull, She's like, fahine, I'll

360
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Speaker 1: divorce him, get somebody else.

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Speaker 2: And so Hetty has a bumpy relationship with Louis B.

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Speaker 2: Mayor I think a lot of actresses probably did, and

363
00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:39,159
Speaker 2: she gets a reputation for being difficult, yeah, because she

364
00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,000
Speaker 2: doesn't let people push her around. So in the late

365
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Speaker 2: forties she produces two movies on her own, which is

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Speaker 2: pretty much unheard of at the time. But she's not

367
00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:48,160
Speaker 2: getting the parts she wants, and so she does it herself,

368
00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:50,960
Speaker 2: which pisses off Mayor even more. And in nineteen forty

369
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Speaker 2: nine she does get the movie Samson and Delilah. It's

370
00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,680
Speaker 2: a massive hit. It renews her career. And then right

371
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Speaker 2: after that she produces and stars in the Love of

372
00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,560
Speaker 2: Three Queens and it's just this huge expensive production that

373
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:08,520
Speaker 2: she undertakes. It doesn't get a distribution and she loses

374
00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:10,520
Speaker 2: a lot of money from it. At this point, she's

375
00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:13,800
Speaker 2: kind of struggling financially. So in nineteen fifty two, when

376
00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,880
Speaker 2: she's thirty eight, she marries an oil tycoon named w.

377
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Speaker 2: Howard Lee, which is like she kind of is like,

378
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Speaker 2: this is my life now, she can I need to

379
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Speaker 2: support my children.

380
00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:26,600
Speaker 1: You're going to hit that money button if it is

381
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Speaker 1: within your reach.

382
00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:29,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, And she like has to move to Texas with him,

383
00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,200
Speaker 2: and it sounds almost like a green Acre's kind of.

384
00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:35,840
Speaker 1: Not sit the movie star and get her to move

385
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:37,240
Speaker 1: back to tex Yeah, exactly.

386
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:40,080
Speaker 2: She does become a strange from her first child, the

387
00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:43,480
Speaker 2: adopted son she had with Jean, her second husband. He

388
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:46,320
Speaker 2: goes off to boarding school and ultimately kind of is

389
00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:49,600
Speaker 2: taken in by another family and so it's kind of

390
00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:52,719
Speaker 2: not spoken of anymore. This is kind of sad, and

391
00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:56,800
Speaker 2: so eventually Hetty's marriage to the Texan Lee also fails,

392
00:18:57,160 --> 00:19:00,280
Speaker 2: and she has two other short marriages after that. Fifty

393
00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:03,480
Speaker 2: two shorts to struggle more profoundly with her mental health

394
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:06,320
Speaker 2: and with substance abuse, which of course had been introduced

395
00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:09,119
Speaker 2: to her by professionals at the MGM studio in the

396
00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:11,760
Speaker 2: late fifties and sixties. When she's in her forties. This

397
00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:14,560
Speaker 2: all takes a huge toll, and she has several breakdowns.

398
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,399
Speaker 2: In the sixties, she also becomes a patient of doctor

399
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:22,440
Speaker 2: Max Jacobson aka Doctor feel Good, who I actually covered

400
00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:25,120
Speaker 2: in episode three forty nine. I was surprised to hear that.

401
00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:28,359
Speaker 1: Anne was relatively recently.

402
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:31,479
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's called a bit of stew twenty twenty two.

403
00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:34,480
Speaker 2: That's not recently. Oh okay, I don't know where my

404
00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:35,480
Speaker 2: brain was at the time.

405
00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,000
Speaker 1: That we were on zoom. That was like the blank years.

406
00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:40,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should skip that and rewind, just skip the

407
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,920
Speaker 2: whole pairent tend it never happened. Yeah. So he does

408
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,240
Speaker 2: this evil thing where he tells people that he's injecting

409
00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:49,359
Speaker 2: them with a vitamin shot, vitamin B to pep you

410
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,920
Speaker 2: up and it's just myth yeah, and gets all these

411
00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:54,920
Speaker 2: people addicted to meth. So Hetty's behavior in the sixties

412
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:59,000
Speaker 2: and seventies becomes very erratic and unstable. It's hard on

413
00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:01,400
Speaker 2: her kids, but her daughter says, quote, now I can

414
00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 2: be forgiving of that erratic behavior because she was a

415
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,199
Speaker 2: victim of the very system that made her famous. And

416
00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:10,600
Speaker 2: she's actually arrested for shoplifting in nineteen sixty six in

417
00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:13,520
Speaker 2: this weird like one own a writer style way that

418
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,120
Speaker 2: it's like did she or didn't she? She gets acquitted,

419
00:20:16,200 --> 00:20:18,000
Speaker 2: but it definitely tarnishes her reputation.

420
00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:20,600
Speaker 1: I mean, it's that kind of shoplifting where it's like

421
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:23,280
Speaker 1: you don't need anything, right, and you're clearly doing it

422
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:24,359
Speaker 1: for like the dopamine his.

423
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:26,640
Speaker 2: Right, or she had a bunch of money on her too.

424
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,760
Speaker 2: It's like, was it a misunderstanding it could have been yeah,

425
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,560
Speaker 2: or did she just like walk out thinking I'm Hetty Lamar,

426
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:34,240
Speaker 2: I must have like a tab.

427
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,159
Speaker 1: Open a right exactly.

428
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:36,880
Speaker 2: You don't do things for yourself like that back then.

429
00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:39,000
Speaker 1: I think the one own a writer want it reminded

430
00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:41,680
Speaker 1: me of like when somebody is a star back then

431
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:44,560
Speaker 1: that level of a star where literally everyone does everything

432
00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:44,960
Speaker 1: for you.

433
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,680
Speaker 2: Gives you whatever you want all the time.

434
00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:47,399
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.

435
00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:50,280
Speaker 2: As she gets older, she starts to struggle with her identity.

436
00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:54,840
Speaker 2: She's always been appreciated primarily for her beauty, and now

437
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:57,760
Speaker 2: that it's starting to fade, you know, through her eyes.

438
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 2: She starts to get cosmetic proceed and in fact she

439
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,680
Speaker 2: dictates to the surgeon how she thinks the procedure should

440
00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,040
Speaker 2: be done, and she ends up making plastic surgery. She

441
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 2: advances it by being like, you should do the incision here,

442
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:13,680
Speaker 2: you should do the incision here. Here's where you should

443
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 2: hide this, Here's where you should enhance this. And she

444
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:20,080
Speaker 2: actually looks amazing even after she's gotten some work done.

445
00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:23,720
Speaker 2: I mean, she looks, in today's standards, incredible. But of

446
00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:27,600
Speaker 2: course this press is still relentless, still photographs her every

447
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:30,200
Speaker 2: time she leaves the house. It's kind of just worst

448
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 2: case scenario. All the bad stories you hear from back

449
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:37,040
Speaker 2: then happens to her, and she becomes reclusive, and she

450
00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:39,000
Speaker 2: starts to look less and less like herself the more

451
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,600
Speaker 2: procedure she gets. So in the eighties, when she's in

452
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,680
Speaker 2: her seventies, Hetty struggles more, especially as her money starts

453
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:47,120
Speaker 2: to run out, but she returns to thinking about her

454
00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:51,119
Speaker 2: original frequency hopping patent, and she's pretty sure it's been used,

455
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:55,679
Speaker 2: and so if you use the patent, you have to

456
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:58,080
Speaker 2: pay for it. Yeah, that's kind of the understanding when

457
00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:01,040
Speaker 2: you file the patent. That's something about, Yeah, if the

458
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:03,199
Speaker 2: US government uses it, they have to pay you for it.

459
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,119
Speaker 2: And she knows that by the sixties, during the Cuban

460
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:09,399
Speaker 2: Missile Crisis, the Navy had been using frequency hopping, so

461
00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 2: this would mean that they had used it before her patent.

462
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,200
Speaker 2: It had expired in nineteen fifty nine, but she expects

463
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:18,320
Speaker 2: that they had used it before, which would mean it

464
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,879
Speaker 2: hadn't expired yet, and so she is owed money. So

465
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety, when Hetty's seventy five, a reporter named

466
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,639
Speaker 2: Fleming Meeks, who works at Forbes at the time, is

467
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:30,639
Speaker 2: talking with his father, who's an astrophysicist at MIT, and

468
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,440
Speaker 2: his father tells him he had just learned something interesting

469
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,119
Speaker 2: from a colleague that actress Henny Lamar had been a

470
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:40,960
Speaker 2: brilliant and prolific inventor. So Fleming the journalist is hooked

471
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 2: on this idea and he tracks Hetty down. He coaxes

472
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,119
Speaker 2: her out of her shell by sending her a bouquet

473
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,120
Speaker 2: of roses. He kind of sweet talks her and then

474
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,159
Speaker 2: gets this long interview with her on tape which you

475
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,919
Speaker 2: can hear in the documentary, where she talks about all

476
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,200
Speaker 2: of her inventions, her life, all the incredible things she's

477
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 2: been through, how she feels about them, and she talks

478
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:04,040
Speaker 2: about her suspicions that the Navy had used her patent.

479
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 2: So the article runs that year and it's the first

480
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,760
Speaker 2: time the public ever finds out about Hedge Lamar's inventions.

481
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:12,960
Speaker 2: You know, she had been keeping it to herself. Over

482
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,919
Speaker 2: the course of the nineties and into two thousands, frequency

483
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 2: hopping is being used for an explosion of technologies that

484
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,400
Speaker 2: we now use all the time. GPS is a big one,

485
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,919
Speaker 2: Wi Fi, Bluetooth. Hetty's idea is at the foundation of

486
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 2: this technology. Do we have a photo of the plans?

487
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:31,640
Speaker 2: Because I know Karen loves scientist.

488
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:33,159
Speaker 1: There you go, oh, I love a blueprint.

489
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 2: Here's a blueprint. What you will?

490
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: This is her just like as she's filming and then

491
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:42,119
Speaker 1: in her dressing room, she's like, just some thoughts. What

492
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: a genius you know?

493
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:45,840
Speaker 2: And that's just one of very many. So our most

494
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:49,719
Speaker 2: secure military communications are done with a satellite system that

495
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:53,960
Speaker 2: was built using Hetty's patent, though the patent had long expired.

496
00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety seven, the Navy, Millstar, which is a

497
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:03,359
Speaker 2: satellite communications company, and Lockheed Martin want to present Hetty

498
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:07,119
Speaker 2: with an award for all her work, but she declines.

499
00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 2: Appearing at the ceremony. She's kind of a recluse and

500
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 2: won't leave her house, and so her son accepts the

501
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:16,119
Speaker 2: award for her, and she says, quote, I am happy

502
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:19,199
Speaker 2: that this invention has been so successful. I appreciate your

503
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:21,560
Speaker 2: acknowledgment of you honoring me, and it was not done

504
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,159
Speaker 2: in vain. Thank you end quote, so it's kind of

505
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:28,159
Speaker 2: all she gets. Hetty dies peacefully in the year two thousand,

506
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 2: at the age of eighty five, without ever knowing for

507
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 2: sure if her patent had been used before it expired.

508
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:38,600
Speaker 2: Had It's only after that a military contractor says that

509
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:42,479
Speaker 2: he was handed Hetty's patent by a Navy official in

510
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:45,720
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty five and asked to see if it was

511
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 2: good for anything, so he didn't know it was her patent.

512
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,199
Speaker 2: This was four years before the patent had expired. So

513
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:54,920
Speaker 2: just like she had thought it had been used, he

514
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 2: used it actually to create something called a Sonobuoie. You

515
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 2: know what that is. It's a booy that communicates securely

516
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:04,960
Speaker 2: with aircraft. Sure, it's just it was used. Yea. He

517
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 2: had been unaware of the patent implications or that Hetty

518
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 2: had not been paid, and only comes to light when

519
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:13,920
Speaker 2: he creates a website explicitly thanking Hetty Lamar for her

520
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 2: inventions and says, without you and this invention, we would

521
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 2: have never been able to create that initial secure communication system.

522
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 1: Wow. So she was right all along, confirmed from the inside.

523
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:27,879
Speaker 2: That's right. So that is the story of Hetty Lamar,

524
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:30,679
Speaker 2: who was a great beauty of course, but also more

525
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 2: importantly an innovator and an inventor.

526
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:39,960
Speaker 1: Wow. I love that. That's incredible. So this story begins

527
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:44,200
Speaker 1: on September nineteenth, nineteen seventy three. A twenty nine year

528
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 1: old Southern California woman sits alone in the Astrodome's nosebleed section.

529
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 1: She's here to study the building because tomorrow she'll be competing.

530
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: She's looking at the incredibly high ceilings, the intense lighting,

531
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 1: and she tries to imagine the booming sound of the

532
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 1: packed house that will be there the next day. Ben

533
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 1: she looks down toward the floor level and sees herself

534
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 1: facing off with her competitor in front of millions of people,

535
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: knowing that this isn't an ordinary match. Everything is actually

536
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,640
Speaker 1: on the line. This is the story of the cultural

537
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: moment when legendary athlete, feminist, and LGBTQ plus icon Billy

538
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 1: Jean King wins the Battle of the Sex's tennis match. Hell, yeah,

539
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:27,199
Speaker 1: do you know about this?

540
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 2: No? I know the story not very well. Okay, I'm excited.

541
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:31,880
Speaker 2: Let me get to the details.

542
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:34,239
Speaker 1: Okay. So the sources used in the show today are

543
00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 1: Billy Jean King's autobiography it's called All In, and her

544
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 1: website billyjenking dot com. We went to the source, got it,

545
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 1: But there are other ones and they're in our show notes.

546
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,960
Speaker 1: So Billy Jean Moffatt, which is her maiden name, is

547
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,200
Speaker 1: born in Long Beach, California, in nineteen forty three, and

548
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 1: as she grows up, she discovers her love for sports

549
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: like softball and basketball, but she doesn't pick up tennis

550
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,639
Speaker 1: until she's a preteen, when her friend sus and asks

551
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:02,520
Speaker 1: if she wants to come with her for a lesson

552
00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:05,719
Speaker 1: at Long Beaches Virginia Country Club. Did you know there

553
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,640
Speaker 1: are country clubs down in Long Beach? No? I didn't either,

554
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,840
Speaker 1: So her friend and their family are members. Billy Jean

555
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:15,160
Speaker 1: is not a member of this or any other country club.

556
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 1: Her family self described blue collar family. Her dad's fireman,

557
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,480
Speaker 1: her mom is a homemaker. So tennis is basically a

558
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 1: sport that she's just not been exposed to. It's basically

559
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 1: at this time for the elite, so the secret, secret sport.

560
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:33,760
Speaker 1: And according to her for this first lesson, Billy Jeane

561
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 1: is not good at tennis, but something clicks inside her

562
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: and later on she's going to write quote, I like

563
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 1: the variety and mental challenge. I liked being able to

564
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: hit the ball over and over. Tennis fascinated me from

565
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: the first day I played with Susan using a borrowed

566
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:50,719
Speaker 1: racket end quote. So she is obviously as a natural

567
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: aptitude for the game. She's very competitive, she's always working

568
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:58,160
Speaker 1: to improve, and because of this she starts to win

569
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 1: a lot. But it is nineteen fifty five, so even

570
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 1: though Billy Jean is proving herself on the court, she's

571
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: treated very differently than the young male athletes that she

572
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,600
Speaker 1: competes around. When she's just twelve years old, she goes

573
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: to the exclusive Los Angeles Tennis Club Have you ever

574
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:17,679
Speaker 1: been there either? And she's wearing a pair of shorts

575
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: her mother made for her, and she's told those shorts

576
00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 1: are in violation of the club's dress code for girls

577
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 1: and women, which requires them to wear either a tennis

578
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: dress or a tennis skirt. Gross. So then later, when

579
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 1: the other tennis players gather for a group photo, she

580
00:28:35,119 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: is excluded from that photo. Another time, also at the

581
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Tennis Club, they have lunch arranged for the

582
00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: top ranked players, which Billy Jean should be involved with.

583
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: But it's just for the boys. So Billy Jean and

584
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:52,200
Speaker 1: her mom eat bag lunches outside on a bench. Oh yeah,

585
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 1: but wherever Billy Jean plays tennis, sexism and double standards follow.

586
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: One of her teachers dos points off of her grades because,

587
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 1: as they say, quote, Billy Gene occasionally takes advantage of

588
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 1: her superior ability during recess tennis games.

589
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:11,280
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Yeah, she's upsetting boys by being too good.

590
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:12,800
Speaker 1: At Yeah, they get real upset.

591
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:14,120
Speaker 2: Oh about the sports.

592
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 1: She will later write about it, saying quote pursuing your

593
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: goals as a girl or a woman often meant being

594
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: pricked and dogged by slights like that, and so she

595
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: had to get used to it from a very young age.

596
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: But as she enters her teen she's becoming aware of

597
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 1: how other people are completely shut out of certain spaces,

598
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,479
Speaker 1: like the many tournaments that she competes in that are

599
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:39,840
Speaker 1: hosted at whites only country clubs. She writes in her autobiography, quote,

600
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 1: I wondered how the people of color around me felt

601
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 1: when I was young. I'd seen photos of how the

602
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: Little Rock nine students had to walk past an angry

603
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 1: white mob to desegregate their Arkansas school in nineteen fifty seven,

604
00:29:51,440 --> 00:29:53,960
Speaker 1: or how six year old Ruby Bridges still had to

605
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 1: be escorted daily by four federal marshals to attend classes

606
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 1: at her previously all white New Orleans school. I knew

607
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 1: the stories of how ALTHEA. Gibson and Jackie Robinson broke

608
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: the color barriers in their respective sports, tennis and baseball.

609
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 1: End quote. So growing up with this backdrop of the

610
00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: civil rights movement, it imprints a huge sense of justice

611
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 1: on Billy jan King. She will write, quote, even if

612
00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: you're not a born activist life can damn sure make

613
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,719
Speaker 1: you one. Wow. The older I got, the more I

614
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 1: aspired to There wasn't just unrest in the world around us.

615
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 1: There was a storm gathering inside of me. End quote.

616
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,120
Speaker 1: I totally remember this culturally, even though I was three

617
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 1: years old when it happened, so it's too young, but

618
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,120
Speaker 1: I think it kind of lived on for at least

619
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 1: the next decade, but I seem to remember like the

620
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 1: vibe of it. Ultimately, Billy Jing King, as she began

621
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 1: to fight for women's rights, had to fight publicly against

622
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: really chauvinistic men about.

623
00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:56,400
Speaker 2: Those right, not just fighting it in tennis, it's you're

624
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 2: fighting the entire world society.

625
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:01,640
Speaker 1: You're like, yeah, you become the face of a fight

626
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:04,360
Speaker 1: like that, which is a lot of pressure. Billy Jean

627
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: graduates high school in nineteen sixty one, and just weeks later,

628
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,640
Speaker 1: at seventeen years old, she and nineteen year old Karen

629
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:14,360
Speaker 1: Haunts when the women's doubles at Wimbledon, and they are

630
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 1: the youngest who ever do it, and they still are

631
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 1: to this day.

632
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 2: Holy shit, Yeah, seventeen.

633
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: Seventeen and nineteen, they just go in and like destroy

634
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: with this win. Billy begins to shoot up the ranks

635
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 1: of competitive tennis. She becomes the number three player in

636
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,360
Speaker 1: the United States. By nineteen sixty six, when she's just

637
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: twenty three years old, she's the top ranked female tennis

638
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: player in the world. She wins Wimbledon's women's singles for

639
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: the next three years in a row. In nineteen sixty seven,

640
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: she wins what will be the precursor to the US Open,

641
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:49,280
Speaker 1: which are the US Nationals, and the next year she

642
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 1: wins the Australian Open, so she's dominating nice. In between

643
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: all of those gigantic wins, she marries a law student

644
00:31:56,080 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: named Larry King, no relation to Larry King, but if

645
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: this was like a young Larry King, pre suspenders Larry King.

646
00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,280
Speaker 1: So Larry supports Billy Jean's career wholeheartedly. But the tournament's

647
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 1: circuit is tough and it's undeniably discriminatory two women athletes,

648
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:16,440
Speaker 1: most notably Billy Jean and her female peers, are routinely

649
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 1: paid less prize money than their male counterparts. So in

650
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, twenty seven year old Billy Jean makes a move.

651
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:27,920
Speaker 1: She and eight other female tennis players symbolically accept a

652
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 1: one dollar contract to join the Virginia Slims Tour. Wow,

653
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 1: So Virginia Slims, infinamous ladies skinny cigarette right that we

654
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,680
Speaker 1: all know and love, decides to start a tennis tour

655
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: with women only. It's a nineteen cities stop tennis tournament

656
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:46,480
Speaker 1: that travels across the United States, and the cash prizes

657
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 1: for the top athletes are all for just the women. Basically,

658
00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,400
Speaker 1: they just get their own kind of like prize bank

659
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:54,800
Speaker 1: and give it to themselves.

660
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 2: Got it.

661
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: These athletes still plan on playing the marquee tournaments of

662
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 1: the year, like the US Open and Wimbleton, but by

663
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,320
Speaker 1: leaving the traditional tournament circuit, they're putting their careers and

664
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 1: their reputations in this intensely male dominated sports world at stake.

665
00:33:09,120 --> 00:33:10,920
Speaker 2: Well, it makes sense to what They're like, you're not

666
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 2: going to pay us an f We're going to go

667
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:13,520
Speaker 2: somewhere else. We'll get paid.

668
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: See how much money you lose because we're not here anymore.

669
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 1: Right And if you don't think we're that important, we

670
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: only deserve you know, a tenth of the pod, then

671
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: let's see what happens. It's a huge move, and it's

672
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. It can't be kind of underlined

673
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: enough how it was not happening. It had not you know,

674
00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:37,440
Speaker 1: very few other places where women asserting themselves in those situations.

675
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: So now, in addition to playing top notch tennis, these

676
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 1: women have to work basically their asses off promoting the

677
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:47,200
Speaker 1: Virginia Slims Tour, making sure there's butts and seats so

678
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 1: they sell so then they have the big prize tournament

679
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 1: to be competing for. In some cities, Billy Jean and

680
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 1: our fellow athletes hand out free tickets to random pedestrians

681
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 1: on the street, hoping they'll come and watch and basically

682
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: get in interested in women's tennis, and these efforts actually

683
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 1: pay off, with thousands of spectators showing up in every city,

684
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,240
Speaker 1: proving to male stakeholders that there is real public interest

685
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: in women's sports. She must be so proud today watching

686
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:17,760
Speaker 1: season after season these teams take off and these female

687
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,240
Speaker 1: athletes just become more and more in the public eye.

688
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,200
Speaker 1: It's very cool that she's around to see it. All

689
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 1: the while, Billy Jean King continues shattering the norms. In

690
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, she makes history as the first female tennis

691
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:32,360
Speaker 1: player to earn more than one hundred thousand dollars in

692
00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,359
Speaker 1: prize money in a single season. Wow, do you want

693
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 1: to guess how much that isn't today's eight hundred ninety

694
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:40,920
Speaker 1: four thousand, eight hundred and fifty thousand.

695
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:42,919
Speaker 2: I mean, it's over.

696
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 1: You just won, so okay, so nice one, thank you,

697
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:51,239
Speaker 1: but don't celebrate too soon, because the gender pay gap

698
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 1: still exists. Just two years later, Billy Jean wins the

699
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 1: US Open and has paid fifteen thousand dollars less in

700
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:00,440
Speaker 1: prize money than the male winner. But instead of planning,

701
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 1: instead of whining, it just fuels her. She appears before

702
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:09,800
Speaker 1: Congress fighting for the passing of Title nine, which bans

703
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:13,520
Speaker 1: sex based discrimination in schools that receive federal dollars. So

704
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:15,839
Speaker 1: she goes to the root of this discrimination.

705
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:16,400
Speaker 2: Yeah.

706
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:16,719
Speaker 1: I love that.

707
00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 2: It's like not even specific to her and her career

708
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:21,319
Speaker 2: at that point. It's like, here's where it began for me,

709
00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:23,880
Speaker 2: and here's where it begins for so many young girls.

710
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's fucking kick it. Let's get out of the

711
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 1: fucking way.

712
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:28,040
Speaker 2: Yeah.

713
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: And this passes in nineteen seventy two, and it remains

714
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:34,080
Speaker 1: the law of the land today. Although they chip chip

715
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,839
Speaker 1: chip away, they sure do. I didn't know this this

716
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,000
Speaker 1: is so compelling to me. In nineteen seventy three, Billy

717
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 1: Jean King forms the Women's Tennis Association. Wow, so Jay,

718
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,160
Speaker 1: she just gets hurt.

719
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:46,239
Speaker 2: You know what I'm gonna do now?

720
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, She's like, we got to tighten this stuff up.

721
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,759
Speaker 2: I have no excuse for my laziness.

722
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:55,360
Speaker 1: Listen, you do three podcasts a week. It's not easy,

723
00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 1: thank you. It's fishing for that w and you got it.

724
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: Women's Tennis Association is responsible for, among other things, the

725
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:06,319
Speaker 1: fact that women get equal pay at the US Open. Now,

726
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,440
Speaker 1: that was one of the first things that after they

727
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:11,680
Speaker 1: came into the world, they started fighting for that, and

728
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:14,879
Speaker 1: the US Open basically gave in the year that that

729
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 1: discussion started, like basically immediately. And so the US Open

730
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:21,880
Speaker 1: was the first major tournament of any sport to award

731
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,400
Speaker 1: the same prize money to male and female competitors. And

732
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 1: for a time like that, it was a huge trailblazing

733
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 1: victory for the equal rights of women. But you know,

734
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 1: when women are making progress in the world, there's always

735
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:35,359
Speaker 1: going to be an old bowling bag of a man

736
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 1: who's going to cry about it, Isn't there.

737
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:39,279
Speaker 2: An old bowling bag of a man?

738
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 1: And in this story, there is a true villain. A

739
00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 1: lot of people there are theories that this was kind

740
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 1: of pr yes, yes, churned up for press with a

741
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 1: photos we will. But the thing that's funny, I'll show

742
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,400
Speaker 1: you that bowling bag for sure. What's funny about this

743
00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: is that it was such a part of the culture

744
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: of women yet get back into the kitchen type.

745
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:03,239
Speaker 2: Of stutal in man for Mars. Women are from being Yeah, this.

746
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:08,040
Speaker 1: Ex tennis player whose career ended in nineteen thirty nine, Jesus,

747
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 1: a man by the name of Bobby Riggs. He starts

748
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 1: talking about when all of this kind of movement happens.

749
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 1: Anytime that he's like interviewed or talking, he does a

750
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 1: lot of what they call when you play the X

751
00:37:19,680 --> 00:37:23,800
Speaker 1: something games exposition games. What's the word I'm looking for

752
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 1: X games now, exhibition thank you? Exhibition games. Okay, his

753
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: career had basically turned to playing exhibition games. Right, He's

754
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:37,400
Speaker 1: like the Harlem Globetrotters of tess But I don't think

755
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 1: he was good like the Harlem Globetrotters. I mean those

756
00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:42,360
Speaker 1: guys back and rocked. This guy I think was just

757
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,080
Speaker 1: around and had a big mouth, got it and so.

758
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 2: That's all you have to do to be a man

759
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 2: these days and to be successful.

760
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,160
Speaker 1: That's right around these days, have those big day. It's

761
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:55,320
Speaker 1: pretty much how it is. So he just starts just

762
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:59,520
Speaker 1: spouting inflammatory sexist comments about women's tennis and the fight

763
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,560
Speaker 1: for will pay in the sport, right, because she's making progress.

764
00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:03,919
Speaker 2: Shut the fuck up, dude.

765
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:06,480
Speaker 1: His two big ones that he did were he said

766
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,560
Speaker 1: women's tennis quote stinks. You can see some pretty legs,

767
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 1: but it's night and day compared to the men's game. Wow,

768
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:14,520
Speaker 1: it's just very standard.

769
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:14,839
Speaker 2: Yeah.

770
00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 1: Another time he's quoted as saying a women's place is

771
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:20,600
Speaker 1: in the kitchen, in the bedroom, and not necessarily in

772
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: that order.

773
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:22,479
Speaker 2: Gross dude.

774
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 1: Right, let's take a look at Bobby Riggs.

775
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:29,920
Speaker 2: Oh what's he looks like a fucking what's his name,

776
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:31,800
Speaker 2: Austin Powers.

777
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:36,479
Speaker 1: He's absolutely awestin power. Oh, oh my god. I wonder

778
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: if Mike Myers did that on purpose, because it really

779
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:43,560
Speaker 1: is that kind of I really picture it's a characature

780
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: of a man who's like commenting on then you have

781
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 1: to respond simply because you won't stop doing it.

782
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:51,080
Speaker 2: Right, But it's also like you're commenting on women like

783
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:52,320
Speaker 2: you're some kind of prize.

784
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,840
Speaker 1: Dude. It's like the concept of I decide other people's value,

785
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:57,400
Speaker 1: but I don't have to.

786
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,680
Speaker 2: Do anything to make myself appealing in any way.

787
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:04,040
Speaker 1: I stopped playing tennis thirty two years ago, but I'm

788
00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,920
Speaker 1: going to talk about how you shouldn't be playing totally. Okay.

789
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: So he's just fanning the flames of showvidism for attention

790
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:13,320
Speaker 1: and relevance. It's not a hard thing to do. It

791
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:16,640
Speaker 1: never has been, especially as the women's movement is looming

792
00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 1: into the seitgeist and men are very much put out

793
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:22,840
Speaker 1: by this concept of equality. They do not like it,

794
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,759
Speaker 1: never way of what. According to a quote from Billy

795
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:28,920
Speaker 1: Jean in a BBC dot Com article, she says that

796
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,879
Speaker 1: Bobby Riggs followed her around for two years, challenging her

797
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:36,320
Speaker 1: to play against him. Yeah, then he asks her to

798
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 1: play on Mother's Day nineteen seventy three, and in that

799
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:43,160
Speaker 1: offer he refers to her as quote the leading women's

800
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:47,359
Speaker 1: liver of tennis. End quote, Billy Jean says, I'm sorry,

801
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 1: I don't know who you are. No, that's not true. Actually,

802
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 1: Billy Jean King was always super classy. When she talked

803
00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: about Bobby Riggs, she was like, he's a hero of mine.

804
00:39:57,239 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 1: He's one of the greats of tennis. Wow, not in

805
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:02,799
Speaker 1: this you know, when this kind of thing comes up,

806
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,399
Speaker 1: but in general she had always looked up to him

807
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 1: as like a hero of tennis. So it's really gross

808
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:09,880
Speaker 1: some thing.

809
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:11,319
Speaker 2: It just starts harassing her.

810
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:13,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, and kind of being like, oh, you think you're

811
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:15,520
Speaker 1: so big, we'll play against me a man.

812
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 2: He's harassing and stalking her and playing it off like

813
00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:20,920
Speaker 2: it's a game, like a playful flirtation.

814
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,400
Speaker 1: Right. Basically, she just always says no and kind of

815
00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,879
Speaker 1: leave me alone. So he challenges a different top ranked

816
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: female tennis player to this match on Mother's Day in

817
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:34,359
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. That player's name is Margaret Court. She's

818
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 1: considered one of the best to ever play the game,

819
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,000
Speaker 1: but she had just been returning to competitive play after

820
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:43,080
Speaker 1: taking a year off to have a baby. She agrees

821
00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:46,840
Speaker 1: to play Bobby Riggs, not realizing how big of a

822
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:50,840
Speaker 1: spectacle he's planning on making it. So on May thirteenth,

823
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, with thirty five hundred spectators watching courtside

824
00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 1: and another ten million watching from home, Bobby beats Margaret

825
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 1: Court decisively in six' one six'. Two game he plays,

826
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 1: a soft slow type, of tennis and it totally throws

827
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:10,040
Speaker 1: off the way, she plays which is like, hard hitting.

828
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:13,800
Speaker 1: Fast moving this match will become known as The Quote mother's.

829
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,160
Speaker 1: Day massacre but you just got to think of these

830
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: like male sports reporters who were just sitting. There, WAITING

831
00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:22,840
Speaker 1: yeah i would be surprised to learn that there was

832
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 1: any kind of equanimity in. This reporting, absolutely so everybody

833
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:30,759
Speaker 1: watches THIS, on Tv And billy jean, does too and as,

834
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 1: she does she immediately understands what the stakes of this are.

835
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,360
Speaker 1: And were and at a time when female athletes are

836
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,239
Speaker 1: fighting for respect, and recognition not to mention equal pay and,

837
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: equal sponsorships this loss plays right into the hands of

838
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: the naysayers and the performative chauvinists and the people who,

839
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:51,960
Speaker 1: are like we have an excuse not to give. You

840
00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 1: Money So Billy jean king reaches out to The Gloating

841
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 1: bobby riggs, AND says i will. Play you they then

842
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 1: begin to Promote this battle of the sexes tennis. Match

843
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,960
Speaker 1: Relentlessly billy jean is quoted, as, Saying quote i'm taking

844
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,040
Speaker 1: this match. VERY seriously i love TO win i welcome

845
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:12,520
Speaker 1: the responsibility and. The pressure bobby had better, be ready

846
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:16,920
Speaker 1: and according to THAT same, Bbc article bobby turned up

847
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:19,760
Speaker 1: to a practice session wearing a shirt with two circles

848
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,279
Speaker 1: cut out where his nipples were and Joked That Billy

849
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:26,279
Speaker 1: jean king would look better in it. Than. Him ewow the,

850
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,760
Speaker 1: next day in the final, news conference a Direct Speaking

851
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:33,840
Speaker 1: Billy jean king calls him. A Creep bobby riggs asks

852
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 1: her to take. It back she looks him straight in

853
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:40,480
Speaker 1: the eye, and says. Creep stands that is a. Good

854
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 1: comeback so a few, months Later on, september twentieth nineteen,

855
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:47,120
Speaker 1: Seventy Three Billy jean king goes head to Head Against

856
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:51,720
Speaker 1: bobby riggs and it's a. Perfect storm bobby's gloating sexis

857
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:55,279
Speaker 1: blather has now been repeatedly aimed Directly At billy jean

858
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,080
Speaker 1: who's not just a tennis player but a public face

859
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 1: of the, women's movement and this has expanded from a

860
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:04,320
Speaker 1: pop culture tennis match to a referendum on the validity

861
00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:07,200
Speaker 1: of the. Women's movement they name It the battle Of,

862
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 1: the sexes and more than thirty thousand people show up

863
00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:12,080
Speaker 1: At the astrodome to.

864
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 2: Watch It astro is that the one that you see It,

865
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:18,120
Speaker 2: IN Texas, Us, see okay it's Not in la.

866
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 1: A night. It, is yeah.

867
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:27,920
Speaker 2: You're, right WELL look i never. SAID listen i.

868
00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: Did never we can't pretend to be sports fans just

869
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: because we're talking.

870
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 2: About, sports Astrodome The, STAPLES center i, don't know very.

871
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 1: Similar places so thirty thousand people around that area go,

872
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,759
Speaker 1: to watch ninety million watch it. From home holy sh

873
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,040
Speaker 1: it's almost how many people listen to. THIS podcast, i mean,

874
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:50,480
Speaker 1: and again apologies to all ninety million. Of you this

875
00:43:50,719 --> 00:43:53,759
Speaker 1: match sets an all time record for tennis watching and

876
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 1: it's still held to. This day it will be one

877
00:43:56,719 --> 00:43:59,640
Speaker 1: of the most watched sporting events of all. Time, period

878
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:03,960
Speaker 1: yes because it's really kicking up all the vibes of

879
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 1: like early seventies politics essentially about so much more. Than

880
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 1: so they have these. Insane entrances it's almost goes into like. Professional,

881
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 1: Wrestling Wow Billy jean king is carried onto the court

882
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,600
Speaker 1: by shirtless men in one of those beds with four

883
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:22,800
Speaker 1: men at each of amanity, that well there WAS a

884
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 1: pr person, that, said oh you're, a feminist you're not

885
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:27,800
Speaker 1: going to, Do this and, she went what are you

886
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: TALKING about i love, this idea like jumped up. Onto it,

887
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:33,839
Speaker 1: she's like let's play this thing. For, her Meanwhile When

888
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,440
Speaker 1: bobby riggs, comes out he's. Being pulled there's nothing not

889
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 1: problematic about everything about. This thing we can all, assume

890
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:43,400
Speaker 1: that but just to, state it he's being pulled on

891
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 1: a rickshaw by WOMEN in t shirts that Bear The

892
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:51,359
Speaker 1: Sugar daddy. Candy logo and he's got an endorsement Deal

893
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:56,280
Speaker 1: With Sugar daddy. Candy bro so that's a whole candy company,

894
00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:57,160
Speaker 1: that's like we're on the.

895
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:01,279
Speaker 2: Dude's side can you imagine being his kid and, being,

896
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:03,600
Speaker 2: like oh this is. So embarrassing my dad is. So

897
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 2: embarrassing it's.

898
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:06,880
Speaker 1: So goofy but then at the, same time there's just

899
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 1: so many people who, are, like yeah, you know we

900
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 1: need to teach those women. A, Lesson yeah so what's

901
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:16,040
Speaker 1: great is that they meet and they present gifts to.

902
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:18,640
Speaker 1: Each other, you know it's like kind of. Opening salvo

903
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 1: bobby Wearing A sugar daddy Sweatsuit Gives billy jean An

904
00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:27,680
Speaker 1: Oversized sugar. Daddy lollipop And Because bobby riggs has proclaimed

905
00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:29,760
Speaker 1: in the press over and over that he is proud

906
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:32,319
Speaker 1: to be a. Male Chauveness Pig billy jean gives him,

907
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:38,400
Speaker 1: a piglet a, live piglet. And photos let's see them. Being, carried.

908
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:42,160
Speaker 2: Oh he's in, a rickshaw he's in a little.

909
00:45:42,239 --> 00:45:44,719
Speaker 1: Rich on those are the sugar daddy women that are.

910
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:48,160
Speaker 1: Pushing it but Then, here's oh she. Looks incredible is't that?

911
00:45:48,239 --> 00:45:50,480
Speaker 1: The best so she's got more Of a cleopatra. Thing

912
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 1: going but.

913
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:53,280
Speaker 2: Also the woman standing next to her with a fucking.

914
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:55,839
Speaker 2: Tight perm he's got a sign that just says.

915
00:45:56,080 --> 00:45:59,759
Speaker 1: BYE bye i know what kind of time traveler woman? Is,

916
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:03,480
Speaker 1: that seriously because That's A Billie jean. King shirt she's on.

917
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,759
Speaker 1: Her side it's, like bye there's Some go bobby goes in,

918
00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 1: the background because you it's. Like wrestling it's totally wrestling boys. Against,

919
00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:13,600
Speaker 1: girls yeah so it's kind. Of GREAT and i love

920
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:15,920
Speaker 1: that she's such a smart woman and, she's like you

921
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:19,360
Speaker 1: can't cast me as the Serious. Ballbusting friday that's not What,

922
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:20,840
Speaker 1: THIS yeah i get what.

923
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 2: This is she's like being playful, about, it yeah which

924
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 2: is a great way to like make an inroad and show.

925
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 1: You're, smart yeah here's, a piglet. Go, Away, yeah now

926
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 1: you have to take care of. A. Pig okay the

927
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:36,720
Speaker 1: enormous social and psychological weight of this cultural event lands

928
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,120
Speaker 1: Squarely On billy jean's shoulders as the, game begins so

929
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 1: she does falter a little Bit like bobby. Scores First

930
00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:46,840
Speaker 1: Then billy jean hits a ball out, of bounds so.

931
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: She stops she gives herself a, pep talk and she

932
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:53,839
Speaker 1: basically pulls out her. A game she will later write

933
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:57,919
Speaker 1: quote for all the pre match Hype about, bobby's skills many,

934
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:01,640
Speaker 1: FOLKS forgot i was a versatile shot and a Shrewd, Tactician,

935
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:05,240
Speaker 1: toouck Yeah now i'm trying, different shots seeing. What works

936
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:08,839
Speaker 1: I'm making bobby work for every point and. Hell yeah

937
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 1: so she basically that, same Feeling which i'm sure Happened To,

938
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 1: margaret court came of, like no this, really matters but

939
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:20,320
Speaker 1: instead of like, tightening up she allowed. And perfection, she, allowed,

940
00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:22,759
Speaker 1: like hey he's going to get some, points whatever and

941
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:26,279
Speaker 1: she learned, from it yeah And. Adjusted yeah and then,

942
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 1: she's like WHAT do i need to? Be? Doing not

943
00:47:28,480 --> 00:47:31,239
Speaker 1: HOW do i need to? Be? Defending yeah so in,

944
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:34,080
Speaker 1: the end they play five, full sets which is what

945
00:47:34,239 --> 00:47:36,960
Speaker 1: only men did. Back then women played three and men.

946
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: Played Five billy jean Decisively Blows bobby riggs away in

947
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:46,800
Speaker 1: consecutive sets and wins one hundred thousand dollars. Grand prize that,

948
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: Is incredible she'll, later, SAY quote i thought it would

949
00:47:49,719 --> 00:47:51,640
Speaker 1: set us back fifty YEARS if i didn't win. That

950
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:54,960
Speaker 1: match it would ruin the women's tennis tour and affect

951
00:47:55,080 --> 00:47:57,880
Speaker 1: all women's. Self, ESTEEM god i mean so.

952
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:00,920
Speaker 2: Much pressure she had so much more to lose, than him.

953
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,520
Speaker 1: So much it was just a dumb joke.

954
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:05,880
Speaker 2: To, Him yeah but then for her to realize, halfway

955
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:08,640
Speaker 2: through not even in, the beginning, Like oh i'm actually better?

956
00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:08,839
Speaker 1: Than?

957
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:10,920
Speaker 2: Him what WHY am?

958
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 1: I nervous his last game was in nineteen. Thirty nine

959
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:16,600
Speaker 1: he had to stop playing tennis Because Of World. War

960
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:19,960
Speaker 1: two what a nice what a nice feeling to, be

961
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:22,560
Speaker 1: like oh wait, A, Second yes i've. Got, This yeah

962
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:24,799
Speaker 1: i've got this. Fucking easy i'm not going to put

963
00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:28,080
Speaker 1: the ball places and make that little guy, looks stupid

964
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:30,759
Speaker 1: make that little wig. Come off do you want to

965
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:32,920
Speaker 1: take a look at her Winning this battle of? The?

966
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:34,239
Speaker 1: Sexeses please what?

967
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 2: She did she had a great night, that night.

968
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:40,399
Speaker 1: And there's the astrodome look at how full.

969
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:41,040
Speaker 2: It is it's so.

970
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:44,840
Speaker 1: Crazy crazy oh got to. Be, there yeah time machine fighting.

971
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:47,800
Speaker 1: For girls, oh sorry we're. Mid quote to beat a

972
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,160
Speaker 1: fifty five year old guy was no thrill. For me

973
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 1: the thrill was exposing a lot of new people.

974
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:54,320
Speaker 2: To tennis amazing.

975
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:56,600
Speaker 1: End quote so then she's also just being a. Business

976
00:48:56,640 --> 00:48:59,560
Speaker 1: woman it's, an opportunity a. Big opportunity the fan. For

977
00:48:59,640 --> 00:49:03,600
Speaker 1: around the match introduces countless new people to the previously

978
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:07,800
Speaker 1: elite's only sport. Of tennis it's a major evolution for

979
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:10,759
Speaker 1: women in, sports overall and the power of this win

980
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:15,279
Speaker 1: will persist. FOR decades i, MEAN truly i could not

981
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:18,560
Speaker 1: have been conscious of. This HAPPENING and i absolutely knew

982
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:21,680
Speaker 1: all about this as a. Young girl same AND yeah

983
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:25,239
Speaker 1: i wasn't. Born, yet yeah like. Much, later yeah it

984
00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:28,360
Speaker 1: really set us up for terrible disappointment for the nineties and.

985
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:32,000
Speaker 1: Two Thousands Billy jean king will, later say Quote our

986
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:35,160
Speaker 1: battle Of the sexes match helped to advance the game

987
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 1: of tennis and. Women everywhere. End quote now there are

988
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:42,200
Speaker 1: people out there who try to Say That bobby riggs

989
00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:45,600
Speaker 1: through the match because he needed, the money because he

990
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:49,800
Speaker 1: owed the mafia so much money, with gambling which is

991
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:53,880
Speaker 1: Of Course Billy jan king calls those, rumors ridiculous and they.

992
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:56,200
Speaker 1: Are ridiculous he was a fifty five year old man

993
00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:58,960
Speaker 1: playing a woman at the top of. Her game he

994
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,839
Speaker 1: would later go on to say that he completely, underestimated,

995
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:04,320
Speaker 1: her wow and did not realize how fast. She, was

996
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:10,080
Speaker 1: basically he's just. A fraud but she also talks about

997
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:13,719
Speaker 1: him after, the fact like they. Stayed friends she did

998
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:17,560
Speaker 1: not get got by him. Any way she treated him

999
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 1: like the joke he was treating, her as and they

1000
00:50:20,680 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 1: actually were able to stay friends to the point where

1001
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:26,279
Speaker 1: she talked to him the night before he died and

1002
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:30,000
Speaker 1: he told her he. Loved. Her. Wow yeah so it

1003
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:32,800
Speaker 1: was a private relationship that was very different than the

1004
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 1: results of what the culture kind of reacted to in.

1005
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:36,080
Speaker 1: This game.

1006
00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:37,840
Speaker 2: Got it, THAT'S nice, i know.

1007
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,640
Speaker 1: Isn't it because she's the bigger she gets to be

1008
00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:43,640
Speaker 1: the bigger person because, she's, like yeah destroyed you, so

1009
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 1: wonderful we can. Be Friends Billy jean king's cultural influence

1010
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: is of. Course undeniable she's Won Twelve grand slam. Singles

1011
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:53,920
Speaker 1: titles she's been inducted Into The International tennis Hall, of

1012
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:57,040
Speaker 1: fame she was Awarded The french Legion. Of honor she

1013
00:50:57,160 --> 00:51:00,480
Speaker 1: became the first female commissioner in professional sports after co

1014
00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:04,960
Speaker 1: establishing the Mixed Gender World Team TENNIS, league wow and

1015
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:08,440
Speaker 1: her fight on the tennis court was memorialized on film

1016
00:51:08,640 --> 00:51:11,120
Speaker 1: in the twenty Seventeen movie battle Of, the Sexes Where

1017
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:14,080
Speaker 1: emma stone. Played her and just so, everyone knows if

1018
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:15,719
Speaker 1: you don't know What A grand, slam is that's when

1019
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:18,800
Speaker 1: you Win The, australian Open The, French open wimbledon AND

1020
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:22,360
Speaker 1: The us open all in the. Same, Year jesus so you.

1021
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:26,200
Speaker 1: Go slam that's A Very williams sisters kind of thing. To.

1022
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:29,399
Speaker 1: Do Cool billy jean is also just as well known

1023
00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 1: for her advocacy work FOR the lgbtq plus community and

1024
00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:37,040
Speaker 1: being That It's, pride month that's also one of the

1025
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:40,320
Speaker 1: REASONS that i did. This story she was not a

1026
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:42,560
Speaker 1: lot of people. Know this she was outed by an

1027
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:46,560
Speaker 1: ex lover in the early eighties when nobody. Was out

1028
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:50,319
Speaker 1: the people managing her career at the time begged her

1029
00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:52,920
Speaker 1: to deny that she. Was, gay instead she held a

1030
00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:56,480
Speaker 1: press conference and, confirmed it becoming one of the First

1031
00:51:56,760 --> 00:52:00,160
Speaker 1: famous american athletes to be out as a lesbian that

1032
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:03,319
Speaker 1: is incredible or out. At. All. Yeah yeah and, Since

1033
00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:05,640
Speaker 1: Then Billy jan king has talked at length about how

1034
00:52:05,719 --> 00:52:08,880
Speaker 1: confusing and painful this part of her life. Initially was

1035
00:52:09,360 --> 00:52:12,120
Speaker 1: there was no one. To, follow ye like. VERY few

1036
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 1: i shouldn't say. No one there was some people out

1037
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:17,040
Speaker 1: there in, the culture but in the kind of like

1038
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:17,960
Speaker 1: show business she was.

1039
00:52:18,040 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 2: In totally she was a.

1040
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:23,000
Speaker 1: True trailblazer, once again she, has, Said quote i've always

1041
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:26,440
Speaker 1: thought about. FUTURE generations i promised myself AT twelve i

1042
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:28,319
Speaker 1: would try to be number ONE so i could help

1043
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 1: the world be a. Better place twelve, Years old oh.

1044
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:33,840
Speaker 1: MY god i wanted to be able to influence and do.

1045
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:37,760
Speaker 1: Those things. End quote in two thousand, And Nine President

1046
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:41,480
Speaker 1: barack Obama Presents Billy jan king WITH The Us presidential

1047
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 1: Medal of freedom, and, says quote what we honor are

1048
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:48,239
Speaker 1: not simply Her Twelve grand. Slam titles she did it,

1049
00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:49,640
Speaker 1: twelve Times twelve.

1050
00:52:49,800 --> 00:52:51,319
Speaker 2: Grand, slams, yeah one.

1051
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:54,240
Speaker 1: One hundred and one, doubles titles and sixty seven. Singles

1052
00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 1: titles and then, he said, Pretty Good. Billy jean it's

1053
00:52:57,640 --> 00:52:59,680
Speaker 1: hard to do a Quote From barack obama because he

1054
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:04,399
Speaker 1: likes to do, side commentary it's so sad that he's

1055
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:08,680
Speaker 1: gone from. Our lives we honor what she calls all

1056
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:11,240
Speaker 1: the off the, court stuff what she did to broaden

1057
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:13,720
Speaker 1: the reach of, the game to change how women athletes

1058
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:16,960
Speaker 1: and women everywhere of, you themselves and to give everyone

1059
00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:20,960
Speaker 1: regardless of gender or, sexual orientation including my, two daughters

1060
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:23,800
Speaker 1: a chance, to compete both on the court and. In

1061
00:53:24,040 --> 00:53:27,440
Speaker 1: Life As billy jean, once said we should never ever

1062
00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 1: underestimate the, human spirit nor should We Underestimate Billy jean

1063
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:36,399
Speaker 1: king's spirit. End, quote today eighty two Year Old Billy

1064
00:53:36,480 --> 00:53:40,320
Speaker 1: jean king is among history's most. Iconic athletes as she

1065
00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 1: continues to inspire generations of young people and promote the

1066
00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:47,040
Speaker 1: rights of. People everywhere she's never forgotten the joy that

1067
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:49,920
Speaker 1: she felt playing tennis for the very. First time, she,

1068
00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:54,279
Speaker 1: SAID quote i just love hitting a. Tennis ball it's

1069
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:56,440
Speaker 1: just that's. A book there's NO way i could have

1070
00:53:56,480 --> 00:53:58,600
Speaker 1: gotten through all the pressures on and off the COURT

1071
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:01,720
Speaker 1: if i hadn't. LOVED it i love it. End quote

1072
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:05,480
Speaker 1: and that's the story of The Legendary Billy. Jean king that.

1073
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:08,960
Speaker 2: WAS amazing i LOVE that i got the feeling, that

1074
00:54:09,080 --> 00:54:12,120
Speaker 2: DAY and i wonder if the woman the tennis player

1075
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 2: Who Lost, Margaret, COURT like i wonder if do you

1076
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:17,879
Speaker 2: think they did it on purpose to kind of like hype,

1077
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:19,880
Speaker 2: it up because if it had just been, them first

1078
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:21,120
Speaker 2: it wouldn't have had the hype that.

1079
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:24,680
Speaker 1: It. DID completely, i mean that's. Absolutely possible the fact

1080
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:28,440
Speaker 1: that any. OF this i love the idea that this

1081
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:32,120
Speaker 1: would have been like a let's fight for women's equity, and,

1082
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:35,160
Speaker 1: sports ye or let's fight for, women's tennis or let's

1083
00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:36,719
Speaker 1: get out there and give them a chance to. Prove

1084
00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:39,920
Speaker 1: themselves it just seems so unlikely in like nineteen. Seventy

1085
00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:43,600
Speaker 1: THREE but i think answering this kind, of, like oh

1086
00:54:43,640 --> 00:54:46,320
Speaker 1: you think boys are better, Than girls like it's this

1087
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 1: playground fight that's just been going on for, so long

1088
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:52,520
Speaker 1: and she stepped up and, was like, sounds good let's,

1089
00:54:52,600 --> 00:54:55,839
Speaker 1: do this and then just. Trounced him. Love, it yeah

1090
00:54:56,040 --> 00:54:58,839
Speaker 1: that was such a fun episode of fucking. BADASS women,

1091
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 1: i know all these superstars that we all get to,

1092
00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:04,160
Speaker 1: be there they get to be. Our, heroes yeah.

1093
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:06,880
Speaker 2: Let's let's try to, emulate them, you guys and do

1094
00:55:07,239 --> 00:55:07,719
Speaker 2: stuff for the.

1095
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:11,120
Speaker 1: Greater good let's be perfectly gorgeous in the face and

1096
00:55:11,480 --> 00:55:17,040
Speaker 1: perfectly great at tennis. Sounds great. Hurry up that wraps

1097
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:20,440
Speaker 1: up this special bonus episode Presented. By hyundai thank you

1098
00:55:20,520 --> 00:55:22,480
Speaker 1: so much, for listening and thank You to hundai for

1099
00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:26,080
Speaker 1: making this. Episode possible stay sexy and don't. Get, Murdered,

1100
00:55:26,400 --> 00:55:36,880
Speaker 1: Goodbye elvis do you Want? To cookie this has been

1101
00:55:36,920 --> 00:55:37,440
Speaker 1: an exactly.

1102
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:40,120
Speaker 2: Right production our senior Producer Is molly smith and our

1103
00:55:40,160 --> 00:55:41,160
Speaker 2: associate Producer Is.

1104
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:44,680
Speaker 1: Tessa hughes our Editor Is. Aristotle lascevedo this episode was

1105
00:55:44,760 --> 00:55:48,160
Speaker 1: Mixed By. Leona squalacci our Researchers are mary McGlashan And.

1106
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:51,080
Speaker 1: Ali elkin email your Hometowns To My favorite murder at

1107
00:55:51,160 --> 00:55:53,800
Speaker 1: gmail dot com and follow the Show on Instagram At My.

1108
00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:56,680
Speaker 2: Favorite murder Listen To My favorite murder On the, iHeartRadio

1109
00:55:56,719 --> 00:55:58,799
Speaker 2: App apple podcasts or wherever you get.

1110
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:01,000
Speaker 1: Your podcasts and now you Can Watch My favorite Murder

1111
00:56:01,080 --> 00:56:03,720
Speaker 1: on netflix and when, you're there hit the double thumbs

1112
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:04,560
Speaker 1: up and the remind.

1113
00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:07,120
Speaker 2: Me buttons that's the best way you can support. Our,

1114
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:08,120
Speaker 2: show goodbye