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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Yo, Elizabeth Duttons

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Speaker 1: Zaren Vernet. You got a second, I got a question, Chris.

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Speaker 1: I've been waiting to see you. Yeah, okay, thank god.

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Speaker 1: Do you know what's ridiculous? Yes? I knew you would know. Okay,

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Speaker 1: it's a mashup. It's okay, I take it back. Let

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Speaker 1: me let me read you some of the descriptions and

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Speaker 1: then you can fill in the blanks for me. Oh yay.

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Speaker 1: A tribute to the mastery of crisp spiced curled potato

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Speaker 1: with hints of cayenne and paprika. This innovative blank preserves

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Speaker 1: the distinctive and authentic tasting notes of the traditional blank

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Speaker 1: m potato crispy holds the flavor of blank. Let me

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Speaker 1: give you another one, okay. Honoring the rich tradition of

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Speaker 1: salted potato shapes, this premium blank features a blend of

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Speaker 1: fine kosh or salt and sugar, a subtle homage to

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Speaker 1: the simple perfection of blank. Um. Is it a pair

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Speaker 1: of shoes? No, it's let me just let me just

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Speaker 1: break it to you. It's not pretty. Is it a liquor? Yes?

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, So that's a liquor. I'm close. It's something

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Speaker 1: you drink. Yeah, and it's potato flavor. It's a vodka.

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Speaker 1: So we're on the right track now, Vodka potato flavor

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Speaker 1: or honoring potatoes. So there's two, no, there's two kinds.

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Speaker 1: One is all about the you know, spicy curled potato

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Speaker 1: with cayenne and paprika, and the other one is the

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Speaker 1: salted potatoes shapes salt sugar. So I'm telling you today

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Speaker 1: about Arbie's vodka. What one is arbie curly fry vodka,

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Speaker 1: and then they also have a crinkle fry flavored vodka.

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Speaker 1: Oh god, they don't have like a meat sauce flavored vodka. No,

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Speaker 1: but they have like bloody mary recipes you can and

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Speaker 1: then you shove the fries up in the top, just

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Speaker 1: like as like a little dressing on the top curly hair.

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Speaker 1: What is going on in the boardrooms of these businesses

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Speaker 1: that they're like, look, we got a moment. What happens?

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Speaker 1: They gather around, they're like, check this out. Ridiculous crime

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Speaker 1: is recording again and Elizabeth needs a mashup. Let's get

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Speaker 1: on these guys, and they like take their jackets off

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Speaker 1: and loosen the ties and the gals in the room

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Speaker 1: who are really the bosses, you know, they just like

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Speaker 1: crack their knuckles. They get up to the whiteboard, huh,

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Speaker 1: start scribbling them out, and they're like, Okay, she's gonna

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Speaker 1: love this. God. Yeah, so that makes absolutely no sense.

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Speaker 1: No one will buy this five French Fry vodka eighty proof.

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Speaker 1: Oh perfect, It's all sold out. If you go to

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Speaker 1: Arby's Vodka dot com. The bottles are like they're supposed

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Speaker 1: to be like sixty bucks when they say sold out,

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Speaker 1: do they make like five hundred? And then like that's

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Speaker 1: why do they make any at all? Oh good question, Elizabeth,

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Speaker 1: Like your suspicions, I am very suspicious. Yeah, if you

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Speaker 1: got a second, I do I have one for you? Yes? Okay,

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Speaker 1: this this is right up your alley, right right up

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Speaker 1: my shooter alley at the shooter alley. Jagger Hoover and

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Speaker 1: the FBI and the US Air Force once went to

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Speaker 1: war against one woman. Oh yes, this one woman. She

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Speaker 1: was an aviation pioneer. But she'd run a foul of

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Speaker 1: the decency police because this one woman. Dare dared, Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: to let men and women have fun at a place

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Speaker 1: called the Happy Bottom Riding Club. This is Ridiculous Crime,

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Speaker 1: a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heights and cons.

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Speaker 1: It's always sent murder free and one ridiculous Elizabeth Elizabeth. Today,

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Speaker 1: I got a special one for you. I told you this.

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Speaker 1: I think you're gonna like this lady. She's one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite American legends. Okay, her name Poncho Barnes. Poncho Barnes,

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Speaker 1: that's a great name. Okay. To give you a sense

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Speaker 1: of her, I'm just gonna lay out her life philosophy.

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Speaker 1: She used to say, I thought you'd dig this when

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Speaker 1: you have a chance. She's happy. Oh yeah, that's good.

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Speaker 1: I like that. So you're ready to hear the Ballad

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Speaker 1: of Poncho Barnes. She was born Florence Leontine Low. She

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Speaker 1: came into this world on July twenty second, nineteen oh one. Basically,

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Speaker 1: you know, almost with the New century. She came by

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Speaker 1: her adventurous spirit naturally. Her grandfather was Thaddius S. C.

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Speaker 1: Low in a case you don't know, who was an

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Speaker 1: inventor who specialized in balloons, and he was an aviation pioneer.

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Speaker 1: And you're wondering, how is she an avination pioneer. Great question, Elizabeth.

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Speaker 1: He was the founder of the Army of the Potomac's

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Speaker 1: Balloon Corps, which means he fought for the Union Army

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Speaker 1: under Lincoln, which also means his balloon War affair was

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Speaker 1: the start of American military aviation. Wow, father of right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So her grandfather, Daddiuslowe also inspired her, this young tomboy

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Speaker 1: to dream of her own life among the clouds. So

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Speaker 1: when she's ten years old, he takes her to her

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Speaker 1: first air show. She loves it. Now, you gotta keep

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Speaker 1: in mind the Right brothers had just flown for the

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Speaker 1: first time when she was three years old. Now seven

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Speaker 1: years later, they are aviation pioneers, right. So she sees

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Speaker 1: this and she's like, oh, I gotta be in the sky. Right,

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Speaker 1: But first she's a young tom boy. She's like, I

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Speaker 1: should run away from home. So she runs away from home. Now,

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Speaker 1: she grew up in southern California in a town called

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Speaker 1: sam Marino. So for Pancho Barnes, running away meant grabbing

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Speaker 1: a horse and riding to Tijuana. That sounds great, right. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: She was like, you know, in southern California back when

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Speaker 1: was mostly ranches, exactly orange orchards. So she just, you know,

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Speaker 1: takes off for Tijuana and has a good old time.

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Speaker 1: Her family finally catches up her and they force her

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Speaker 1: back to America. They enroll her in a religious school.

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Speaker 1: How old was she when she about twelve thirteen, so

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Speaker 1: one of many religious schools she goes to. Finally she

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Speaker 1: graduates and she's like, oh, I want to become a veterinarian.

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Speaker 1: And her mother's like, no, no, no, that's not a

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Speaker 1: right profession for a young lady. And she's like, but

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Speaker 1: I really love animals, and she's like, no, no, no no,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna put you in art school. That's a good

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Speaker 1: thing for a lady who's creative in fiery like you.

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Speaker 1: And her grandma's like no, no no, no, no, no art school,

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Speaker 1: no no, no no. We're gonna get her married, like

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Speaker 1: all good wayward girls should be. So they arrange a marriage.

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Speaker 1: At this point, she's nineteen years old. The marriage is

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Speaker 1: to this reverend. It doesn't last long, it doesn't sound

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Speaker 1: like a good match. They were intimate just once on

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Speaker 1: their wedding night. That's it. And eventually a couple years later,

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Speaker 1: her mother passes away, and this kind of sets something

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Speaker 1: loose and poncho. She's like, I gotta get free. You know.

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Speaker 1: It reawakens in her that sense of longing for adventure.

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Speaker 1: She runs off from her husband Rome's America, starts having fairs.

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Speaker 1: She's also a footloose and fancy free young heiress, a

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Speaker 1: tomboy with money to spend because when her mother died

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Speaker 1: she left her about eight million dollars in twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: three dollars. Whoa, So she uses her inheritance to party

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Speaker 1: and enjoy. Yeah, she's twenty three years. I was sorry

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Speaker 1: when she when this first happens, she gets married, she's nineteen.

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Speaker 1: When the mother passes, she's twenty three, so there's nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty four. Yeah right, so yeah, Flapper era total like,

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Speaker 1: you know, the it girl. Clara Bow is the thing,

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Speaker 1: and she, by the way, is a pilot, so you

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Speaker 1: know this is in the air. Right. So she decides,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna go out and keep me

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Speaker 1: some adventure. Now that I got some money, I don't

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Speaker 1: need to work unless she goes to South America, takes

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Speaker 1: a cruise down South America, has a ball, just enjoys

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Speaker 1: herself all the heck. She gets back to America and

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Speaker 1: she's like, you know what, forget this, I'm going back

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Speaker 1: to South America. But this time she's like, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: do things a little bit different. I want to have

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Speaker 1: more adventure than I could last time. I'm ditching the dresses.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go and be, you know, dressed as a man. Huh.

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Speaker 1: So this is how she earned her nickname Poncho. She

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Speaker 1: goes back to South America and she rides on a

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Speaker 1: banana boat and she gets okay, dresses a man exactly.

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Speaker 1: She books passed it down to banana boat. And uh,

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Speaker 1: while she's on banana boat, she discovers it. The true

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Speaker 1: has this little secret that they did not tell her before.

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Speaker 1: She said sale. Turns out they are smuggling guns to

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Speaker 1: the Mexican revolutionaries. Oh well, she gets caught up in

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Speaker 1: the Mexican Revolution. This is the Cristero Revolution, when you

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Speaker 1: had warriors for Christ fighting against thee the Constitution nineteen

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Speaker 1: it must have been much safer for her to travel

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Speaker 1: in men's cloth completely. Yeah, you're right on with that,

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Speaker 1: I know I am. When she gets caught in her

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Speaker 1: men's clothes with all the other revolutionaries, Mexican officials, they

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Speaker 1: take the boat. The guns are seas. The revolutionaries are

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Speaker 1: in prison, which includes Poncho Barnes. So she gets locked

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Speaker 1: up as a revolutionary for about a month and a half.

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Speaker 1: While she's inside, she bonds with this other American who

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Speaker 1: was on the boat as well. His name was Roger

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Speaker 1: Shoot and Rogers Shoot is the helmsman on the but

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Speaker 1: on a boat. No, he's a well off American, you know,

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Speaker 1: rich kid, and he's out there for quote the thrill

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Speaker 1: of it. Interesting. Yeah, he's a Stanford graduate. He's a

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Speaker 1: marine biologist, studies fishery. So he's like a smart cat,

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Speaker 1: you know, well to do footloose, fancy free, just like Poncho.

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Speaker 1: Two of them decide, you know, we need to escape

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Speaker 1: this Mexican prison. So they managed to steal a horse

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Speaker 1: and a burrow and they take off on burrowback and

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Speaker 1: horseball and they head for the American border. But then,

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Speaker 1: you know what, now that we're free and in Mexico,

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Speaker 1: maybe we should kick around for a little bit. So

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Speaker 1: they kick around Mexico. I figure you'd enjoy this. They're

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Speaker 1: eating good food, enjoying all the sites, learning some Spanish.

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Speaker 1: They decide, you know what, we should become lovers. So

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Speaker 1: they become lovers. They spend seven months bouncing around Mexico.

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Speaker 1: At one point they're like, we should probably get back

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Speaker 1: to America. So they're in Mexico City and they decide

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Speaker 1: we'll walk down to Vera Cruz. So they walked down

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Speaker 1: to Ericaus, which is on the Gulf Coast. For those

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Speaker 1: who don't know, it's about a two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: mile overland walk. But they want a book passage. So

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Speaker 1: they're traversing the Mexican countryside. And at this point, she's

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Speaker 1: still known as Florence Leontine. So Flow is like, you know,

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Speaker 1: making a joke about her lover Roger, and she's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: you're hit like that windmill jousting hero don Quixote. And

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Speaker 1: he laughs and he's well educated, so he's like, oh,

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Speaker 1: then that makes you Poncho. She it's a moun props them.

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Speaker 1: She corrects them. She's like, don Quixote's sidekick was Sancho Panza. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and he's like, ah, right, right. He's like, well, no matter,

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Speaker 1: the nickname sticks. They start calling her Poncho, so she

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Speaker 1: becomes Poncho for the rest of her life. That's a

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Speaker 1: great nickname, right, totally. Yeah, I mean it's it's not

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Speaker 1: as good as Dizzy, but it's good. Uh, you see

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Speaker 1: me looking away for the camera. So Florence Leontine Low

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Speaker 1: is now Poncho Barnes, right, Poncho and Roger. They head

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Speaker 1: back to America and leave Mexico behind. They try to

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Speaker 1: go up to the Mississippi, like where the waters are

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Speaker 1: coming out in New Orleans. They make it to New Orleans,

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Speaker 1: they get off the boat, and then they now have

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Speaker 1: to cross America because they're both from California. So they hitchhike,

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Speaker 1: they train hop when there's no vehicle available, they walk.

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Speaker 1: They end up taking another huge trek seventeen hundred miles

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Speaker 1: from New Orleans to California. But these are like trust

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Speaker 1: fund kids in totally, and they're gonna cross the Southwest,

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Speaker 1: which is no easy place. You miss that train, you're

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Speaker 1: stuck in the Arizona desert, right, Yeah, So they're like managing,

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Speaker 1: right exactly. So on this they get back to California,

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Speaker 1: and now the lover's part way, so they both you know,

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Speaker 1: young and impetuous boom. Pancho settles into her life as

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Speaker 1: a rich girl in San Marino. She's got this cousin

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Speaker 1: who's got this new hobby. She's taking flying lessons ponchos like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I'll ride down with you. She sees the plane, she

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Speaker 1: sees the instructors, She's like, I gotta fly too, So

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Speaker 1: she hops in there instant pilot. She just takes to

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Speaker 1: it immediately. So she's you know, she has like this

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Speaker 1: is biplane error right, So right, this is like you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: like when you're imagining like the leather sided, open cockpit,

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Speaker 1: double wings. So this is how she's flying now. These planes,

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Speaker 1: least the one that she learned on, it had just

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Speaker 1: one instrument, like didn't have an instrument panel like an

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Speaker 1: on off switch. Basically, there was an oil gage to

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Speaker 1: let her know how much oil the engine had. That

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Speaker 1: was that's it. That's the only girl. No fuel, no altimeter,

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Speaker 1: no spiedometer, no. So for the altimeter, what she had

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Speaker 1: was you look over the side of the cockpit. That's

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Speaker 1: how high like a string they have that that's kidding.

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Speaker 1: That's how she knows how much a gas there is.

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Speaker 1: There is a string that you dip into the gas

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Speaker 1: and it's I could have built these early planes. If

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Speaker 1: it's wet, there's fuel. If it's dry, try to land exactly,

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Speaker 1: but also the the you know, there's like a horizon

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Speaker 1: gage in a plane. The horizon gage is just a

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Speaker 1: key chain tide. So if it's level, your level, if hey,

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Speaker 1: I want to look out the window. So that's how

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Speaker 1: she learns to fly in this early flying machine. And

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Speaker 1: she absolutely like the long flowing scarf and the level completely,

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Speaker 1: the leather like like helmet, and then the goggles on top,

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Speaker 1: and then the white like flowing scarooy in the back

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Speaker 1: and snoopy in woodstock both yes, you know it. I

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Speaker 1: was there. So it took her only six hours before

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Speaker 1: she could fly solo for the first time. That's like

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Speaker 1: unheard of six hours. And she's like, I'm good to go.

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Speaker 1: She's like hey, hey, And so she earns her pilot's

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Speaker 1: license pretty quickly. She was so early in aviation history

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Speaker 1: that Orville Wright signed her pilot's license. No, No, that's

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Speaker 1: like a joke, like exactly, like what you're doing the

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Speaker 1: dozens like your mom's So she got rrible right on exactly.

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Speaker 1: So now she's a pilot, she's got horrible rights in

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Speaker 1: premature on her license. She's like, I need a plane.

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Speaker 1: So what does she do? Well, she's rich, so she

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Speaker 1: goes and buys herself a nice biplane. She buys the

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Speaker 1: travel Air speed Wing, which is like a real cutting

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Speaker 1: edge plane. Can people walk on the wing? Yeah? They could. Actually,

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Speaker 1: it's that type of plane. So this one was owned

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Speaker 1: by Howard Hawks, the film director of Screwball Comedies like

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Speaker 1: Bringing a Baby. Oh really okay, So it's like a

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Speaker 1: you know, it's a well maintained plane, but it's still

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Speaker 1: pretty experimental, right, So the first time she flies it,

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Speaker 1: she sides, I don't want to fly it across country.

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Speaker 1: So she tries flying it. The first time. She has

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Speaker 1: to set it down eight times for emergency landings, eight times,

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Speaker 1: almost gonna tootle up to a pebble beach exactly. She's like, not,

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Speaker 1: I'll make it up bouncing down again. So she's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, pretty good at flying. None of this is

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Speaker 1: really terribly scary for her. So she starts competing in

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Speaker 1: air races, and she starts doing barnstorming exhibitions. At one

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Speaker 1: point she has Poncho Barnes's Mystery Circus of the Air.

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Speaker 1: Mystery Circus of the Air. That's flying spectacle, that's amazing.

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Speaker 1: She also has the her favorite sunt that she would

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Speaker 1: pull was called the surprise parachute. She would invite a

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Speaker 1: member of the audience to take their first airplane flight.

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Speaker 1: And because she's like, you know, she'd remember herself as

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Speaker 1: a young girl, she'd usually pick a girl. Said she

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Speaker 1: get a girl out on the plane. She strapped the

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Speaker 1: girl into a parachute, so she's the kid would be safe.

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Speaker 1: She'd take them up in the biplane and once they

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Speaker 1: are high enough that everyone can see them and the

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Speaker 1: people look tiny from the ground, she would toss the

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Speaker 1: child out of the plane. No, without telling the child,

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Speaker 1: they're going to be taught out of the plane. Elizabeth,

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Speaker 1: wait and the total surprise is injected from the byplane

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Speaker 1: rang a parachute. The child plummets back to the air surprise.

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Speaker 1: The child doesn't know how to like yank the parachute

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Speaker 1: yard right, So they had like a string attached to

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Speaker 1: the plane that would pull the rip cord from the plane.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god. And it's like if that didn't work,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what's gonna happen. It always worked, so

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Speaker 1: no kids were hurt, and the kid would parachute to Earth.

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Speaker 1: Now I'm not a parent, right, could you imagine someone

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, so it was a different time. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is like far less lutitious exactly, which is interesting

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Speaker 1: because later on her life she sued everybody. Well, yeah, sue,

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Speaker 1: sue you exact, but like, how many times was her

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Speaker 1: life threatened by an angry father or mother? No reports

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Speaker 1: to that that I could find, but I assume that

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Speaker 1: that I didn't make the papers. I don't know. Nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty nine, a couple years later, she's doing the powder

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Speaker 1: Puff Air Derby. This it's a race specifically for female

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Speaker 1: pilots because there's a bunch now female pilots growing because

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Speaker 1: Emilie aarhart Is is blowing everyone's mind. Flying is a

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Speaker 1: gendered event exactly. So she's coming in for a landing

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Speaker 1: at one point and the truck is trying to cross

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Speaker 1: the runway ahead of her planning and the driver misjudges

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Speaker 1: the distance, doesn't realize how fast she's trying to come in.

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Speaker 1: She nails the truck on the runway, totally walks away

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Speaker 1: on scathe, just like, yeah, well you know. It can

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Speaker 1: reinded me of the film The Great Waldo Pepper, which

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Speaker 1: is a Robert Redford film about the flying days, and

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Speaker 1: he has a couple of crashes. I just kept picturing

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Speaker 1: her doing that. The plane's upside down in the grass.

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Speaker 1: She walks away like exactly lucky. So meanwhile, August first,

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, she's flying in her new travel air type

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Speaker 1: our Mystery Ships, the new fastest plane that she can buy.

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Speaker 1: Mystery Ship. Yeah right, great name. So Ponto Barnes officially

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Speaker 1: becomes the fastest woman alive. Yes. Wow. She shatters Amelia

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Speaker 1: Earhart speed record and the record at the time she

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Speaker 1: gets his one hundred and ninety six point one nine

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Speaker 1: miles an hour. Whoa yeah. So about the same time,

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Speaker 1: she becomes friends with aviation Maverick Howard Hughes, friend of

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Speaker 1: the show, right, and Hughes was designing aircraft like unlike

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Speaker 1: anyone else, but she's doing this in like an air

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Speaker 1: GLOPPI well, at this point she's buying nicer and nicer place. No, no,

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Speaker 1: nothing like that. These are all like propeller planes were

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, So you can't even really fly. It's an

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Speaker 1: air gloppy with a big ratchette spinning. She and Howard

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Speaker 1: Hughes have the same love of speed, so he hires

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Speaker 1: her to fly in his movie Be the Hell's Angels. Right, Okay.

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Speaker 1: That so she becomes a stunt pilot in Hollywood, and

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Speaker 1: then she starts a union for pilots called the Associated

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Speaker 1: Motion Picture Pilots, And this is one of the first

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Speaker 1: unions in Hollywood. So you can probably now start to

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Speaker 1: see why she's a personal heroine, total badass, right, okay,

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Speaker 1: So let's take a quick break and then I'll get

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Speaker 1: back into how Poncho Barnes got into a fight with

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Speaker 1: the US Air Force and became friends with Chuck Yeager. Now, Elizabeth, yes, sar,

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Speaker 1: we're back. Oh we are, Yeah, that's us cool. Now.

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Speaker 1: You may have noticed when I was talking before that

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Speaker 1: we were bouncing around in the early days of aviation. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I noticed that. I thought, you once, you're pretty quick,

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Speaker 1: and you you've heard some iconic names, Howard Hughes, a

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Speaker 1: millionaire heart. So we are kind of sidestepping the fact

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Speaker 1: that in nineteen thirty there is another major social trend

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Speaker 1: other than aviation shaping lives nineteen thirty. Yeah, the Great Depression. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so yeah, exactly, the Great In nineteen twenty nine stock

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Speaker 1: market crash and kicks off the Great Depression. Pancho Barns

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Speaker 1: and Heiress, you'd think Oh, she's somewhat buffeted from all

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Speaker 1: of the undulations of the stock market. But she isn't

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Speaker 1: immune to the Great Depression. Pretty much, no one was

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Speaker 1: unless they're super wealthy. So in early nineteen thirties, she

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Speaker 1: has to rent out her family estate in San Marino.

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Speaker 1: Later on, this is the family home she grew up

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Speaker 1: in where she had horses that she ride in Tijuana. Right,

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Speaker 1: So the depression drags on. She then has to sell

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Speaker 1: the family estate. She leaves her life in Hollywood behind,

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Speaker 1: and she leaves all of her hard partying, high flying days,

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Speaker 1: and she moves out to the desert. Huh. She buys

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Speaker 1: herself a four room ranch house. It's located in a

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Speaker 1: super rural area known as the Antelope Valley to Antelope

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Speaker 1: Valley Okay, yeah, yeah, high desert if you take the

355
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Speaker 1: five out of La Yeah. Okay, So it's east of

356
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Speaker 1: La it's in the mountains. It's on this high desert plain.

357
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Speaker 1: And she buys this, and surrounding her is this one

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty acre alfalfa farm. And meanwhile her neighbors

359
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:08,520
Speaker 1: are this place called Muroc Dry Lake. Murroc Dry Lake.

360
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Speaker 1: It's a huge expanse of land unsuitable for farming or

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Speaker 1: anything else. It's pretty much just a dry riverbed, all dusty,

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Speaker 1: brooke and earth. But it's the home of the young

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Speaker 1: Army Air Corps. They use the dry lake to as

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Speaker 1: a testing ground for plane pilots. Yeah, the training camp

365
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Speaker 1: would one day grow and spread and become Edwards Air

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Speaker 1: Force Base. No way, Okay, it starts back then. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was putting the map in my head right now, right,

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Speaker 1: So Ponto Barn she's sets up shop next to Murroc

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Speaker 1: Dry Lake Training Camp. Being a pilot aviation pioneer herself,

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Speaker 1: she becomes fast friends with all the pilots and officers.

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Speaker 1: Soon enough she's like opened it up her place for

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Speaker 1: pilots to come and drink and eat and relax. There's

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Speaker 1: not really plenty places to go, and they're all really

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Speaker 1: enjoying the wildflowers in the spring, which is Antelope Valley

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Speaker 1: super booms. Yes, So the government signs contracts with her

376
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Speaker 1: and they have her supply the Army Air car with

377
00:19:57,119 --> 00:19:59,920
Speaker 1: not only pilots and planes that she recommends and instructor

378
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:02,320
Speaker 1: that she knows, but also to sell them hog meat

379
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Speaker 1: and milk. So she gets the trash from the base

380
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:06,639
Speaker 1: she feeds it to the pigs and then sells the

381
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:08,399
Speaker 1: pigs back to the base. Hey, it's the circle of

382
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,440
Speaker 1: lights exactly. So by the end of the decade the depression,

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00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,200
Speaker 1: it's nineteen thirty nine. Ponto Barnes has created quite a

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Speaker 1: spread for herself. She's managed her way through the depression.

385
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:19,359
Speaker 1: She's now named the place Rancho autroo Verde, which, for

386
00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:22,120
Speaker 1: those who don't speak Spanish means green gold ranch. So

387
00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,119
Speaker 1: World War two probably a reference to the poppies and

388
00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:30,000
Speaker 1: the wildfli exactly, and the alfalfa. Well. World War two

389
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:32,480
Speaker 1: kicks off in nineteen thirty nine. Two years later, the

390
00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:35,800
Speaker 1: US enters the fight after Pearl Harbor. Poncho Barnes's business

391
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:38,760
Speaker 1: is now a booming as the military ramps up its operations.

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Speaker 1: That same year, in nineteen forty one, Ponto Barnes enlarges

393
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Speaker 1: her ranch. So now she adds a swimming pool. She

394
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:46,920
Speaker 1: adds a fish pond that shaped like the new Air

395
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:48,920
Speaker 1: Force emblem, because the Air Force is now the US

396
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:51,760
Speaker 1: the Army Air Force, so they become the Air Force

397
00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:53,840
Speaker 1: on their own. Because she makes it like that laurel

398
00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:55,439
Speaker 1: wreath that they have, She's like, oh, I'll make a

399
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,560
Speaker 1: pool like that. Yes, so she also she creates a

400
00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:02,560
Speaker 1: private hangar plane for fan totally. She's like people who

401
00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,760
Speaker 1: love an NFL team and everything in the for the

402
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,679
Speaker 1: pool in the backyard. So she also has a private

403
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:11,919
Speaker 1: hanger because she's stole pilot, so she has planes being

404
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:14,560
Speaker 1: able to land. She has two airstrips, and she puts

405
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:16,800
Speaker 1: in a race track. Oh why not because you wants

406
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,760
Speaker 1: to get Hollywood people who come out speed exact, you

407
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,520
Speaker 1: get it. That's why she's my girl, right the drum

408
00:21:22,560 --> 00:21:24,879
Speaker 1: up business. She starts advertising in the LA paper. She

409
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:28,560
Speaker 1: claims that she has a quote modern flying dude ranch. Right,

410
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,359
Speaker 1: So it's the perfect place for the famous and the

411
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:32,400
Speaker 1: wealthy to come and kick up their heels and get

412
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,760
Speaker 1: away from it all. For forty nine dollars a week,

413
00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:36,680
Speaker 1: she'll give you food, board and all the fun you

414
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:39,720
Speaker 1: can manage. That. That's such like an old Hollywood. This

415
00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:42,679
Speaker 1: is a perfect time. Total. Yeah, I love I Just

416
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:44,679
Speaker 1: if I could go to a place like this, Oh

417
00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,880
Speaker 1: you know how much I would spend exactly? You would

418
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,000
Speaker 1: be holed up in there? Oh my god. Yes. Anyway,

419
00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:52,280
Speaker 1: so the Hollywood crowd begins to wing out to Poncho

420
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:54,639
Speaker 1: Barnes is modern flying dude ranch. They mix with the

421
00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 1: pilots and the clientele. They all love each other. The

422
00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:00,160
Speaker 1: pilots like the stars, the stars like the pilot. It's

423
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 1: a fusion of both of her world. So now she

424
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:05,560
Speaker 1: can talk planes and plane crashes. She can spill gossip

425
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:09,080
Speaker 1: and talk shop. Both crowds are also hard drinkers, so

426
00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:12,359
Speaker 1: everybody's really enjoying themselves. And she becomes this desert legend

427
00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 1: of like all you gotta go out to Poncho Barnes's

428
00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:16,959
Speaker 1: place the war ends. And so now Poncho renames her

429
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:21,040
Speaker 1: place Ponchos fly in Like yeah, okay, right, because it's

430
00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 1: super super fly girl. So she upgrades it again. I

431
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:26,920
Speaker 1: thought you want to know this time. She adds riding stables,

432
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:29,760
Speaker 1: she adds motel rooms, she adds a rock fountain to

433
00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,720
Speaker 1: go with the fish pond. Beautiful. She also expands her airport,

434
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,120
Speaker 1: adds a control tower and for her two airstrips. Yeah,

435
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:40,080
Speaker 1: and so the thing is is that she loves horses,

436
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,359
Speaker 1: right yack, I told you that. So she wants to

437
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:44,640
Speaker 1: make it so everybody can ride horses all around the ramp.

438
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:46,280
Speaker 1: But when they get done riding. They shouldn't have to

439
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:48,840
Speaker 1: go back to the paddock, and like in the stables,

440
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:50,840
Speaker 1: She's like, why didn't you just ride right into the pool.

441
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 1: So she creates a ramp so you can ride a

442
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 1: horse ride into the giant pool. What yes? Wait? Was

443
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:01,760
Speaker 1: she in reference in that movie The Right Stuff? Yes? Okay,

444
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:05,800
Speaker 1: totally is the bar where they all go okay, yeah,

445
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,439
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. So nineteen forty seven, the Ranch earns a

446
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,760
Speaker 1: new nickname. A friend of Poncho Barnes is out there.

447
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:12,800
Speaker 1: He's at the ranch taking a horseback ride because she

448
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,000
Speaker 1: loves doing that, in racing across the desert all fast.

449
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 1: When they get back out from the trail, he tells

450
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:18,920
Speaker 1: Poncho He's like, man, I love being back in the

451
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:24,240
Speaker 1: saddle again. It quote gave me a happy bottom. After

452
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,360
Speaker 1: a little teasing of her friends, the name sticks. Pablo

453
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 1: renames her ranch the Happy Bottom Riding Club. Did you

454
00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:33,960
Speaker 1: feel happy in your bottom? Exactly? How happy is your bottom?

455
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: So it made me feel so happy at the same

456
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: time the bottom, my bottom is grinning the same time

457
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,159
Speaker 1: the test pilots stationed out amrock Dry Lake. But I

458
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:52,800
Speaker 1: was sad in my chest? Are you going? I'm just

459
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just working out. You got like a

460
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: mournful elbow. So the pilots of Rock Dry Lake, we're

461
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 1: nineteen forties. Even a big thing happens in nineteen forty seven.

462
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 1: That's not the Roswell air crash, but another big thing

463
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 1: in the air. Do you know what it is? Uh no,

464
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: break the sound barrier? Oh right, this is the right

465
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,560
Speaker 1: different exactly that you were talking about earlier. So this

466
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 1: is super movie. I'm pretending I saw it. I just

467
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:19,640
Speaker 1: you know me. Yeah, it's fuzzy. Yeah, you're younger, pilots,

468
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:23,040
Speaker 1: you're young. It was a different time. So the problem

469
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,119
Speaker 1: of the speed barrier is, you like, the pilots just

470
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:28,600
Speaker 1: couldn't manage to get up to it and break problem.

471
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 1: So it becomes this impenetrable wall in the air. Right,

472
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 1: So the pilots are all trying to do it. They're

473
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:35,399
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to do it. They've got

474
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:37,840
Speaker 1: jets now, so that's the key that Obviously peller won't

475
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: get them fast enough that the jets will, but they

476
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 1: still can't get up to Mock one. They're trying and trying.

477
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,000
Speaker 1: They don't know how to do it. So she she

478
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 1: makes a bet. Pancho Barnes says, I'll give a free

479
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,760
Speaker 1: steak dinner to whichever one of you flyboys manages to

480
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 1: break the speed of sound barrier. Right, So they all

481
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,240
Speaker 1: these young test pilots and future as They're like, oh,

482
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,359
Speaker 1: there's a steak dinner on the line. Okay, now, now

483
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: I'm really going to put my back and so yeah

484
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 1: they do. And there's one young pilot who is a

485
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,200
Speaker 1: favorite of hers. And this dude his name is Chuck Yeager.

486
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 1: So he was a hero of mine as a boy,

487
00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:11,479
Speaker 1: fastest man alive, the first person to break the sound barrier.

488
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 1: I was a little sad to find out later on

489
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 1: that he specifically worked to make sure that there were

490
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 1: no black pilots at at the morocc Try training camp.

491
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:21,840
Speaker 1: There was one, and he made him leave, like yeah,

492
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, Chuck, I used to love

493
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 1: you anyway. So whatever racism in the military in nineteen forties,

494
00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,360
Speaker 1: no great surprise. Yeah, And he's like a good old

495
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 1: boy anyway. So Pacho Barnes has her standing off for

496
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 1: Chuck Yeager. He goes, I'm getting that free steak dinner.

497
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:36,879
Speaker 1: Everyone knows that Chuck Yeager is most likely going to

498
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 1: break it. But they don't know is that He and

499
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:41,160
Speaker 1: Pacho Barnes to go out the night before. The riding

500
00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:42,719
Speaker 1: horse is all fast in the desert because I love

501
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,200
Speaker 1: to go fast. He falls off the horse, breaks his ribs.

502
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: The next days power the next day he has to

503
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 1: go up and fly with broken ribs. Doesn't want anybody

504
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 1: to know he does it. He goes up and he

505
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,720
Speaker 1: breaks the speed of sound with broken ribs. That night

506
00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 1: he goes back to the Happy Bottom Riding Club. They

507
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:03,399
Speaker 1: have an epic party and so begins a tradition that

508
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:05,960
Speaker 1: every time a speed record follows steak dinner at the

509
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 1: Happy Bottom. Okay, so she's digging this because it's all

510
00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:12,439
Speaker 1: like her early days in the aviation and everything's about speed,

511
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 1: you know. She she brokes a million air hearts speed record.

512
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: They all know that. So everybody's just fast, fast, faster,

513
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,120
Speaker 1: and they're just so happy. In nineteen forty seven, the war,

514
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:23,480
Speaker 1: they've they've won the war. Now they're about to be

515
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,760
Speaker 1: able to go into space. And they know this because

516
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: these are they also the young astronauts. She pointed out

517
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:30,920
Speaker 1: with right stuff. So Pancho Barnes then it's like gets

518
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,439
Speaker 1: bored with speed being the new prize. So she's like,

519
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:35,439
Speaker 1: you know, no more steak dinners. I'm gonna come up

520
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:37,640
Speaker 1: with something else. So she comes up with the Booby Prize.

521
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:42,120
Speaker 1: So the Booby Prize is a pilot gets to walk

522
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 1: across a sheet of rubber falsies, like a whole sheet

523
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:50,040
Speaker 1: like fake breasts. Yeah, so it's like I guess, so

524
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: I don't know. She knows somebody in Los Angeles is like,

525
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,680
Speaker 1: I got plenty of fake chesticles for you, and they're

526
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 1: just and they walk on them. They walk on them

527
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: like a like hot coals, and the embarrassed and I

528
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:06,360
Speaker 1: don't know, it's so happy and like I'm so masculing,

529
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 1: and the boobies are touching like weird. Wait I gotta okay,

530
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 1: so wait when the sheets like how many? Why do

531
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: you think it is? Like it does briefly so I

532
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 1: don't know how many. I have no idea. And these

533
00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: were like plastics. These are rubber breasts that you would

534
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: put in like as either replacement or like as for

535
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:28,399
Speaker 1: cup girth, you know, if you want to build up

536
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 1: the cup of the falsees. Okay, So that's what it is.

537
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:33,439
Speaker 1: It was just like a whole little that's what it is.

538
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: That's what it is, Elizabeth. It's just false. What can

539
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: I tell you? And this and this was the what'd

540
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 1: you say? This was the second prize. Ye, this is

541
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 1: the booby prize. So if you don't get a steak dinner,

542
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 1: then you got to walk on talk on the boobies

543
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: on the booby and everyone goes, he all right, all right.

544
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 1: So anyway, the Happy Bottom is now officially a pilot's hangout.

545
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:57,120
Speaker 1: It's just super masculine. Their whining the walls, we want

546
00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 1: to step on boots. Okay, well, I see where you're

547
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,920
Speaker 1: respect go. So they have their decals everywhere. Their propellers

548
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,120
Speaker 1: are decorations. You can kind of imagine it. And there's

549
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 1: also a strong female presence on the floor. And it's

550
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: dude to Poncho Barnes because she hires out. She goes,

551
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,400
Speaker 1: she's a tomboy. She's like, we need some women in here, right,

552
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: So she hires hostesses to take care of the clientele.

553
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,119
Speaker 1: These hostesses would wait tables, they'd serve drinks, they'd entertain

554
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 1: all the pilots and the other Hollywood clientele. She also

555
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 1: had a legal liquor flown in to keep the party going.

556
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 1: So She was like having a liquor flown in from Mexico.

557
00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: And I was all well enjoyed and much like the hostesses,

558
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:35,600
Speaker 1: and but Poncho assisted. It was all on the up

559
00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:37,840
Speaker 1: and up. And I swear she once said, and I quote,

560
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: we're not responsible for the bustling and the hustling that

561
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,360
Speaker 1: may go on here. Lots of people bustle and some hustle,

562
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 1: but that's their business and a very old one. Did

563
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: the hostesses have to wear outfits like sexy penguins. Sexy penguins,

564
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 1: sexy pelicans? Where are you coming up? It was seaking

565
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:01,000
Speaker 1: like birds because in the air sick. See pelicans are

566
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 1: sexy to you, like big gold sexy seagulls. Sey seas

567
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 1: to talk about sexy after this, right, I don't want

568
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:15,160
Speaker 1: to talk about Ponto. Barnes again expands the resort. Things

569
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: are going well. The Booby prizes success. A booby is

570
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: the blue footed booby, So there you go, sexy boobies.

571
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 1: She regularly hires bands and artists from LA to come

572
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: out and play a ranches exactly just like guns and

573
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:36,720
Speaker 1: LA guns and with guns as. She also built a

574
00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 1: stadium for a rodeo, a stadium yes, like not. And

575
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: this isn't something like fly by Night affair. This was

576
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:44,480
Speaker 1: like with three quarter Mexican bulls. I'm talking like a

577
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: real rodeo, real stadium, officially sanctioned rodeo on the circuit. Wow, yeah, exactly. No.

578
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: I should also tell you Elizabeth much like you. She

579
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:58,680
Speaker 1: was a singer of popular standards. Yes, just much like

580
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 1: get me. She wrote a number of songs, she recorded

581
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,720
Speaker 1: a few. She had a hit song called buy Your Side,

582
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:07,640
Speaker 1: which was about her love of the Air Force and

583
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 1: the relationships she wrote. A love song to the Air

584
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 1: Force was about their next door relationship. Exactly. It sold

585
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: a million digits. Yes, your units. She shifted a million

586
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 1: fingers digits, big buckets. People are like, I'll give you

587
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,200
Speaker 1: fifteen fingers for this forty pime how much for the boobies?

588
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:32,959
Speaker 1: So okay, buy your Side? Yes, by your Side. I'm

589
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 1: gonna have to look that up. Yeah, it's a banger.

590
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 1: I learn it. You could probably do it at weddings,

591
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: probably generals, retirement parties. Probably so around the same time.

592
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 1: I just show up and I am dressed as a

593
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,880
Speaker 1: sexy Pelican, and then I lay down my floormat of

594
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 1: prosthetics and then I go and a one and a

595
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 1: two runs for the door, performing next at slots. You

596
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:02,200
Speaker 1: got to perform at Ponto Barnes's wedding. I probably should

597
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: have did I I don't remember a whole lot. Well,

598
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: i'll read it to you. It sounds familiar. Year nineteen

599
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 1: fifty two. Her it's her fourth wedding. None have lasted

600
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:13,760
Speaker 1: very long, and this time she falls for a younger man,

601
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,240
Speaker 1: some one who she hopes can keep up with her.

602
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 1: So her husband. His name is Mac McKendry. He was

603
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:23,239
Speaker 1: thirty two. Thirty two, Yeah, fifty two. Good for her?

604
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: Yeah right. So she gets yourself from young meat and

605
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: then says, let's get married, Chuck yeager, you're going to

606
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 1: be there. He's like, you bet you. So he stands

607
00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: as her wedding attendant, the commanding Officer of Edwards Air

608
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 1: Force based General Boyd. He gives her away six hundred

609
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,520
Speaker 1: and fifty guests chair on Ponto Barns fifty. It's a

610
00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: super short ceremony. It's a Native American Blackfoot ceremony. She

611
00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:46,600
Speaker 1: after the ceremony, she changes out of her wedding dress

612
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 1: and puts on a quote a pair of jodpurs a

613
00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:52,400
Speaker 1: blouse and white cowboy boots. Oh, just a sensible bout.

614
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: The happy couples serve their wedding guests and I quote,

615
00:31:56,160 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 1: four whole roasted pigs, eighty eighty pounds of potatoes salad,

616
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:04,280
Speaker 1: sixteen gallons of jello, and a fifty pound wedding cake.

617
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 1: So wait, pork potato salad and a fifty poundell. Well,

618
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people, but dang, like you show

619
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: up and they're like, just so, Jello has been sitting

620
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:18,560
Speaker 1: out in the sun and Jello. Wow. Well, things are

621
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,680
Speaker 1: going well in fifty two. Everyone is happy. The music

622
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:23,959
Speaker 1: was a bouncing or hits were going The illegal Mexican

623
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: liquors are flowing, the pilots in clientele. Everyone's enjoying themselves, hostesses,

624
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: they're having fun. The booby prizes are being given out right.

625
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: But it should be no surprise to you nor I

626
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 1: that the decency police decided to step in and break

627
00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 1: up all the good times. The issue got there in

628
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 1: the desert. Yeah, the issue wasn't the fight. It wasn't

629
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,840
Speaker 1: like a fight between drunken officers. It wasn't drunk pilots

630
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 1: driving back to the base streaking across the desert in

631
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,680
Speaker 1: their mid century steel sleds. Nope, that's not the issue.

632
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: Wasn't the illegal Mexican liquor being flown over the border.

633
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 1: The issue was the young women, the hostesses. Oh, the

634
00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,600
Speaker 1: sexy Pelican. Yeah, they ain't hurt nobody, but they were

635
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 1: the problem them. So the young women Ponto Barnes had

636
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: hired to play hostesses. They were mostly beautiful, vivacious people,

637
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 1: the kind of women who would like to hang out

638
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 1: with hard drinking, hard charging pilots, Hollywood types selected Crows

639
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 1: and Ponto Barnes. She ran a tight ship. She had

640
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 1: house rules for her the women. They were instructed to quote,

641
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:17,880
Speaker 1: never be vulgar, never to drink too much. In fact,

642
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 1: the full set of house rules was this, never spend

643
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,719
Speaker 1: an undue length of time with any one guest, circulate,

644
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 1: be charming and pleasant to all guests. Don't just go

645
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,720
Speaker 1: for the guy with the wavy hair. Don't be vulgar

646
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 1: at any time. Don't sit on guest laps in public.

647
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 1: Don't go automobile riding or flying without permission. Never are

648
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:39,280
Speaker 1: you allowed to accept money and remuneration For the more

649
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 1: intimate aspects of romance. Oh yes. So one of the

650
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 1: hostess was a woman named Dallas Morley. She eventually became

651
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,720
Speaker 1: the head hostess. She cooked and bartended, and she could

652
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 1: also play a mean hockey talk piano. Nice sound, now,

653
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 1: Dallas Morley one set of Ponto Barnes quote. I got

654
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: along with Poncho because when she'd cuss me out, I'd

655
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: just cuss her right back and she'd laugh. But she

656
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 1: had most of the girls scared to death. Yeah, see

657
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 1: the idea. Like I said, most of these women, they

658
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 1: were vivacious women. Some were like Dallas morally, they had

659
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,280
Speaker 1: strong independence streaks. Many of them were somewhat sexually liberated,

660
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,799
Speaker 1: more sexually liberated than their times. They were sort of

661
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,279
Speaker 1: women like to sunbathe the naked, swim nude in the

662
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: hotel pool when no guests were around. And in the

663
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:23,320
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties this got lips a wagon right, so rumors

664
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 1: were swirling. They took on a life for their own.

665
00:34:25,640 --> 00:34:27,560
Speaker 1: Soon there was talk that the sex that they were

666
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: sex workers, and that Poncho Barnes was the madam of

667
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,799
Speaker 1: this flyboy cat house team. Things a bit private. She

668
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,560
Speaker 1: had restricted access. She had made it a members only club.

669
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: She said no enlisted men could go. Only officers. She

670
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: had nine thousand person membership who had to personally know

671
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: her and she had to vouch for Wow. Yeah. And

672
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,720
Speaker 1: as for the rumors about it being a casual sex resort,

673
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,560
Speaker 1: my morally rigid yet albeit wildly racist Chuck Yeager said,

674
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: Poncho's wasn't a cat house, but it wasn't a church either,

675
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 1: So that gives you a little idea. Despite having the

676
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,960
Speaker 1: reendorsement of respected aviation hero Chuck Yeager and the tacit

677
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,799
Speaker 1: approval of the top brass at the rock Dry Lake

678
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 1: Camp now Edwards Air Force Base, the good times had

679
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:13,840
Speaker 1: to come to an end because that's just what happens

680
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: to a a good time. So why as I told you

681
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 1: the aforementioned decency police decency. Yeah, so after the short break, Elizabeth,

682
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 1: I will tell you how Poncho Barnes went to war

683
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:48,319
Speaker 1: against the US Air Force and their decency pleasing. All right,

684
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: so where are were? We just listen to some really

685
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 1: great ads. Yes they were so good. Huh oh right, No,

686
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 1: Antelope Valley, California, there's that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, super Blooms. Yes,

687
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,920
Speaker 1: we're talking about Poncho Barnes. Yes, Okay, so the trouble

688
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:05,080
Speaker 1: starts for my girl when the whispered rumors about her

689
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:09,399
Speaker 1: hostesses at the Happy Bottom Riding Club turn into an

690
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:12,920
Speaker 1: issue for the young and reputation obsessed air Force. We

691
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: can't have our fly boys doing this right now. Some

692
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:17,280
Speaker 1: say it was just an excuse to get the land

693
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 1: that was underneath Poncho Barnes's resort and private air That

694
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:23,240
Speaker 1: makes sense, right. So there was his cat, General Boyd.

695
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:25,640
Speaker 1: He was the head pauncho of the base. He was

696
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,280
Speaker 1: the one who gave Poncho Barnes away at her wedding. Okay,

697
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,200
Speaker 1: totally tight with her. They would hug and embrace and everything. Right,

698
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 1: he gets replaced by Johnny good Boy. This this the

699
00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:41,680
Speaker 1: General General J. Stanley. It was so excited, was like,

700
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,840
Speaker 1: that's perfect. That's a perfect name for who he is.

701
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: A tall drink of water and his name is Johnny

702
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,799
Speaker 1: good Boy. Hey, General Johnny good Boy here. So General J.

703
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:53,759
Speaker 1: Stanley Holtner, that's no fun Yeah, well exactly. He is

704
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 1: not a fun guy. He is what we in the

705
00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 1: good times industry call a kill joy. So when he

706
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,799
Speaker 1: heard about this bar where hostess has had fun with

707
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 1: his test pilots, he decided someone needs to put a

708
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:08,040
Speaker 1: stop to this, and that's someone is J Stanley hole Toner. Well,

709
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,279
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like it was negatively impacting their performance, No,

710
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,400
Speaker 1: not at all. Nothing. It was, if anything, good for

711
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 1: their performance. She's incentivizing their success with steak Dinners exactly

712
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:20,440
Speaker 1: and Booby Price. And they're they're they're flying like they're stress.

713
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 1: They need to place to unwind the Blacks to be

714
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 1: able to be themselves. Let them be. But he's like,

715
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 1: no fun on my watch, no carousing, no sexy pool time,

716
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 1: none of it. So and since he's military General hole

717
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 1: hole Toner, he can't come down on Pacho Barnes because

718
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 1: she's a private industry, right, So he's got to figure

719
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 1: out an angle. So he waits. There's a fight at

720
00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 1: the bar. So he's like, oh, my pilots, this is

721
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 1: enough for him to step in. He goes, no, pilots,

722
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:48,399
Speaker 1: no military personnel can go to the Happy Bottom Riding Club.

723
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 1: It is off limits for all base personnel. Huh, that's

724
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 1: pretty much gonna be the death sir, Yes, sir, yeah right,

725
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: But this isn't enough for Captain Kildre. He's like, you

726
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,480
Speaker 1: know what I should also call the FBI. So what

727
00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 1: do you call the FBI? Elizabeth? Oh? Is that who's

728
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 1: in charge of that? Good? Right? So he calls f

729
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,719
Speaker 1: JAG and he's like, yoh, but not literally, but he

730
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:11,880
Speaker 1: sends like a like he sends like memos and letters.

731
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,919
Speaker 1: Jaygger gets this. He's like, what the Happy Bottom Riding Club?

732
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,239
Speaker 1: Why don't I know about this? Exactly? So he's all, like,

733
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:20,560
Speaker 1: I got to hear about these sealastious rumors. I love

734
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: selacious rumors to try and get a job as a hostess.

735
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,720
Speaker 1: He Inclinde. There was a memo sad from future Chief

736
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:30,840
Speaker 1: Justice of the Supreme Court Warren Jay Burger to Jayagger Hoover.

737
00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:34,040
Speaker 1: At the time, Burger was the Assistant Attorney General. In

738
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 1: his nineteen fifty three memo to Hoover, Burger writes that

739
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 1: the US Attorney General's Office will initiate a deep and

740
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:42,880
Speaker 1: wide investigation to answer the question of how happy the

741
00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:45,640
Speaker 1: Happy Bottom Riding Club is? Just how happy? And he

742
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: quotes wants to know if miss Barnes was operating a

743
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: disorderly house. So Jagger's like, yeah, get on it and

744
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,839
Speaker 1: give me all the details. So the picture the investigation

745
00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:59,880
Speaker 1: of Pacho Barnes kicks off and now, Elizabeth, I know

746
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,799
Speaker 1: you can imagine what this all leads to. It. Just

747
00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 1: for kicks, I'd like you to close your eyes, yes,

748
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: and picture it. Okay. It's August nineteen fifty three, Murrock

749
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 1: Dry Lake, Annelipe Valley, California, three thirty pm. There's a

750
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 1: wide blue sky above you, a slight breeze from the

751
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 1: northwest on a fresh air break. You've seated yourself outside

752
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:25,240
Speaker 1: the private club just to enjoy the sights and sounds

753
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:27,680
Speaker 1: of the desert vistas. It stretches off into the horizon.

754
00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 1: You've left your job behind in Hollywood. You were making

755
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 1: lifts for short actors and you wanted a new start,

756
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:35,319
Speaker 1: so you headed out to the desert, where you've been

757
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: working as the head hostess at a small private club

758
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:40,279
Speaker 1: and airport. You've only worked at the Happy Bottom Riding

759
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,520
Speaker 1: Club for the last few months, but you're loving the

760
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:44,920
Speaker 1: vibe of this place. You love the women you work with,

761
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:47,520
Speaker 1: and you like the mercurial, hard cuss and hard drinking

762
00:39:47,600 --> 00:39:50,399
Speaker 1: boss Poncho Barnes. For the first time in a long time,

763
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:53,360
Speaker 1: you're happy at work. In the flight tests for the

764
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:55,120
Speaker 1: day are done, so the skies above you right now

765
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,240
Speaker 1: are quiet, but in the distance you spot a cloud

766
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,600
Speaker 1: of dust approaching. It looks like a Ford Sedan. The

767
00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:01,919
Speaker 1: beige car up here's dust covered. Could be a Blue

768
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:04,239
Speaker 1: Sedan for all you know. It's that dust cover. But

769
00:40:04,840 --> 00:40:07,440
Speaker 1: you watch the fifty two FOURD approach. He grows louder

770
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:10,359
Speaker 1: and louder as it grows closer and closer. Finally, sand

771
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 1: an pulls up just outside of the Happy Bottom Riding

772
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 1: Club doors O. Two men in gray flannel suits step out.

773
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:18,320
Speaker 1: They flash badges at you and identify themselves as FBI.

774
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: One of the agents asked the question he knows the

775
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,880
Speaker 1: answer to, He says, is this the Happy Bottom Riding Club.

776
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 1: Now you don't like to be asked a lot of questions,

777
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 1: so you sasd the FBI agent. Of course, No, this

778
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 1: is the pushy Bottom Beach Club, Happy bottoms down the road,

779
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 1: so neither agent laughs. I'm not surprised. These are the

780
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: new IBM punch card agents. These are the humorless agents.

781
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 1: These are gone are the charming and daring spies of

782
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:46,359
Speaker 1: the war years, as if they never really existed. What

783
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 1: you don't know is these are also really good at

784
00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:51,440
Speaker 1: their job. Spies. Nineteen fifty three is a banner year

785
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:55,319
Speaker 1: for the FBI. Jager Hoover has his bureau humming. They

786
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 1: stay busy hunting down fugitives and bagging names on the

787
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: FBI's Most Wanted liss. They've been catching two fugitive a

788
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,879
Speaker 1: month every month this entire year. It's one of their

789
00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:05,640
Speaker 1: record years. They catch twenty four felons this year. It

790
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 1: will be a record that will not be surpassed until

791
00:41:08,440 --> 00:41:12,200
Speaker 1: the social upheaval of nineteen sixty eight. Now, how could

792
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 1: you know that these two gray flannel suit wearing paper

793
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:16,719
Speaker 1: cutouts are good at their job? Why would they look

794
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:19,920
Speaker 1: like a joke to you? You're used to Flyboy, future astronauts,

795
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: aging test pilots. Who are these bozos? Yeah? The FBI

796
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 1: agent tells you we're gonna need to interrogate all the hostesses,

797
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:30,839
Speaker 1: and you're like, on whose authority? You're like, US Constitution,

798
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: But of course you know they mean Jagger Hoover, So

799
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:35,120
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, whatever. You walk back to the hotel

800
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:36,879
Speaker 1: rooms where all the hostess are saying, You're like, look,

801
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:38,719
Speaker 1: the fbis here. They're like, what do you mean? Some

802
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:40,920
Speaker 1: of them they're naked, some are in silk robe, some

803
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:42,719
Speaker 1: are in bathing suits. You're like, girls, you gotta get

804
00:41:42,719 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 1: together yourself together. You gotta come into the bar and

805
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: talk to them stiff bas like, look, it's not a request.

806
00:41:47,239 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: They're here, like okay. So they go in and now

807
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:53,120
Speaker 1: Poncho Barnes, she's gone right now, she's away getting hogs

808
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 1: for a big pig rows. So you're in charge, and

809
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 1: you've learned from the House un American Activities Commission in

810
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,239
Speaker 1: the Red Scared you saw in Hollywood, don't lie to

811
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,120
Speaker 1: the FBI? Right? Do you tell the girls that? And

812
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:04,120
Speaker 1: so then you send them in to go get grilled

813
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 1: by the FBI agents. Want at a time. They go

814
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:08,960
Speaker 1: and sit down the FBI agents and you're watching them agonizing,

815
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,879
Speaker 1: hoping that they're doing okay. Then once they're excused to leave,

816
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 1: you pull them aside and you go, what did they

817
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:14,960
Speaker 1: ask you? Yeah? And then the girls like, oh, they

818
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:16,880
Speaker 1: ask any of these weird questions like what Well, like

819
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: they're like, have you ever been in the white slave trade?

820
00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:25,239
Speaker 1: Slave trade? Spreading? They're like, well, they're like, also, if

821
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,239
Speaker 1: there is there any gambling going on? Is there are

822
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:29,520
Speaker 1: there like Mexicans being flown in and They're like, what

823
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: are you talking about? Yees Mexicans and dope are they

824
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:34,600
Speaker 1: flying that in? People are like, I don't know what

825
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:37,359
Speaker 1: you're talking about. So when they're done, the hostesses are

826
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: barely able to get the place set up in time

827
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:41,640
Speaker 1: for the evening crowd. You secretly are waiting for the

828
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:43,680
Speaker 1: sheriff to show up that night and rescue all and

829
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:45,719
Speaker 1: drag you off the sex workers. They don't come, nor

830
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 1: do his deputies. Despite of all this talk of the

831
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,759
Speaker 1: white slave trade and smuggling Mexicans into the country, the

832
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 1: FBI agents conclude their investigation. They find no evidence of

833
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 1: any crimes. No one will say anything against Poncho Barnes,

834
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:01,480
Speaker 1: so you are free to continue your leisure and happiness

835
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:05,719
Speaker 1: with all your friends. Elizabeth. Yeah, you might think having

836
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:07,759
Speaker 1: a legal tussle with the FBI, well, that couldn't get

837
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:10,360
Speaker 1: any worse than that for Poncho Barnes. And you'd be

838
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 1: wrong because the Air Force is like, that's not damn it.

839
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:16,520
Speaker 1: I sick Jagger Hoover's boys on why didn't that work? Well,

840
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 1: I guess we're gonna have to go one step beyond that,

841
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,920
Speaker 1: So they go up to eminent domain. Yeah, because Poncho

842
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,440
Speaker 1: Barnes has been spinning all of this to her benefit.

843
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,280
Speaker 1: She'd been talking about, you know, let the rumors persist,

844
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:30,839
Speaker 1: she decided. Once the FBI declared I'm fine, She's like, yeah,

845
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:32,840
Speaker 1: let them go tell them we're all sex workers. I

846
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:35,560
Speaker 1: don't care anymore. So, you know, basically like P. T.

847
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:38,399
Speaker 1: Barnum and Kanye West, she decided, Look, there's no such

848
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,640
Speaker 1: thing as bad blab. So now her friend Chuck Yeager,

849
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 1: he used to say, Poncho Barnes quote for rumor enhance

850
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 1: her personality. She didn't dispute it if it didn't have

851
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:48,440
Speaker 1: to be true or not true. But that's the way

852
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:50,840
Speaker 1: Poncho was. She wasn't dumb. She was a very smart

853
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 1: old gal. So now this smart old gal has to

854
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:56,360
Speaker 1: deal with the US Air Force bringing full power that

855
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,440
Speaker 1: they can against her during the Cold War, so they

856
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:02,680
Speaker 1: have all sorts of powers. They use emminite domain cut

857
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:06,759
Speaker 1: to Captain Kiljoy jer Odin rolled Hoole Toner squares up

858
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,000
Speaker 1: for a round two. He decides he's gonna make public

859
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:11,920
Speaker 1: his oh, I mean, the Air Force's plans to seize

860
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:14,640
Speaker 1: all the land underneath the Happy Bottom Riding Club. He

861
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:16,279
Speaker 1: lets it be known that they're gonna put in a

862
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:19,640
Speaker 1: new twenty two mile super runway complex for the a

863
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:22,440
Speaker 1: new atomic powered airplanes the Air Force has on the

864
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:25,120
Speaker 1: drawing board. I'm gonna say that one more time. Atomic

865
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:29,040
Speaker 1: powered airplanes, Elizabeth, Like, automic powered subs are one thing,

866
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:32,640
Speaker 1: but nuclear powered aircraft that's terrified crash. You have an

867
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 1: aerogical disaster, like where that plane crashes. The Air Force

868
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:37,239
Speaker 1: took him a little while. They're like, you know what,

869
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,680
Speaker 1: we're probably not gonna do. Maybe not such a good idea,

870
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:42,520
Speaker 1: but anyway, it doesn't matter. Captain Killjoys like, yeah, runways,

871
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: atomic plane. So he's like shaking this at her, and

872
00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 1: so Pancho Barnes decides, you know what, sue you sue them,

873
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,279
Speaker 1: Sue everybody. She goes after the Air Force, and she

874
00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:53,279
Speaker 1: goes into court to quote roused out the scoundrels and

875
00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:56,440
Speaker 1: the government who could perpetrate such an injustice? Right, she

876
00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 1: sounds like Mark Twain. So she acts as her own attorney.

877
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:01,960
Speaker 1: Never a good move, but it works out for her.

878
00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:06,520
Speaker 1: She's the rare right every single time. Well, the LA

879
00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 1: newspapers they're siding with her. She's given them good press coverage,

880
00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 1: great quotes to fight. It is not brief, it lasts

881
00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:14,759
Speaker 1: a long time. But the people and the papers are

882
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:17,319
Speaker 1: on her side. The Air Force because it's once again

883
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: told the early days of the Cold War, and much

884
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:21,880
Speaker 1: like the FBI, they're pretty much feeling themselves. They just

885
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 1: seize the land anyway, eminent domain. Yeah, and they're like,

886
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 1: you know what we're into, like killing joy, making things

887
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:30,160
Speaker 1: less sexy, no fun. We love that. It's the fifties.

888
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: What do you want from us? You're like, dude, you

889
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:34,640
Speaker 1: want a world war for this? Like what the hell?

890
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:38,040
Speaker 1: But anyway, Poncho Barnes, living spirit of early aviation, reckless

891
00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: and joyful days are pretty much over. She's now fighting

892
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:42,600
Speaker 1: the US Air Force in court all the time. It

893
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:45,279
Speaker 1: gets mad, costly, but she won't give up. She's like

894
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 1: the Happy Bottom Riding Club deserves a fight. So things though,

895
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:53,560
Speaker 1: didn't take a fatal turn, because in November nineteen fifty three,

896
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:56,880
Speaker 1: there's an explosion inside the dance hall. Fire tears to

897
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:59,800
Speaker 1: the resort. It's mostly wood, it's in the desert. Firefighters

898
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:02,720
Speaker 1: can't get there in time. The Happy Bottom Riding Club

899
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,520
Speaker 1: burns to the ground. That is suspicious. There was a

900
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 1: lot of accusations of arson. Sure, I accuse them of

901
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:13,319
Speaker 1: hay duration in the dancery like Mary jay BlimE would not.

902
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 1: But anyway, no one gets got no one gets arrested

903
00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: for the fire. Mary Jabies would also be upset about that, yes,

904
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:22,319
Speaker 1: But Poncho Barnes, you know, as I said, she's like,

905
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:24,440
Speaker 1: this is arson, but there's nothing she can do about that.

906
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: People there who were there that night of the fire, though,

907
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 1: they risked their lives to run in over and over

908
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:36,680
Speaker 1: again to save all the priceless a replaceable memorabilia. You

909
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: love that movie. Back to so Ponto Barnes, she'd kept

910
00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 1: a scrapbook of her life in the clouds. One of

911
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:46,720
Speaker 1: her her friends, like the coworkers, the one of the hostesses.

912
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 1: They managed to get in and get the scrapbook and

913
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:50,839
Speaker 1: save it. So that's like the big thing that she's

914
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:53,520
Speaker 1: most happy about. And in her ongoing battle to save

915
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:55,799
Speaker 1: her land after it's burned down, the Air Force has

916
00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:58,359
Speaker 1: already seized the land underneath it. She then pretty much

917
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,279
Speaker 1: has to go back into court and remind the Air

918
00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:03,560
Speaker 1: Force that her grandfather Thaddius Lowe founded the US Air Force,

919
00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:05,560
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, that's right, she's in the days

920
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:11,200
Speaker 1: like yeah, that's true, he made you, and they're like okay, fine,

921
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:13,720
Speaker 1: and so she wins her legal battle. The Air Force

922
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:15,920
Speaker 1: backs off. They give her four hundred thousand dollars for

923
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,680
Speaker 1: her land, and they also then clear her name, and

924
00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:20,839
Speaker 1: she insists they cleared the names of reputations of all

925
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:23,920
Speaker 1: the women who they've besmirched as hostess, which, yeah, I

926
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: thought you'd like that. Yeah. So the Air Force later

927
00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 1: then scraps its plans for its new super runway complex

928
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 1: and the runways never get built. All that fight for nothing.

929
00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 1: No atomic planes ever hit the air. In her retiring years, though,

930
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:37,560
Speaker 1: Ponto Barnes begins to turn her that scrap book that

931
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 1: was saved into an autobiography, and she also, I thought

932
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,439
Speaker 1: you'd like this, spend her time breeding Yorkshire terriers. Like that,

933
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: She gets back to her animal lover ways full circle,

934
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:48,480
Speaker 1: and in nineteen seventy one, one of her friends, a

935
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:51,560
Speaker 1: former test pilot from the Murrock Dry Lake Days, invites

936
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:54,680
Speaker 1: her to Edwards Air Force Base to celebrate her seventieth birthday.

937
00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:59,720
Speaker 1: That friend was friend of the show buzz Aldron. Oh okay,

938
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: And now each year the Air Force sets aside one

939
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:05,320
Speaker 1: calendar day to celebrate her. Fittingly, it's called Poncho Barnes Day,

940
00:48:05,520 --> 00:48:07,359
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like a small maya culpa from

941
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:09,799
Speaker 1: the Air Force, like, yeah, we totally jacked up on

942
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:11,640
Speaker 1: that one. And it ends up though, in a nice

943
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:13,319
Speaker 1: little turn of events, at the end of the night

944
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 1: there's an adult's only portion of the evening they brought

945
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:19,760
Speaker 1: back to sexy. So Ponto Barnes once said, and I quote,

946
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:22,200
Speaker 1: the most important thing is to be yourself. So don't

947
00:48:22,239 --> 00:48:25,040
Speaker 1: even don't even try to be like someone else, because

948
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 1: we've seen that already. Oh I like that a lot.

949
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:30,680
Speaker 1: So Elizabeth, I got to ask you, since you'll never

950
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:34,000
Speaker 1: ask me, what's our ridiculous takeaway? Here? My ridiculous takeaway

951
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:38,440
Speaker 1: is whatever, you're ridiculous. No. I love the dynamic nature

952
00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:41,560
Speaker 1: of her life, all the different elements of it, but

953
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:44,359
Speaker 1: also the fact that she, you know, went toe to

954
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:47,399
Speaker 1: toe with some serious dude Jagger Hoover, US Air Force,

955
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:52,120
Speaker 1: the Mexican authorities, and the revolution didn't back down exactly. Zaren,

956
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:56,240
Speaker 1: what's your ridiculous takeaway? We said that again, Zaren, what's

957
00:48:56,360 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 1: your ridiculous takace sounds nice? Doesn't sound good? Ever? Heard that,

958
00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:05,520
Speaker 1: thank you for asking. Mine is if someone isn't hurting

959
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:08,239
Speaker 1: anyone and they're just being sexy or whatever they're doing,

960
00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:12,439
Speaker 1: let people be mind your own decency. Don't worry about

961
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:14,960
Speaker 1: my decency. My decency is between me and God and

962
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,560
Speaker 1: the devil or whoever I believe in. But you know, look, look,

963
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 1: some women know some people they want to get naked

964
00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:23,319
Speaker 1: into pool at them. Who cares. We all need all

965
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,200
Speaker 1: the sexy we can get on this planet. We'll think

966
00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:29,840
Speaker 1: about it too. The amount of man hours and money

967
00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:36,839
Speaker 1: and resources spent to fight sexy pool time ridiculous hours.

968
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:38,360
Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of other things you

969
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:41,160
Speaker 1: could be doing. And it's like those pilots needed that.

970
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:42,920
Speaker 1: I mean, not just the sexy it's but all of it.

971
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:44,960
Speaker 1: Being able to cut loose and just be themselves and

972
00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:46,440
Speaker 1: out in the desert. It's not like, oh, we have

973
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:52,080
Speaker 1: to write about any specific subculture exactly, very specific, you know,

974
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 1: lifestyle and mindset for we need to make room for It's.

975
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:58,719
Speaker 1: I always say, if you're gonna make a plan in

976
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:01,120
Speaker 1: the future, you need the a little space for crime

977
00:50:01,400 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 1: because it's going to be there. Yeah, surely you're not

978
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:06,279
Speaker 1: going to get rid of crime. You can talk about

979
00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:08,600
Speaker 1: what crimes occur, you can talk about which crimes you allow,

980
00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:11,680
Speaker 1: but there's going to be somebody who breaks. The question

981
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:16,879
Speaker 1: is just like debauchery, exactly is this really a crime?

982
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:20,200
Speaker 1: Doesn't sound like those women were exploited working there? What

983
00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 1: I can tell? What I could tell, they were all

984
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:25,319
Speaker 1: willingly being there and there wasn't any active prostitution. Now,

985
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: maybe some of them got a little sideways and did

986
00:50:27,160 --> 00:50:29,640
Speaker 1: some hot side picking up handsome fly boys. I don't

987
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:31,800
Speaker 1: blame them. Yeah, the ones with the wavey here, that's right,

988
00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:34,600
Speaker 1: the ones with like they're bald on the top and

989
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:40,719
Speaker 1: just the edges, a very specific one like Ben Franklin.

990
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,239
Speaker 1: He liked air bats, so I could see them. There

991
00:50:45,239 --> 00:50:47,719
Speaker 1: you go. That's all. It's all there, All of the

992
00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: evidence is there. Well, that's all I got for you today, Elizabeth. Well,

993
00:50:51,160 --> 00:50:53,239
Speaker 1: it's pretty good. Thank you. Well, you know, well, you

994
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:55,920
Speaker 1: can find us online Ridiculous Crime on Twitter and Instagram

995
00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 1: if you'd like some more. That's on the bird we

996
00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:00,000
Speaker 1: got the words and on the ground we got the pictures,

997
00:51:00,120 --> 00:51:02,040
Speaker 1: so check them out. And also if you want to

998
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:04,840
Speaker 1: hit us up, you know, we've got these talkbacks you

999
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:07,360
Speaker 1: can do on the iron Heart app. You can email

1000
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:10,160
Speaker 1: us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. You can

1001
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:12,000
Speaker 1: also just shout into the women. You can write a

1002
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:15,479
Speaker 1: fun rap yeah about us and write it on fun

1003
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:22,040
Speaker 1: Rap just a fun wrap that would be amazing. Well,

1004
00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:29,439
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time. Ridiculous Crime

1005
00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:32,200
Speaker 1: is used by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Brunett's produced and

1006
00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:34,719
Speaker 1: edited by the Ratchet Daddy of the Happy Bottom Riding

1007
00:51:34,719 --> 00:51:37,480
Speaker 1: Club Dave cas. Research is by the Fastest Women in

1008
00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:40,520
Speaker 1: Facts Mersa Brown and Andrea Song Sharp and Tier. Our

1009
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:43,680
Speaker 1: theme song is by Thomas travel Air Special Lee and

1010
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:47,959
Speaker 1: Travis type Awe Mystery Ship Dutton Executive producers are Ben

1011
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 1: Buzz Bowland and Noel Neil Brownie See It One More Time,

1012
00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:04,560
Speaker 1: Geeks Crime. Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four

1013
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:08,360
Speaker 1: more podcasts of iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1014
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:10,280
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.