Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Yo, Elizabeth Duttons
Speaker 1: Zaren Vernet. You got a second, I got a question, Chris.
Speaker 1: I've been waiting to see you. Yeah, okay, thank god.
Speaker 1: Do you know what's ridiculous? Yes? I knew you would know. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a mashup. It's okay, I take it back. Let
Speaker 1: me let me read you some of the descriptions and
Speaker 1: then you can fill in the blanks for me. Oh yay.
Speaker 1: A tribute to the mastery of crisp spiced curled potato
Speaker 1: with hints of cayenne and paprika. This innovative blank preserves
Speaker 1: the distinctive and authentic tasting notes of the traditional blank
Speaker 1: m potato crispy holds the flavor of blank. Let me
Speaker 1: give you another one, okay. Honoring the rich tradition of
Speaker 1: salted potato shapes, this premium blank features a blend of
Speaker 1: fine kosh or salt and sugar, a subtle homage to
Speaker 1: the simple perfection of blank. Um. Is it a pair
Speaker 1: of shoes? No, it's let me just let me just
Speaker 1: break it to you. It's not pretty. Is it a liquor? Yes?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, So that's a liquor. I'm close. It's something
Speaker 1: you drink. Yeah, and it's potato flavor. It's a vodka.
Speaker 1: So we're on the right track now, Vodka potato flavor
Speaker 1: or honoring potatoes. So there's two, no, there's two kinds.
Speaker 1: One is all about the you know, spicy curled potato
Speaker 1: with cayenne and paprika, and the other one is the
Speaker 1: salted potatoes shapes salt sugar. So I'm telling you today
Speaker 1: about Arbie's vodka. What one is arbie curly fry vodka,
Speaker 1: and then they also have a crinkle fry flavored vodka.
Speaker 1: Oh god, they don't have like a meat sauce flavored vodka. No,
Speaker 1: but they have like bloody mary recipes you can and
Speaker 1: then you shove the fries up in the top, just
Speaker 1: like as like a little dressing on the top curly hair.
Speaker 1: What is going on in the boardrooms of these businesses
Speaker 1: that they're like, look, we got a moment. What happens?
Speaker 1: They gather around, they're like, check this out. Ridiculous crime
Speaker 1: is recording again and Elizabeth needs a mashup. Let's get
Speaker 1: on these guys, and they like take their jackets off
Speaker 1: and loosen the ties and the gals in the room
Speaker 1: who are really the bosses, you know, they just like
Speaker 1: crack their knuckles. They get up to the whiteboard, huh,
Speaker 1: start scribbling them out, and they're like, Okay, she's gonna
Speaker 1: love this. God. Yeah, so that makes absolutely no sense.
Speaker 1: No one will buy this five French Fry vodka eighty proof.
Speaker 1: Oh perfect, It's all sold out. If you go to
Speaker 1: Arby's Vodka dot com. The bottles are like they're supposed
Speaker 1: to be like sixty bucks when they say sold out,
Speaker 1: do they make like five hundred? And then like that's
Speaker 1: why do they make any at all? Oh good question, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: Like your suspicions, I am very suspicious. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: got a second, I do I have one for you? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: this this is right up your alley, right right up
Speaker 1: my shooter alley at the shooter alley. Jagger Hoover and
Speaker 1: the FBI and the US Air Force once went to
Speaker 1: war against one woman. Oh yes, this one woman. She
Speaker 1: was an aviation pioneer. But she'd run a foul of
Speaker 1: the decency police because this one woman. Dare dared, Elizabeth
Speaker 1: to let men and women have fun at a place
Speaker 1: called the Happy Bottom Riding Club. This is Ridiculous Crime,
Speaker 1: a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heights and cons.
Speaker 1: It's always sent murder free and one ridiculous Elizabeth Elizabeth. Today,
Speaker 1: I got a special one for you. I told you this.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna like this lady. She's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite American legends. Okay, her name Poncho Barnes. Poncho Barnes,
Speaker 1: that's a great name. Okay. To give you a sense
Speaker 1: of her, I'm just gonna lay out her life philosophy.
Speaker 1: She used to say, I thought you'd dig this when
Speaker 1: you have a chance. She's happy. Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1: I like that. So you're ready to hear the Ballad
Speaker 1: of Poncho Barnes. She was born Florence Leontine Low. She
Speaker 1: came into this world on July twenty second, nineteen oh one. Basically,
Speaker 1: you know, almost with the New century. She came by
Speaker 1: her adventurous spirit naturally. Her grandfather was Thaddius S. C.
Speaker 1: Low in a case you don't know, who was an
Speaker 1: inventor who specialized in balloons, and he was an aviation pioneer.
Speaker 1: And you're wondering, how is she an avination pioneer. Great question, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: He was the founder of the Army of the Potomac's
Speaker 1: Balloon Corps, which means he fought for the Union Army
Speaker 1: under Lincoln, which also means his balloon War affair was
Speaker 1: the start of American military aviation. Wow, father of right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So her grandfather, Daddiuslowe also inspired her, this young tomboy
Speaker 1: to dream of her own life among the clouds. So
Speaker 1: when she's ten years old, he takes her to her
Speaker 1: first air show. She loves it. Now, you gotta keep
Speaker 1: in mind the Right brothers had just flown for the
Speaker 1: first time when she was three years old. Now seven
Speaker 1: years later, they are aviation pioneers, right. So she sees
Speaker 1: this and she's like, oh, I gotta be in the sky. Right,
Speaker 1: But first she's a young tom boy. She's like, I
Speaker 1: should run away from home. So she runs away from home. Now,
Speaker 1: she grew up in southern California in a town called
Speaker 1: sam Marino. So for Pancho Barnes, running away meant grabbing
Speaker 1: a horse and riding to Tijuana. That sounds great, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: She was like, you know, in southern California back when
Speaker 1: was mostly ranches, exactly orange orchards. So she just, you know,
Speaker 1: takes off for Tijuana and has a good old time.
Speaker 1: Her family finally catches up her and they force her
Speaker 1: back to America. They enroll her in a religious school.
Speaker 1: How old was she when she about twelve thirteen, so
Speaker 1: one of many religious schools she goes to. Finally she
Speaker 1: graduates and she's like, oh, I want to become a veterinarian.
Speaker 1: And her mother's like, no, no, no, that's not a
Speaker 1: right profession for a young lady. And she's like, but
Speaker 1: I really love animals, and she's like, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: We're gonna put you in art school. That's a good
Speaker 1: thing for a lady who's creative in fiery like you.
Speaker 1: And her grandma's like no, no no, no, no, no art school,
Speaker 1: no no, no no. We're gonna get her married, like
Speaker 1: all good wayward girls should be. So they arrange a marriage.
Speaker 1: At this point, she's nineteen years old. The marriage is
Speaker 1: to this reverend. It doesn't last long, it doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like a good match. They were intimate just once on
Speaker 1: their wedding night. That's it. And eventually a couple years later,
Speaker 1: her mother passes away, and this kind of sets something
Speaker 1: loose and poncho. She's like, I gotta get free. You know.
Speaker 1: It reawakens in her that sense of longing for adventure.
Speaker 1: She runs off from her husband Rome's America, starts having fairs.
Speaker 1: She's also a footloose and fancy free young heiress, a
Speaker 1: tomboy with money to spend because when her mother died
Speaker 1: she left her about eight million dollars in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three dollars. Whoa, So she uses her inheritance to party
Speaker 1: and enjoy. Yeah, she's twenty three years. I was sorry
Speaker 1: when she when this first happens, she gets married, she's nineteen.
Speaker 1: When the mother passes, she's twenty three, so there's nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty four. Yeah right, so yeah, Flapper era total like,
Speaker 1: you know, the it girl. Clara Bow is the thing,
Speaker 1: and she, by the way, is a pilot, so you
Speaker 1: know this is in the air. Right. So she decides,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna go out and keep me
Speaker 1: some adventure. Now that I got some money, I don't
Speaker 1: need to work unless she goes to South America, takes
Speaker 1: a cruise down South America, has a ball, just enjoys
Speaker 1: herself all the heck. She gets back to America and
Speaker 1: she's like, you know what, forget this, I'm going back
Speaker 1: to South America. But this time she's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do things a little bit different. I want to have
Speaker 1: more adventure than I could last time. I'm ditching the dresses.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go and be, you know, dressed as a man. Huh.
Speaker 1: So this is how she earned her nickname Poncho. She
Speaker 1: goes back to South America and she rides on a
Speaker 1: banana boat and she gets okay, dresses a man exactly.
Speaker 1: She books passed it down to banana boat. And uh,
Speaker 1: while she's on banana boat, she discovers it. The true
Speaker 1: has this little secret that they did not tell her before.
Speaker 1: She said sale. Turns out they are smuggling guns to
Speaker 1: the Mexican revolutionaries. Oh well, she gets caught up in
Speaker 1: the Mexican Revolution. This is the Cristero Revolution, when you
Speaker 1: had warriors for Christ fighting against thee the Constitution nineteen
Speaker 1: it must have been much safer for her to travel
Speaker 1: in men's cloth completely. Yeah, you're right on with that,
Speaker 1: I know I am. When she gets caught in her
Speaker 1: men's clothes with all the other revolutionaries, Mexican officials, they
Speaker 1: take the boat. The guns are seas. The revolutionaries are
Speaker 1: in prison, which includes Poncho Barnes. So she gets locked
Speaker 1: up as a revolutionary for about a month and a half.
Speaker 1: While she's inside, she bonds with this other American who
Speaker 1: was on the boat as well. His name was Roger
Speaker 1: Shoot and Rogers Shoot is the helmsman on the but
Speaker 1: on a boat. No, he's a well off American, you know,
Speaker 1: rich kid, and he's out there for quote the thrill
Speaker 1: of it. Interesting. Yeah, he's a Stanford graduate. He's a
Speaker 1: marine biologist, studies fishery. So he's like a smart cat,
Speaker 1: you know, well to do footloose, fancy free, just like Poncho.
Speaker 1: Two of them decide, you know, we need to escape
Speaker 1: this Mexican prison. So they managed to steal a horse
Speaker 1: and a burrow and they take off on burrowback and
Speaker 1: horseball and they head for the American border. But then,
Speaker 1: you know what, now that we're free and in Mexico,
Speaker 1: maybe we should kick around for a little bit. So
Speaker 1: they kick around Mexico. I figure you'd enjoy this. They're
Speaker 1: eating good food, enjoying all the sites, learning some Spanish.
Speaker 1: They decide, you know what, we should become lovers. So
Speaker 1: they become lovers. They spend seven months bouncing around Mexico.
Speaker 1: At one point they're like, we should probably get back
Speaker 1: to America. So they're in Mexico City and they decide
Speaker 1: we'll walk down to Vera Cruz. So they walked down
Speaker 1: to Ericaus, which is on the Gulf Coast. For those
Speaker 1: who don't know, it's about a two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: mile overland walk. But they want a book passage. So
Speaker 1: they're traversing the Mexican countryside. And at this point, she's
Speaker 1: still known as Florence Leontine. So Flow is like, you know,
Speaker 1: making a joke about her lover Roger, and she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're hit like that windmill jousting hero don Quixote. And
Speaker 1: he laughs and he's well educated, so he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: then that makes you Poncho. She it's a moun props them.
Speaker 1: She corrects them. She's like, don Quixote's sidekick was Sancho Panza. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's like, ah, right, right. He's like, well, no matter,
Speaker 1: the nickname sticks. They start calling her Poncho, so she
Speaker 1: becomes Poncho for the rest of her life. That's a
Speaker 1: great nickname, right, totally. Yeah, I mean it's it's not
Speaker 1: as good as Dizzy, but it's good. Uh, you see
Speaker 1: me looking away for the camera. So Florence Leontine Low
Speaker 1: is now Poncho Barnes, right, Poncho and Roger. They head
Speaker 1: back to America and leave Mexico behind. They try to
Speaker 1: go up to the Mississippi, like where the waters are
Speaker 1: coming out in New Orleans. They make it to New Orleans,
Speaker 1: they get off the boat, and then they now have
Speaker 1: to cross America because they're both from California. So they hitchhike,
Speaker 1: they train hop when there's no vehicle available, they walk.
Speaker 1: They end up taking another huge trek seventeen hundred miles
Speaker 1: from New Orleans to California. But these are like trust
Speaker 1: fund kids in totally, and they're gonna cross the Southwest,
Speaker 1: which is no easy place. You miss that train, you're
Speaker 1: stuck in the Arizona desert, right, Yeah, So they're like managing,
Speaker 1: right exactly. So on this they get back to California,
Speaker 1: and now the lover's part way, so they both you know,
Speaker 1: young and impetuous boom. Pancho settles into her life as
Speaker 1: a rich girl in San Marino. She's got this cousin
Speaker 1: who's got this new hobby. She's taking flying lessons ponchos like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll ride down with you. She sees the plane, she
Speaker 1: sees the instructors, She's like, I gotta fly too, So
Speaker 1: she hops in there instant pilot. She just takes to
Speaker 1: it immediately. So she's you know, she has like this
Speaker 1: is biplane error right, So right, this is like you know, uh,
Speaker 1: like when you're imagining like the leather sided, open cockpit,
Speaker 1: double wings. So this is how she's flying now. These planes,
Speaker 1: least the one that she learned on, it had just
Speaker 1: one instrument, like didn't have an instrument panel like an
Speaker 1: on off switch. Basically, there was an oil gage to
Speaker 1: let her know how much oil the engine had. That
Speaker 1: was that's it. That's the only girl. No fuel, no altimeter,
Speaker 1: no spiedometer, no. So for the altimeter, what she had
Speaker 1: was you look over the side of the cockpit. That's
Speaker 1: how high like a string they have that that's kidding.
Speaker 1: That's how she knows how much a gas there is.
Speaker 1: There is a string that you dip into the gas
Speaker 1: and it's I could have built these early planes. If
Speaker 1: it's wet, there's fuel. If it's dry, try to land exactly,
Speaker 1: but also the the you know, there's like a horizon
Speaker 1: gage in a plane. The horizon gage is just a
Speaker 1: key chain tide. So if it's level, your level, if hey,
Speaker 1: I want to look out the window. So that's how
Speaker 1: she learns to fly in this early flying machine. And
Speaker 1: she absolutely like the long flowing scarf and the level completely,
Speaker 1: the leather like like helmet, and then the goggles on top,
Speaker 1: and then the white like flowing scarooy in the back
Speaker 1: and snoopy in woodstock both yes, you know it. I
Speaker 1: was there. So it took her only six hours before
Speaker 1: she could fly solo for the first time. That's like
Speaker 1: unheard of six hours. And she's like, I'm good to go.
Speaker 1: She's like hey, hey, And so she earns her pilot's
Speaker 1: license pretty quickly. She was so early in aviation history
Speaker 1: that Orville Wright signed her pilot's license. No, No, that's
Speaker 1: like a joke, like exactly, like what you're doing the
Speaker 1: dozens like your mom's So she got rrible right on exactly.
Speaker 1: So now she's a pilot, she's got horrible rights in
Speaker 1: premature on her license. She's like, I need a plane.
Speaker 1: So what does she do? Well, she's rich, so she
Speaker 1: goes and buys herself a nice biplane. She buys the
Speaker 1: travel Air speed Wing, which is like a real cutting
Speaker 1: edge plane. Can people walk on the wing? Yeah? They could. Actually,
Speaker 1: it's that type of plane. So this one was owned
Speaker 1: by Howard Hawks, the film director of Screwball Comedies like
Speaker 1: Bringing a Baby. Oh really okay, So it's like a
Speaker 1: you know, it's a well maintained plane, but it's still
Speaker 1: pretty experimental, right, So the first time she flies it,
Speaker 1: she sides, I don't want to fly it across country.
Speaker 1: So she tries flying it. The first time. She has
Speaker 1: to set it down eight times for emergency landings, eight times,
Speaker 1: almost gonna tootle up to a pebble beach exactly. She's like, not,
Speaker 1: I'll make it up bouncing down again. So she's like,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty good at flying. None of this is
Speaker 1: really terribly scary for her. So she starts competing in
Speaker 1: air races, and she starts doing barnstorming exhibitions. At one
Speaker 1: point she has Poncho Barnes's Mystery Circus of the Air.
Speaker 1: Mystery Circus of the Air. That's flying spectacle, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: She also has the her favorite sunt that she would
Speaker 1: pull was called the surprise parachute. She would invite a
Speaker 1: member of the audience to take their first airplane flight.
Speaker 1: And because she's like, you know, she'd remember herself as
Speaker 1: a young girl, she'd usually pick a girl. Said she
Speaker 1: get a girl out on the plane. She strapped the
Speaker 1: girl into a parachute, so she's the kid would be safe.
Speaker 1: She'd take them up in the biplane and once they
Speaker 1: are high enough that everyone can see them and the
Speaker 1: people look tiny from the ground, she would toss the
Speaker 1: child out of the plane. No, without telling the child,
Speaker 1: they're going to be taught out of the plane. Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: wait and the total surprise is injected from the byplane
Speaker 1: rang a parachute. The child plummets back to the air surprise.
Speaker 1: The child doesn't know how to like yank the parachute
Speaker 1: yard right, So they had like a string attached to
Speaker 1: the plane that would pull the rip cord from the plane.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. And it's like if that didn't work,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's gonna happen. It always worked, so
Speaker 1: no kids were hurt, and the kid would parachute to Earth.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not a parent, right, could you imagine someone
Speaker 1: Oh my god, so it was a different time. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is like far less lutitious exactly, which is interesting
Speaker 1: because later on her life she sued everybody. Well, yeah, sue,
Speaker 1: sue you exact, but like, how many times was her
Speaker 1: life threatened by an angry father or mother? No reports
Speaker 1: to that that I could find, but I assume that
Speaker 1: that I didn't make the papers. I don't know. Nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine, a couple years later, she's doing the powder
Speaker 1: Puff Air Derby. This it's a race specifically for female
Speaker 1: pilots because there's a bunch now female pilots growing because
Speaker 1: Emilie aarhart Is is blowing everyone's mind. Flying is a
Speaker 1: gendered event exactly. So she's coming in for a landing
Speaker 1: at one point and the truck is trying to cross
Speaker 1: the runway ahead of her planning and the driver misjudges
Speaker 1: the distance, doesn't realize how fast she's trying to come in.
Speaker 1: She nails the truck on the runway, totally walks away
Speaker 1: on scathe, just like, yeah, well you know. It can
Speaker 1: reinded me of the film The Great Waldo Pepper, which
Speaker 1: is a Robert Redford film about the flying days, and
Speaker 1: he has a couple of crashes. I just kept picturing
Speaker 1: her doing that. The plane's upside down in the grass.
Speaker 1: She walks away like exactly lucky. So meanwhile, August first,
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, she's flying in her new travel air type
Speaker 1: our Mystery Ships, the new fastest plane that she can buy.
Speaker 1: Mystery Ship. Yeah right, great name. So Ponto Barnes officially
Speaker 1: becomes the fastest woman alive. Yes. Wow. She shatters Amelia
Speaker 1: Earhart speed record and the record at the time she
Speaker 1: gets his one hundred and ninety six point one nine
Speaker 1: miles an hour. Whoa yeah. So about the same time,
Speaker 1: she becomes friends with aviation Maverick Howard Hughes, friend of
Speaker 1: the show, right, and Hughes was designing aircraft like unlike
Speaker 1: anyone else, but she's doing this in like an air
Speaker 1: GLOPPI well, at this point she's buying nicer and nicer place. No, no,
Speaker 1: nothing like that. These are all like propeller planes were
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, So you can't even really fly. It's an
Speaker 1: air gloppy with a big ratchette spinning. She and Howard
Speaker 1: Hughes have the same love of speed, so he hires
Speaker 1: her to fly in his movie Be the Hell's Angels. Right, Okay.
Speaker 1: That so she becomes a stunt pilot in Hollywood, and
Speaker 1: then she starts a union for pilots called the Associated
Speaker 1: Motion Picture Pilots, And this is one of the first
Speaker 1: unions in Hollywood. So you can probably now start to
Speaker 1: see why she's a personal heroine, total badass, right, okay,
Speaker 1: So let's take a quick break and then I'll get
Speaker 1: back into how Poncho Barnes got into a fight with
Speaker 1: the US Air Force and became friends with Chuck Yeager. Now, Elizabeth, yes, sar,
Speaker 1: we're back. Oh we are, Yeah, that's us cool. Now.
Speaker 1: You may have noticed when I was talking before that
Speaker 1: we were bouncing around in the early days of aviation. Yes,
Speaker 1: I noticed that. I thought, you once, you're pretty quick,
Speaker 1: and you you've heard some iconic names, Howard Hughes, a
Speaker 1: millionaire heart. So we are kind of sidestepping the fact
Speaker 1: that in nineteen thirty there is another major social trend
Speaker 1: other than aviation shaping lives nineteen thirty. Yeah, the Great Depression. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, exactly, the Great In nineteen twenty nine stock
Speaker 1: market crash and kicks off the Great Depression. Pancho Barns
Speaker 1: and Heiress, you'd think Oh, she's somewhat buffeted from all
Speaker 1: of the undulations of the stock market. But she isn't
Speaker 1: immune to the Great Depression. Pretty much, no one was
Speaker 1: unless they're super wealthy. So in early nineteen thirties, she
Speaker 1: has to rent out her family estate in San Marino.
Speaker 1: Later on, this is the family home she grew up
Speaker 1: in where she had horses that she ride in Tijuana. Right,
Speaker 1: So the depression drags on. She then has to sell
Speaker 1: the family estate. She leaves her life in Hollywood behind,
Speaker 1: and she leaves all of her hard partying, high flying days,
Speaker 1: and she moves out to the desert. Huh. She buys
Speaker 1: herself a four room ranch house. It's located in a
Speaker 1: super rural area known as the Antelope Valley to Antelope
Speaker 1: Valley Okay, yeah, yeah, high desert if you take the
Speaker 1: five out of La Yeah. Okay, So it's east of
Speaker 1: La it's in the mountains. It's on this high desert plain.
Speaker 1: And she buys this, and surrounding her is this one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty acre alfalfa farm. And meanwhile her neighbors
Speaker 1: are this place called Muroc Dry Lake. Murroc Dry Lake.
Speaker 1: It's a huge expanse of land unsuitable for farming or
Speaker 1: anything else. It's pretty much just a dry riverbed, all dusty,
Speaker 1: brooke and earth. But it's the home of the young
Speaker 1: Army Air Corps. They use the dry lake to as
Speaker 1: a testing ground for plane pilots. Yeah, the training camp
Speaker 1: would one day grow and spread and become Edwards Air
Speaker 1: Force Base. No way, Okay, it starts back then. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was putting the map in my head right now, right,
Speaker 1: So Ponto Barn she's sets up shop next to Murroc
Speaker 1: Dry Lake Training Camp. Being a pilot aviation pioneer herself,
Speaker 1: she becomes fast friends with all the pilots and officers.
Speaker 1: Soon enough she's like opened it up her place for
Speaker 1: pilots to come and drink and eat and relax. There's
Speaker 1: not really plenty places to go, and they're all really
Speaker 1: enjoying the wildflowers in the spring, which is Antelope Valley
Speaker 1: super booms. Yes, So the government signs contracts with her
Speaker 1: and they have her supply the Army Air car with
Speaker 1: not only pilots and planes that she recommends and instructor
Speaker 1: that she knows, but also to sell them hog meat
Speaker 1: and milk. So she gets the trash from the base
Speaker 1: she feeds it to the pigs and then sells the
Speaker 1: pigs back to the base. Hey, it's the circle of
Speaker 1: lights exactly. So by the end of the decade the depression,
Speaker 1: it's nineteen thirty nine. Ponto Barnes has created quite a
Speaker 1: spread for herself. She's managed her way through the depression.
Speaker 1: She's now named the place Rancho autroo Verde, which, for
Speaker 1: those who don't speak Spanish means green gold ranch. So
Speaker 1: World War two probably a reference to the poppies and
Speaker 1: the wildfli exactly, and the alfalfa. Well. World War two
Speaker 1: kicks off in nineteen thirty nine. Two years later, the
Speaker 1: US enters the fight after Pearl Harbor. Poncho Barnes's business
Speaker 1: is now a booming as the military ramps up its operations.
Speaker 1: That same year, in nineteen forty one, Ponto Barnes enlarges
Speaker 1: her ranch. So now she adds a swimming pool. She
Speaker 1: adds a fish pond that shaped like the new Air
Speaker 1: Force emblem, because the Air Force is now the US
Speaker 1: the Army Air Force, so they become the Air Force
Speaker 1: on their own. Because she makes it like that laurel
Speaker 1: wreath that they have, She's like, oh, I'll make a
Speaker 1: pool like that. Yes, so she also she creates a
Speaker 1: private hangar plane for fan totally. She's like people who
Speaker 1: love an NFL team and everything in the for the
Speaker 1: pool in the backyard. So she also has a private
Speaker 1: hanger because she's stole pilot, so she has planes being
Speaker 1: able to land. She has two airstrips, and she puts
Speaker 1: in a race track. Oh why not because you wants
Speaker 1: to get Hollywood people who come out speed exact, you
Speaker 1: get it. That's why she's my girl, right the drum
Speaker 1: up business. She starts advertising in the LA paper. She
Speaker 1: claims that she has a quote modern flying dude ranch. Right,
Speaker 1: So it's the perfect place for the famous and the
Speaker 1: wealthy to come and kick up their heels and get
Speaker 1: away from it all. For forty nine dollars a week,
Speaker 1: she'll give you food, board and all the fun you
Speaker 1: can manage. That. That's such like an old Hollywood. This
Speaker 1: is a perfect time. Total. Yeah, I love I Just
Speaker 1: if I could go to a place like this, Oh
Speaker 1: you know how much I would spend exactly? You would
Speaker 1: be holed up in there? Oh my god. Yes. Anyway,
Speaker 1: so the Hollywood crowd begins to wing out to Poncho
Speaker 1: Barnes is modern flying dude ranch. They mix with the
Speaker 1: pilots and the clientele. They all love each other. The
Speaker 1: pilots like the stars, the stars like the pilot. It's
Speaker 1: a fusion of both of her world. So now she
Speaker 1: can talk planes and plane crashes. She can spill gossip
Speaker 1: and talk shop. Both crowds are also hard drinkers, so
Speaker 1: everybody's really enjoying themselves. And she becomes this desert legend
Speaker 1: of like all you gotta go out to Poncho Barnes's
Speaker 1: place the war ends. And so now Poncho renames her
Speaker 1: place Ponchos fly in Like yeah, okay, right, because it's
Speaker 1: super super fly girl. So she upgrades it again. I
Speaker 1: thought you want to know this time. She adds riding stables,
Speaker 1: she adds motel rooms, she adds a rock fountain to
Speaker 1: go with the fish pond. Beautiful. She also expands her airport,
Speaker 1: adds a control tower and for her two airstrips. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so the thing is is that she loves horses,
Speaker 1: right yack, I told you that. So she wants to
Speaker 1: make it so everybody can ride horses all around the ramp.
Speaker 1: But when they get done riding. They shouldn't have to
Speaker 1: go back to the paddock, and like in the stables,
Speaker 1: She's like, why didn't you just ride right into the pool.
Speaker 1: So she creates a ramp so you can ride a
Speaker 1: horse ride into the giant pool. What yes? Wait? Was
Speaker 1: she in reference in that movie The Right Stuff? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: totally is the bar where they all go okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. So nineteen forty seven, the Ranch earns a
Speaker 1: new nickname. A friend of Poncho Barnes is out there.
Speaker 1: He's at the ranch taking a horseback ride because she
Speaker 1: loves doing that, in racing across the desert all fast.
Speaker 1: When they get back out from the trail, he tells
Speaker 1: Poncho He's like, man, I love being back in the
Speaker 1: saddle again. It quote gave me a happy bottom. After
Speaker 1: a little teasing of her friends, the name sticks. Pablo
Speaker 1: renames her ranch the Happy Bottom Riding Club. Did you
Speaker 1: feel happy in your bottom? Exactly? How happy is your bottom?
Speaker 1: So it made me feel so happy at the same
Speaker 1: time the bottom, my bottom is grinning the same time
Speaker 1: the test pilots stationed out amrock Dry Lake. But I
Speaker 1: was sad in my chest? Are you going? I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just working out. You got like a
Speaker 1: mournful elbow. So the pilots of Rock Dry Lake, we're
Speaker 1: nineteen forties. Even a big thing happens in nineteen forty seven.
Speaker 1: That's not the Roswell air crash, but another big thing
Speaker 1: in the air. Do you know what it is? Uh no,
Speaker 1: break the sound barrier? Oh right, this is the right
Speaker 1: different exactly that you were talking about earlier. So this
Speaker 1: is super movie. I'm pretending I saw it. I just
Speaker 1: you know me. Yeah, it's fuzzy. Yeah, you're younger, pilots,
Speaker 1: you're young. It was a different time. So the problem
Speaker 1: of the speed barrier is, you like, the pilots just
Speaker 1: couldn't manage to get up to it and break problem.
Speaker 1: So it becomes this impenetrable wall in the air. Right,
Speaker 1: So the pilots are all trying to do it. They're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to do it. They've got
Speaker 1: jets now, so that's the key that Obviously peller won't
Speaker 1: get them fast enough that the jets will, but they
Speaker 1: still can't get up to Mock one. They're trying and trying.
Speaker 1: They don't know how to do it. So she she
Speaker 1: makes a bet. Pancho Barnes says, I'll give a free
Speaker 1: steak dinner to whichever one of you flyboys manages to
Speaker 1: break the speed of sound barrier. Right, So they all
Speaker 1: these young test pilots and future as They're like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's a steak dinner on the line. Okay, now, now
Speaker 1: I'm really going to put my back and so yeah
Speaker 1: they do. And there's one young pilot who is a
Speaker 1: favorite of hers. And this dude his name is Chuck Yeager.
Speaker 1: So he was a hero of mine as a boy,
Speaker 1: fastest man alive, the first person to break the sound barrier.
Speaker 1: I was a little sad to find out later on
Speaker 1: that he specifically worked to make sure that there were
Speaker 1: no black pilots at at the morocc Try training camp.
Speaker 1: There was one, and he made him leave, like yeah,
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, Chuck, I used to love
Speaker 1: you anyway. So whatever racism in the military in nineteen forties,
Speaker 1: no great surprise. Yeah, And he's like a good old
Speaker 1: boy anyway. So Pacho Barnes has her standing off for
Speaker 1: Chuck Yeager. He goes, I'm getting that free steak dinner.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows that Chuck Yeager is most likely going to
Speaker 1: break it. But they don't know is that He and
Speaker 1: Pacho Barnes to go out the night before. The riding
Speaker 1: horse is all fast in the desert because I love
Speaker 1: to go fast. He falls off the horse, breaks his ribs.
Speaker 1: The next days power the next day he has to
Speaker 1: go up and fly with broken ribs. Doesn't want anybody
Speaker 1: to know he does it. He goes up and he
Speaker 1: breaks the speed of sound with broken ribs. That night
Speaker 1: he goes back to the Happy Bottom Riding Club. They
Speaker 1: have an epic party and so begins a tradition that
Speaker 1: every time a speed record follows steak dinner at the
Speaker 1: Happy Bottom. Okay, so she's digging this because it's all
Speaker 1: like her early days in the aviation and everything's about speed,
Speaker 1: you know. She she brokes a million air hearts speed record.
Speaker 1: They all know that. So everybody's just fast, fast, faster,
Speaker 1: and they're just so happy. In nineteen forty seven, the war,
Speaker 1: they've they've won the war. Now they're about to be
Speaker 1: able to go into space. And they know this because
Speaker 1: these are they also the young astronauts. She pointed out
Speaker 1: with right stuff. So Pancho Barnes then it's like gets
Speaker 1: bored with speed being the new prize. So she's like,
Speaker 1: you know, no more steak dinners. I'm gonna come up
Speaker 1: with something else. So she comes up with the Booby Prize.
Speaker 1: So the Booby Prize is a pilot gets to walk
Speaker 1: across a sheet of rubber falsies, like a whole sheet
Speaker 1: like fake breasts. Yeah, so it's like I guess, so
Speaker 1: I don't know. She knows somebody in Los Angeles is like,
Speaker 1: I got plenty of fake chesticles for you, and they're
Speaker 1: just and they walk on them. They walk on them
Speaker 1: like a like hot coals, and the embarrassed and I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's so happy and like I'm so masculing,
Speaker 1: and the boobies are touching like weird. Wait I gotta okay,
Speaker 1: so wait when the sheets like how many? Why do
Speaker 1: you think it is? Like it does briefly so I
Speaker 1: don't know how many. I have no idea. And these
Speaker 1: were like plastics. These are rubber breasts that you would
Speaker 1: put in like as either replacement or like as for
Speaker 1: cup girth, you know, if you want to build up
Speaker 1: the cup of the falsees. Okay, So that's what it is.
Speaker 1: It was just like a whole little that's what it is.
Speaker 1: That's what it is, Elizabeth. It's just false. What can
Speaker 1: I tell you? And this and this was the what'd
Speaker 1: you say? This was the second prize. Ye, this is
Speaker 1: the booby prize. So if you don't get a steak dinner,
Speaker 1: then you got to walk on talk on the boobies
Speaker 1: on the booby and everyone goes, he all right, all right.
Speaker 1: So anyway, the Happy Bottom is now officially a pilot's hangout.
Speaker 1: It's just super masculine. Their whining the walls, we want
Speaker 1: to step on boots. Okay, well, I see where you're
Speaker 1: respect go. So they have their decals everywhere. Their propellers
Speaker 1: are decorations. You can kind of imagine it. And there's
Speaker 1: also a strong female presence on the floor. And it's
Speaker 1: dude to Poncho Barnes because she hires out. She goes,
Speaker 1: she's a tomboy. She's like, we need some women in here, right,
Speaker 1: So she hires hostesses to take care of the clientele.
Speaker 1: These hostesses would wait tables, they'd serve drinks, they'd entertain
Speaker 1: all the pilots and the other Hollywood clientele. She also
Speaker 1: had a legal liquor flown in to keep the party going.
Speaker 1: So She was like having a liquor flown in from Mexico.
Speaker 1: And I was all well enjoyed and much like the hostesses,
Speaker 1: and but Poncho assisted. It was all on the up
Speaker 1: and up. And I swear she once said, and I quote,
Speaker 1: we're not responsible for the bustling and the hustling that
Speaker 1: may go on here. Lots of people bustle and some hustle,
Speaker 1: but that's their business and a very old one. Did
Speaker 1: the hostesses have to wear outfits like sexy penguins. Sexy penguins,
Speaker 1: sexy pelicans? Where are you coming up? It was seaking
Speaker 1: like birds because in the air sick. See pelicans are
Speaker 1: sexy to you, like big gold sexy seagulls. Sey seas
Speaker 1: to talk about sexy after this, right, I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about Ponto. Barnes again expands the resort. Things
Speaker 1: are going well. The Booby prizes success. A booby is
Speaker 1: the blue footed booby, So there you go, sexy boobies.
Speaker 1: She regularly hires bands and artists from LA to come
Speaker 1: out and play a ranches exactly just like guns and
Speaker 1: LA guns and with guns as. She also built a
Speaker 1: stadium for a rodeo, a stadium yes, like not. And
Speaker 1: this isn't something like fly by Night affair. This was
Speaker 1: like with three quarter Mexican bulls. I'm talking like a
Speaker 1: real rodeo, real stadium, officially sanctioned rodeo on the circuit. Wow, yeah, exactly. No.
Speaker 1: I should also tell you Elizabeth much like you. She
Speaker 1: was a singer of popular standards. Yes, just much like
Speaker 1: get me. She wrote a number of songs, she recorded
Speaker 1: a few. She had a hit song called buy Your Side,
Speaker 1: which was about her love of the Air Force and
Speaker 1: the relationships she wrote. A love song to the Air
Speaker 1: Force was about their next door relationship. Exactly. It sold
Speaker 1: a million digits. Yes, your units. She shifted a million
Speaker 1: fingers digits, big buckets. People are like, I'll give you
Speaker 1: fifteen fingers for this forty pime how much for the boobies?
Speaker 1: So okay, buy your Side? Yes, by your Side. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to look that up. Yeah, it's a banger.
Speaker 1: I learn it. You could probably do it at weddings,
Speaker 1: probably generals, retirement parties. Probably so around the same time.
Speaker 1: I just show up and I am dressed as a
Speaker 1: sexy Pelican, and then I lay down my floormat of
Speaker 1: prosthetics and then I go and a one and a
Speaker 1: two runs for the door, performing next at slots. You
Speaker 1: got to perform at Ponto Barnes's wedding. I probably should
Speaker 1: have did I I don't remember a whole lot. Well,
Speaker 1: i'll read it to you. It sounds familiar. Year nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty two. Her it's her fourth wedding. None have lasted
Speaker 1: very long, and this time she falls for a younger man,
Speaker 1: some one who she hopes can keep up with her.
Speaker 1: So her husband. His name is Mac McKendry. He was
Speaker 1: thirty two. Thirty two, Yeah, fifty two. Good for her?
Speaker 1: Yeah right. So she gets yourself from young meat and
Speaker 1: then says, let's get married, Chuck yeager, you're going to
Speaker 1: be there. He's like, you bet you. So he stands
Speaker 1: as her wedding attendant, the commanding Officer of Edwards Air
Speaker 1: Force based General Boyd. He gives her away six hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty guests chair on Ponto Barns fifty. It's a
Speaker 1: super short ceremony. It's a Native American Blackfoot ceremony. She
Speaker 1: after the ceremony, she changes out of her wedding dress
Speaker 1: and puts on a quote a pair of jodpurs a
Speaker 1: blouse and white cowboy boots. Oh, just a sensible bout.
Speaker 1: The happy couples serve their wedding guests and I quote,
Speaker 1: four whole roasted pigs, eighty eighty pounds of potatoes salad,
Speaker 1: sixteen gallons of jello, and a fifty pound wedding cake.
Speaker 1: So wait, pork potato salad and a fifty poundell. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people, but dang, like you show
Speaker 1: up and they're like, just so, Jello has been sitting
Speaker 1: out in the sun and Jello. Wow. Well, things are
Speaker 1: going well in fifty two. Everyone is happy. The music
Speaker 1: was a bouncing or hits were going The illegal Mexican
Speaker 1: liquors are flowing, the pilots in clientele. Everyone's enjoying themselves, hostesses,
Speaker 1: they're having fun. The booby prizes are being given out right.
Speaker 1: But it should be no surprise to you nor I
Speaker 1: that the decency police decided to step in and break
Speaker 1: up all the good times. The issue got there in
Speaker 1: the desert. Yeah, the issue wasn't the fight. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like a fight between drunken officers. It wasn't drunk pilots
Speaker 1: driving back to the base streaking across the desert in
Speaker 1: their mid century steel sleds. Nope, that's not the issue.
Speaker 1: Wasn't the illegal Mexican liquor being flown over the border.
Speaker 1: The issue was the young women, the hostesses. Oh, the
Speaker 1: sexy Pelican. Yeah, they ain't hurt nobody, but they were
Speaker 1: the problem them. So the young women Ponto Barnes had
Speaker 1: hired to play hostesses. They were mostly beautiful, vivacious people,
Speaker 1: the kind of women who would like to hang out
Speaker 1: with hard drinking, hard charging pilots, Hollywood types selected Crows
Speaker 1: and Ponto Barnes. She ran a tight ship. She had
Speaker 1: house rules for her the women. They were instructed to quote,
Speaker 1: never be vulgar, never to drink too much. In fact,
Speaker 1: the full set of house rules was this, never spend
Speaker 1: an undue length of time with any one guest, circulate,
Speaker 1: be charming and pleasant to all guests. Don't just go
Speaker 1: for the guy with the wavy hair. Don't be vulgar
Speaker 1: at any time. Don't sit on guest laps in public.
Speaker 1: Don't go automobile riding or flying without permission. Never are
Speaker 1: you allowed to accept money and remuneration For the more
Speaker 1: intimate aspects of romance. Oh yes. So one of the
Speaker 1: hostess was a woman named Dallas Morley. She eventually became
Speaker 1: the head hostess. She cooked and bartended, and she could
Speaker 1: also play a mean hockey talk piano. Nice sound, now,
Speaker 1: Dallas Morley one set of Ponto Barnes quote. I got
Speaker 1: along with Poncho because when she'd cuss me out, I'd
Speaker 1: just cuss her right back and she'd laugh. But she
Speaker 1: had most of the girls scared to death. Yeah, see
Speaker 1: the idea. Like I said, most of these women, they
Speaker 1: were vivacious women. Some were like Dallas morally, they had
Speaker 1: strong independence streaks. Many of them were somewhat sexually liberated,
Speaker 1: more sexually liberated than their times. They were sort of
Speaker 1: women like to sunbathe the naked, swim nude in the
Speaker 1: hotel pool when no guests were around. And in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties this got lips a wagon right, so rumors
Speaker 1: were swirling. They took on a life for their own.
Speaker 1: Soon there was talk that the sex that they were
Speaker 1: sex workers, and that Poncho Barnes was the madam of
Speaker 1: this flyboy cat house team. Things a bit private. She
Speaker 1: had restricted access. She had made it a members only club.
Speaker 1: She said no enlisted men could go. Only officers. She
Speaker 1: had nine thousand person membership who had to personally know
Speaker 1: her and she had to vouch for Wow. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: as for the rumors about it being a casual sex resort,
Speaker 1: my morally rigid yet albeit wildly racist Chuck Yeager said,
Speaker 1: Poncho's wasn't a cat house, but it wasn't a church either,
Speaker 1: So that gives you a little idea. Despite having the
Speaker 1: reendorsement of respected aviation hero Chuck Yeager and the tacit
Speaker 1: approval of the top brass at the rock Dry Lake
Speaker 1: Camp now Edwards Air Force Base, the good times had
Speaker 1: to come to an end because that's just what happens
Speaker 1: to a a good time. So why as I told you
Speaker 1: the aforementioned decency police decency. Yeah, so after the short break, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: I will tell you how Poncho Barnes went to war
Speaker 1: against the US Air Force and their decency pleasing. All right,
Speaker 1: so where are were? We just listen to some really
Speaker 1: great ads. Yes they were so good. Huh oh right, No,
Speaker 1: Antelope Valley, California, there's that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, super Blooms. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're talking about Poncho Barnes. Yes, Okay, so the trouble
Speaker 1: starts for my girl when the whispered rumors about her
Speaker 1: hostesses at the Happy Bottom Riding Club turn into an
Speaker 1: issue for the young and reputation obsessed air Force. We
Speaker 1: can't have our fly boys doing this right now. Some
Speaker 1: say it was just an excuse to get the land
Speaker 1: that was underneath Poncho Barnes's resort and private air That
Speaker 1: makes sense, right. So there was his cat, General Boyd.
Speaker 1: He was the head pauncho of the base. He was
Speaker 1: the one who gave Poncho Barnes away at her wedding. Okay,
Speaker 1: totally tight with her. They would hug and embrace and everything. Right,
Speaker 1: he gets replaced by Johnny good Boy. This this the
Speaker 1: General General J. Stanley. It was so excited, was like,
Speaker 1: that's perfect. That's a perfect name for who he is.
Speaker 1: A tall drink of water and his name is Johnny
Speaker 1: good Boy. Hey, General Johnny good Boy here. So General J.
Speaker 1: Stanley Holtner, that's no fun Yeah, well exactly. He is
Speaker 1: not a fun guy. He is what we in the
Speaker 1: good times industry call a kill joy. So when he
Speaker 1: heard about this bar where hostess has had fun with
Speaker 1: his test pilots, he decided someone needs to put a
Speaker 1: stop to this, and that's someone is J Stanley hole Toner. Well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like it was negatively impacting their performance, No,
Speaker 1: not at all. Nothing. It was, if anything, good for
Speaker 1: their performance. She's incentivizing their success with steak Dinners exactly
Speaker 1: and Booby Price. And they're they're they're flying like they're stress.
Speaker 1: They need to place to unwind the Blacks to be
Speaker 1: able to be themselves. Let them be. But he's like,
Speaker 1: no fun on my watch, no carousing, no sexy pool time,
Speaker 1: none of it. So and since he's military General hole
Speaker 1: hole Toner, he can't come down on Pacho Barnes because
Speaker 1: she's a private industry, right, So he's got to figure
Speaker 1: out an angle. So he waits. There's a fight at
Speaker 1: the bar. So he's like, oh, my pilots, this is
Speaker 1: enough for him to step in. He goes, no, pilots,
Speaker 1: no military personnel can go to the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
Speaker 1: It is off limits for all base personnel. Huh, that's
Speaker 1: pretty much gonna be the death sir, Yes, sir, yeah right,
Speaker 1: But this isn't enough for Captain Kildre. He's like, you
Speaker 1: know what I should also call the FBI. So what
Speaker 1: do you call the FBI? Elizabeth? Oh? Is that who's
Speaker 1: in charge of that? Good? Right? So he calls f
Speaker 1: JAG and he's like, yoh, but not literally, but he
Speaker 1: sends like a like he sends like memos and letters.
Speaker 1: Jaygger gets this. He's like, what the Happy Bottom Riding Club?
Speaker 1: Why don't I know about this? Exactly? So he's all, like,
Speaker 1: I got to hear about these sealastious rumors. I love
Speaker 1: selacious rumors to try and get a job as a hostess.
Speaker 1: He Inclinde. There was a memo sad from future Chief
Speaker 1: Justice of the Supreme Court Warren Jay Burger to Jayagger Hoover.
Speaker 1: At the time, Burger was the Assistant Attorney General. In
Speaker 1: his nineteen fifty three memo to Hoover, Burger writes that
Speaker 1: the US Attorney General's Office will initiate a deep and
Speaker 1: wide investigation to answer the question of how happy the
Speaker 1: Happy Bottom Riding Club is? Just how happy? And he
Speaker 1: quotes wants to know if miss Barnes was operating a
Speaker 1: disorderly house. So Jagger's like, yeah, get on it and
Speaker 1: give me all the details. So the picture the investigation
Speaker 1: of Pacho Barnes kicks off and now, Elizabeth, I know
Speaker 1: you can imagine what this all leads to. It. Just
Speaker 1: for kicks, I'd like you to close your eyes, yes,
Speaker 1: and picture it. Okay. It's August nineteen fifty three, Murrock
Speaker 1: Dry Lake, Annelipe Valley, California, three thirty pm. There's a
Speaker 1: wide blue sky above you, a slight breeze from the
Speaker 1: northwest on a fresh air break. You've seated yourself outside
Speaker 1: the private club just to enjoy the sights and sounds
Speaker 1: of the desert vistas. It stretches off into the horizon.
Speaker 1: You've left your job behind in Hollywood. You were making
Speaker 1: lifts for short actors and you wanted a new start,
Speaker 1: so you headed out to the desert, where you've been
Speaker 1: working as the head hostess at a small private club
Speaker 1: and airport. You've only worked at the Happy Bottom Riding
Speaker 1: Club for the last few months, but you're loving the
Speaker 1: vibe of this place. You love the women you work with,
Speaker 1: and you like the mercurial, hard cuss and hard drinking
Speaker 1: boss Poncho Barnes. For the first time in a long time,
Speaker 1: you're happy at work. In the flight tests for the
Speaker 1: day are done, so the skies above you right now
Speaker 1: are quiet, but in the distance you spot a cloud
Speaker 1: of dust approaching. It looks like a Ford Sedan. The
Speaker 1: beige car up here's dust covered. Could be a Blue
Speaker 1: Sedan for all you know. It's that dust cover. But
Speaker 1: you watch the fifty two FOURD approach. He grows louder
Speaker 1: and louder as it grows closer and closer. Finally, sand
Speaker 1: an pulls up just outside of the Happy Bottom Riding
Speaker 1: Club doors O. Two men in gray flannel suits step out.
Speaker 1: They flash badges at you and identify themselves as FBI.
Speaker 1: One of the agents asked the question he knows the
Speaker 1: answer to, He says, is this the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
Speaker 1: Now you don't like to be asked a lot of questions,
Speaker 1: so you sasd the FBI agent. Of course, No, this
Speaker 1: is the pushy Bottom Beach Club, Happy bottoms down the road,
Speaker 1: so neither agent laughs. I'm not surprised. These are the
Speaker 1: new IBM punch card agents. These are the humorless agents.
Speaker 1: These are gone are the charming and daring spies of
Speaker 1: the war years, as if they never really existed. What
Speaker 1: you don't know is these are also really good at
Speaker 1: their job. Spies. Nineteen fifty three is a banner year
Speaker 1: for the FBI. Jager Hoover has his bureau humming. They
Speaker 1: stay busy hunting down fugitives and bagging names on the
Speaker 1: FBI's Most Wanted liss. They've been catching two fugitive a
Speaker 1: month every month this entire year. It's one of their
Speaker 1: record years. They catch twenty four felons this year. It
Speaker 1: will be a record that will not be surpassed until
Speaker 1: the social upheaval of nineteen sixty eight. Now, how could
Speaker 1: you know that these two gray flannel suit wearing paper
Speaker 1: cutouts are good at their job? Why would they look
Speaker 1: like a joke to you? You're used to Flyboy, future astronauts,
Speaker 1: aging test pilots. Who are these bozos? Yeah? The FBI
Speaker 1: agent tells you we're gonna need to interrogate all the hostesses,
Speaker 1: and you're like, on whose authority? You're like, US Constitution,
Speaker 1: But of course you know they mean Jagger Hoover, So
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, whatever. You walk back to the hotel
Speaker 1: rooms where all the hostess are saying, You're like, look,
Speaker 1: the fbis here. They're like, what do you mean? Some
Speaker 1: of them they're naked, some are in silk robe, some
Speaker 1: are in bathing suits. You're like, girls, you gotta get
Speaker 1: together yourself together. You gotta come into the bar and
Speaker 1: talk to them stiff bas like, look, it's not a request.
Speaker 1: They're here, like okay. So they go in and now
Speaker 1: Poncho Barnes, she's gone right now, she's away getting hogs
Speaker 1: for a big pig rows. So you're in charge, and
Speaker 1: you've learned from the House un American Activities Commission in
Speaker 1: the Red Scared you saw in Hollywood, don't lie to
Speaker 1: the FBI? Right? Do you tell the girls that? And
Speaker 1: so then you send them in to go get grilled
Speaker 1: by the FBI agents. Want at a time. They go
Speaker 1: and sit down the FBI agents and you're watching them agonizing,
Speaker 1: hoping that they're doing okay. Then once they're excused to leave,
Speaker 1: you pull them aside and you go, what did they
Speaker 1: ask you? Yeah? And then the girls like, oh, they
Speaker 1: ask any of these weird questions like what Well, like
Speaker 1: they're like, have you ever been in the white slave trade?
Speaker 1: Slave trade? Spreading? They're like, well, they're like, also, if
Speaker 1: there is there any gambling going on? Is there are
Speaker 1: there like Mexicans being flown in and They're like, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? Yees Mexicans and dope are they
Speaker 1: flying that in? People are like, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about. So when they're done, the hostesses are
Speaker 1: barely able to get the place set up in time
Speaker 1: for the evening crowd. You secretly are waiting for the
Speaker 1: sheriff to show up that night and rescue all and
Speaker 1: drag you off the sex workers. They don't come, nor
Speaker 1: do his deputies. Despite of all this talk of the
Speaker 1: white slave trade and smuggling Mexicans into the country, the
Speaker 1: FBI agents conclude their investigation. They find no evidence of
Speaker 1: any crimes. No one will say anything against Poncho Barnes,
Speaker 1: so you are free to continue your leisure and happiness
Speaker 1: with all your friends. Elizabeth. Yeah, you might think having
Speaker 1: a legal tussle with the FBI, well, that couldn't get
Speaker 1: any worse than that for Poncho Barnes. And you'd be
Speaker 1: wrong because the Air Force is like, that's not damn it.
Speaker 1: I sick Jagger Hoover's boys on why didn't that work? Well,
Speaker 1: I guess we're gonna have to go one step beyond that,
Speaker 1: So they go up to eminent domain. Yeah, because Poncho
Speaker 1: Barnes has been spinning all of this to her benefit.
Speaker 1: She'd been talking about, you know, let the rumors persist,
Speaker 1: she decided. Once the FBI declared I'm fine, She's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let them go tell them we're all sex workers. I
Speaker 1: don't care anymore. So, you know, basically like P. T.
Speaker 1: Barnum and Kanye West, she decided, Look, there's no such
Speaker 1: thing as bad blab. So now her friend Chuck Yeager,
Speaker 1: he used to say, Poncho Barnes quote for rumor enhance
Speaker 1: her personality. She didn't dispute it if it didn't have
Speaker 1: to be true or not true. But that's the way
Speaker 1: Poncho was. She wasn't dumb. She was a very smart
Speaker 1: old gal. So now this smart old gal has to
Speaker 1: deal with the US Air Force bringing full power that
Speaker 1: they can against her during the Cold War, so they
Speaker 1: have all sorts of powers. They use emminite domain cut
Speaker 1: to Captain Kiljoy jer Odin rolled Hoole Toner squares up
Speaker 1: for a round two. He decides he's gonna make public
Speaker 1: his oh, I mean, the Air Force's plans to seize
Speaker 1: all the land underneath the Happy Bottom Riding Club. He
Speaker 1: lets it be known that they're gonna put in a
Speaker 1: new twenty two mile super runway complex for the a
Speaker 1: new atomic powered airplanes the Air Force has on the
Speaker 1: drawing board. I'm gonna say that one more time. Atomic
Speaker 1: powered airplanes, Elizabeth, Like, automic powered subs are one thing,
Speaker 1: but nuclear powered aircraft that's terrified crash. You have an
Speaker 1: aerogical disaster, like where that plane crashes. The Air Force
Speaker 1: took him a little while. They're like, you know what,
Speaker 1: we're probably not gonna do. Maybe not such a good idea,
Speaker 1: but anyway, it doesn't matter. Captain Killjoys like, yeah, runways,
Speaker 1: atomic plane. So he's like shaking this at her, and
Speaker 1: so Pancho Barnes decides, you know what, sue you sue them,
Speaker 1: Sue everybody. She goes after the Air Force, and she
Speaker 1: goes into court to quote roused out the scoundrels and
Speaker 1: the government who could perpetrate such an injustice? Right, she
Speaker 1: sounds like Mark Twain. So she acts as her own attorney.
Speaker 1: Never a good move, but it works out for her.
Speaker 1: She's the rare right every single time. Well, the LA
Speaker 1: newspapers they're siding with her. She's given them good press coverage,
Speaker 1: great quotes to fight. It is not brief, it lasts
Speaker 1: a long time. But the people and the papers are
Speaker 1: on her side. The Air Force because it's once again
Speaker 1: told the early days of the Cold War, and much
Speaker 1: like the FBI, they're pretty much feeling themselves. They just
Speaker 1: seize the land anyway, eminent domain. Yeah, and they're like,
Speaker 1: you know what we're into, like killing joy, making things
Speaker 1: less sexy, no fun. We love that. It's the fifties.
Speaker 1: What do you want from us? You're like, dude, you
Speaker 1: want a world war for this? Like what the hell?
Speaker 1: But anyway, Poncho Barnes, living spirit of early aviation, reckless
Speaker 1: and joyful days are pretty much over. She's now fighting
Speaker 1: the US Air Force in court all the time. It
Speaker 1: gets mad, costly, but she won't give up. She's like
Speaker 1: the Happy Bottom Riding Club deserves a fight. So things though,
Speaker 1: didn't take a fatal turn, because in November nineteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: there's an explosion inside the dance hall. Fire tears to
Speaker 1: the resort. It's mostly wood, it's in the desert. Firefighters
Speaker 1: can't get there in time. The Happy Bottom Riding Club
Speaker 1: burns to the ground. That is suspicious. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of accusations of arson. Sure, I accuse them of
Speaker 1: hay duration in the dancery like Mary jay BlimE would not.
Speaker 1: But anyway, no one gets got no one gets arrested
Speaker 1: for the fire. Mary Jabies would also be upset about that, yes,
Speaker 1: But Poncho Barnes, you know, as I said, she's like,
Speaker 1: this is arson, but there's nothing she can do about that.
Speaker 1: People there who were there that night of the fire, though,
Speaker 1: they risked their lives to run in over and over
Speaker 1: again to save all the priceless a replaceable memorabilia. You
Speaker 1: love that movie. Back to so Ponto Barnes, she'd kept
Speaker 1: a scrapbook of her life in the clouds. One of
Speaker 1: her her friends, like the coworkers, the one of the hostesses.
Speaker 1: They managed to get in and get the scrapbook and
Speaker 1: save it. So that's like the big thing that she's
Speaker 1: most happy about. And in her ongoing battle to save
Speaker 1: her land after it's burned down, the Air Force has
Speaker 1: already seized the land underneath it. She then pretty much
Speaker 1: has to go back into court and remind the Air
Speaker 1: Force that her grandfather Thaddius Lowe founded the US Air Force,
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, that's right, she's in the days
Speaker 1: like yeah, that's true, he made you, and they're like okay, fine,
Speaker 1: and so she wins her legal battle. The Air Force
Speaker 1: backs off. They give her four hundred thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: her land, and they also then clear her name, and
Speaker 1: she insists they cleared the names of reputations of all
Speaker 1: the women who they've besmirched as hostess, which, yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought you'd like that. Yeah. So the Air Force later
Speaker 1: then scraps its plans for its new super runway complex
Speaker 1: and the runways never get built. All that fight for nothing.
Speaker 1: No atomic planes ever hit the air. In her retiring years, though,
Speaker 1: Ponto Barnes begins to turn her that scrap book that
Speaker 1: was saved into an autobiography, and she also, I thought
Speaker 1: you'd like this, spend her time breeding Yorkshire terriers. Like that,
Speaker 1: She gets back to her animal lover ways full circle,
Speaker 1: and in nineteen seventy one, one of her friends, a
Speaker 1: former test pilot from the Murrock Dry Lake Days, invites
Speaker 1: her to Edwards Air Force Base to celebrate her seventieth birthday.
Speaker 1: That friend was friend of the show buzz Aldron. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: And now each year the Air Force sets aside one
Speaker 1: calendar day to celebrate her. Fittingly, it's called Poncho Barnes Day,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like a small maya culpa from
Speaker 1: the Air Force, like, yeah, we totally jacked up on
Speaker 1: that one. And it ends up though, in a nice
Speaker 1: little turn of events, at the end of the night
Speaker 1: there's an adult's only portion of the evening they brought
Speaker 1: back to sexy. So Ponto Barnes once said, and I quote,
Speaker 1: the most important thing is to be yourself. So don't
Speaker 1: even don't even try to be like someone else, because
Speaker 1: we've seen that already. Oh I like that a lot.
Speaker 1: So Elizabeth, I got to ask you, since you'll never
Speaker 1: ask me, what's our ridiculous takeaway? Here? My ridiculous takeaway
Speaker 1: is whatever, you're ridiculous. No. I love the dynamic nature
Speaker 1: of her life, all the different elements of it, but
Speaker 1: also the fact that she, you know, went toe to
Speaker 1: toe with some serious dude Jagger Hoover, US Air Force,
Speaker 1: the Mexican authorities, and the revolution didn't back down exactly. Zaren,
Speaker 1: what's your ridiculous takeaway? We said that again, Zaren, what's
Speaker 1: your ridiculous takace sounds nice? Doesn't sound good? Ever? Heard that,
Speaker 1: thank you for asking. Mine is if someone isn't hurting
Speaker 1: anyone and they're just being sexy or whatever they're doing,
Speaker 1: let people be mind your own decency. Don't worry about
Speaker 1: my decency. My decency is between me and God and
Speaker 1: the devil or whoever I believe in. But you know, look, look,
Speaker 1: some women know some people they want to get naked
Speaker 1: into pool at them. Who cares. We all need all
Speaker 1: the sexy we can get on this planet. We'll think
Speaker 1: about it too. The amount of man hours and money
Speaker 1: and resources spent to fight sexy pool time ridiculous hours.
Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of other things you
Speaker 1: could be doing. And it's like those pilots needed that.
Speaker 1: I mean, not just the sexy it's but all of it.
Speaker 1: Being able to cut loose and just be themselves and
Speaker 1: out in the desert. It's not like, oh, we have
Speaker 1: to write about any specific subculture exactly, very specific, you know,
Speaker 1: lifestyle and mindset for we need to make room for It's.
Speaker 1: I always say, if you're gonna make a plan in
Speaker 1: the future, you need the a little space for crime
Speaker 1: because it's going to be there. Yeah, surely you're not
Speaker 1: going to get rid of crime. You can talk about
Speaker 1: what crimes occur, you can talk about which crimes you allow,
Speaker 1: but there's going to be somebody who breaks. The question
Speaker 1: is just like debauchery, exactly is this really a crime?
Speaker 1: Doesn't sound like those women were exploited working there? What
Speaker 1: I can tell? What I could tell, they were all
Speaker 1: willingly being there and there wasn't any active prostitution. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe some of them got a little sideways and did
Speaker 1: some hot side picking up handsome fly boys. I don't
Speaker 1: blame them. Yeah, the ones with the wavey here, that's right,
Speaker 1: the ones with like they're bald on the top and
Speaker 1: just the edges, a very specific one like Ben Franklin.
Speaker 1: He liked air bats, so I could see them. There
Speaker 1: you go. That's all. It's all there, All of the
Speaker 1: evidence is there. Well, that's all I got for you today, Elizabeth. Well,
Speaker 1: it's pretty good. Thank you. Well, you know, well, you
Speaker 1: can find us online Ridiculous Crime on Twitter and Instagram
Speaker 1: if you'd like some more. That's on the bird we
Speaker 1: got the words and on the ground we got the pictures,
Speaker 1: so check them out. And also if you want to
Speaker 1: hit us up, you know, we've got these talkbacks you
Speaker 1: can do on the iron Heart app. You can email
Speaker 1: us at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. You can
Speaker 1: also just shout into the women. You can write a
Speaker 1: fun rap yeah about us and write it on fun
Speaker 1: Rap just a fun wrap that would be amazing. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time. Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 1: is used by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Brunett's produced and
Speaker 1: edited by the Ratchet Daddy of the Happy Bottom Riding
Speaker 1: Club Dave cas. Research is by the Fastest Women in
Speaker 1: Facts Mersa Brown and Andrea Song Sharp and Tier. Our
Speaker 1: theme song is by Thomas travel Air Special Lee and
Speaker 1: Travis type Awe Mystery Ship Dutton Executive producers are Ben
Speaker 1: Buzz Bowland and Noel Neil Brownie See It One More Time,
Speaker 1: Geeks Crime. Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four
Speaker 1: more podcasts of iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.