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Flashdance, Fashion, and Feminism - The 1980s
Episode 144th April 2022 • Talk With History: Discover Your History Road Trip • Scott and Jenn of Walk with History
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Flashdance had a profound impact through fashion, dance, and as an example of woman's rights and independence. As a Steeltown girl myself, this was one of my favorite movies growing up and I hope that you enjoy seeing the modern-day locations of this iconic 80s movie.

🚕 Google Map to Duquesne Incline that Alex rides

🎥 Filming Locations of Flashdance

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Transcripts

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[Music]

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to give ourselves cute

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greetings and welcome to the talk with

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History Podcast I am your host Scott

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here with my wife and historian Jen

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hello on this podcast we talk about

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history's continuing impact on us and

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our personal journey through YouTube as

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we continue to explore record and share

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our history walks with you

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before we get into our main topic I want

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to briefly ask for for a review from our

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listeners Apple podcast reviews can get

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you on a future episode with a far five

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star shout out

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and if you do not have an Apple device

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you can reach out to us and ask us

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questions over on Twitter we'll talk

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with history or through our website talk

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with history.com

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also don't forget to check out our other

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podcast the history Buzz it's a little

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more relaxed when it's where we sit down

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and interview folks while chatting about

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history over a couple of drinks and we

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just let the conversation wander where

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it may it's a lot of fun

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[Music]

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if you love 80s movies music and the

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fashion that came with it all I think

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you're going to love today's topic

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Jen she's a Pittsburgh native and loves

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all those things I just mentioned

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so it's a natural fit that we're going

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to talk about one of the biggest movies

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of

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1983.10 what is the movie we're talking

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about today the last dance flash dance

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and why are we talking about Flash Dance

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well Flashdance had a huge impact on me

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as a young girl especially growing up

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in the 80s so much so that when I had an

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answering machine when people still had

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those and you could make your own

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recording part of it was that song just

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a steel town girl on a Saturday night

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looking for the time of her life that

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was on my answering machine yeah because

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it was so fitting for Pittsburgh girl

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and having fun because the movie

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Flashdance it takes place in Pittsburgh

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it takes place in Pittsburgh and it's

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really great in the 80s with the steel

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industry I mean she's a welder It just

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fits in with everything that's it is

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it's like the classic 80s movie it hits

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It's got good music it's it's it's so

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great and blue collar yeah right so we

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go in the video

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we go to a lot of those filming

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locations and for me that was a dream

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come true yeah that was that was super

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we try to recreate some of those we

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tried to recreate some of the shots like

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her biking to work you know across the

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bridge you know into the city like down

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the street around the corners and none

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of it had continuity because they're

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really looking for really great

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locations and scene settings in

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Pittsburgh and I talk about how she's

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not biking she's not living over here I

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think you said like she had the reason

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she has such great legs is because she's

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biking all over the entire city I love

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the city and like the Steep Pittsburgh

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Hills right and at one point one of the

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great scenes that they're going down the

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hill and it's right beside the hospital

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Allegheny hospital so you see a nurse

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walking up in the scene yeah and I tell

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you that's because she's right beside

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the hospital yeah and if you're if you

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haven't seen that episode go to our

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YouTube channel and look up and just

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search for Flashdance

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um but but we actually so we show the

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movie clip and then we show us doing

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that it's either is it that we should

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movie clip first and then we show you

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yeah so I so I so not only are you kind

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of standing in the spot where they

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filmed it but I'm trying to recreate as

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best I can with my amateur you know

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equipment and and technique to really

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recreate those shots it was just a dream

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come true for me it was super fun for a

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girl who always loved that movie yeah

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and we go to the Carnegie Museum where

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she it's supposed to be the ballet

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school in the movie and she gets

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intimidated filling out the application

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for ballet school she runs away she runs

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out yeah and so I kind of like recreate

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her running out and she's running out of

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the gallery basically of the museum yeah

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and again we try to recreate the shot so

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the move the shot in the movie is her

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running kind of that's the second floor

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and then it's like she must have to

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backtrack and then she's running the

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same

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way in the same distance on the bottom

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floor yeah yeah basically just to get a

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really good shot of that whole Gallery

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yeah but we recreate all that stuff

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right you're walking down down the thing

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I'm trying to do it where it's yeah the

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pillars are going by I'm doing the shot

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there yeah so it was and even like uh

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when she rides her bike up to the

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Carnegie Museum yes right in front so we

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talk about that's where she sees the

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ballet and she's leaving with Hannah and

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she sees uh Mick or she sees Nick with

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his ex-wife oh yeah you know so she's in

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front of the museum there so we talk

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about the front of the museum and the

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statues that are out there they use the

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Carnegie Museum for everything that's

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where she does her the side of the

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museum is where she does her dance

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practice Yeah right so they use that

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whole museum for a bunch of different

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things uh but it was really fun we go to

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like Hannah's house yeah which is still

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there I mean it's still like the house

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it's I mean it's it's awesome we've

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barely changed yeah there there's no

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Portico anymore and there's no Ivy yep

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on the side of the building we ride the

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Duquesne Incline that was neat that was

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neat and we talked about her riding the

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incline with her bicycle and if you're

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not familiar with Pittsburgh again let

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me let me step back and paint the

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picture so the decane incline and

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correct me if I'm wrong Jen but let me

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see if I I've actually learned something

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while we were out there filming they

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used to use it for the coal miners and

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they would transport all these materials

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up this super Steep Hill so if again if

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you're not if you've never been to

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Pittsburgh or certain parts of

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Pennsylvania

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very common for super steep hills there

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which is Nightmare driving in the

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wintertime

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um super steep hills super sharp turns

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so they're The Duquesne Incline it was

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actually originally to help transport

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materials and equipment and this that

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and the other up this super steep hill

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and then it basically turned into a

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tourist attraction yeah and then people

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would take it home after work and things

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like that so it was used for that as

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well and so most people

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Pittsburgh is on Three Rivers it's

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connected there's

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there's Bridges they call it the city of

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bridges because there's so many bridges

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that go across the rivers that kind of

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connect the whole city together yeah so

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you have the Monongahela

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the Allegheny in the Ohio

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and those are the three rivers that make

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up the and we used to have Three Rivers

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Stadium there and so all of that area is

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Pittsburgh all around those rivers and

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all around those bridges and it's very

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Steep and it's very hilly and The

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Duquesne Incline it has a beautiful view

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it's where we shoot the very last um

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scene yeah at the top of it if you ever

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go to visit Pittsburgh I mean you should

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go do it it's it's pretty neat it's not

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like some fast ride it's very slow you

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know in the movie she actually uses it

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and she takes her bicycle she uses it to

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take her bicycle she's going to see

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Hannah she's ridden all she's written

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all over the city all over the city up

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these Hills and around the corners and

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she doesn't want to ride a little bit

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further you know up the hill but I get

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it

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so for a young girl to see this movie

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right Alex is supposed to be 18. she's a

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welder her dream is to be in the ballet

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but she's uh she's a welder by day and

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then she dances at night and she she

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dances in a place where it's not

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nudity yeah so it's not quite a strip

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club that's quite a gentleman's club

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yeah she dances and but that's kind of

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her way to kind of keep her dream alive

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yeah to practice her love dancing on

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stage with like the super uber famous

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you know scene with the water scene you

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know she drops of water on herself yes

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like the bucket of water on herself and

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dances around like and that scene I mean

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the weight of that water must have been

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intense it has a lot of water it's a lot

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of water that's a lot of weight

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um but so here we have like this

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conflict yeah right where oh not only is

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she doing a job that is a predominantly

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male job in a huge industry in

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Pittsburgh Pennsylvania especially then

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especially then you can imagine the

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money she would be making now at that

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at that age she wouldn't be a full

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welder she'd be an apprentice welder but

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you would still be making a ton of money

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based on her age yeah you can talk about

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it yeah based on her age because you

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have to have so many years experience

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welding to to be a master welder and so

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Apprentice welder but you're still

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making a ton of money Pittsburgh is a

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city of Steel yeah it's this welding

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everywhere and so we go to the location

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where she's working and she gets the

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sandwich yeah her lunch her lunch break

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yeah and you see all this the steel yeah

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and it was very interesting again kind

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of from a behind the scenes perspective

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so that's definitely that's absolutely

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the spot but the building has actually

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been kind of added on to a little bit

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and so we really had to kind of do some

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double takes because I was trying to

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recreate this shot and I couldn't quite

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get it to match because there's like a

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different building in the background now

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where there wasn't back then and they've

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built on they've kind of added this uh

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kind of truck dock station

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um actually on to the onto the building

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where she was next to so we do like the

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best job we can but like there's just I

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mean think about it was filmed you know

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in the early 80s it was released in

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1983. sure and uh here we are 40 years

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later which is crazy

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um and uh

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you know and so so the the cities change

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so the city's changed yeah so

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and here She Wants to Be a Dance she

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wants to be a ballet dancer so she wants

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to be a classically trained ballet

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dancer and the whole premise is she

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hasn't had any schooling right right and

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so she meets a guy and this is you know

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this movie I think does a lot for

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feminism but it also does a lot from

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misogyny it absolutely does it's super

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80s in that we're in that way because

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here's this guy who comes sees her dance

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yeah he's like oh she's hot and he and

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his friend tells him her social security

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number oh does he really and he goes

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what is that her phone number he goes to

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her social security number she works for

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you and it's like dude how do you have

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her social security number memorized

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like are you stalking her I forgot about

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that like you you know her you have her

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social security number just you can just

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rattle it off so there's some issues

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there right so then he sees her the next

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day and he's like I saw you dancing and

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she's like what like okay so that's kind

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of how they start talking and yeah

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there's some issues right and then they

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start dating they start dating and she

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kind of lets him in on her dream right

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like I want to study ballet it's always

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been my dream and then he

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being her boss of a welding industry you

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can imagine he has money heck yeah so he

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has connections and this is the art and

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culture of Pittsburgh so he has

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connections to that ballet industry and

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so he tries to help her get an audition

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and she loses her mind because she

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doesn't want help right she wants to do

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everything on her own feels like our

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daughter

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I she doesn't want help she can do it by

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herself she doesn't need anybody's help

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she's she's gone she's come this far on

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her own like you don't really get into

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family background but she's you can

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pretty much she's independent and

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isolated yeah right she's in Pittsburgh

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she's living in a where I mean I don't

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know how they can

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like I don't know how they can

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symbolize any more than that yeah that

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you're more alone and on your own than

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that

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so she gets upset that he helped her and

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because of that she doesn't want to do

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the audition right and so he really is

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passionate he is in the end of a good

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guy and he's really passionate that

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if you don't follow your dream you die

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and all I did was get you the audition

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you've got to get into this point and

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there's and there's there's part of the

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conflict is too is like she sees him

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with his ex-wife right because they have

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some business dealing or something like

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or some prior commitment ballet

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committee together because she sees him

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at the ballet right and he wasn't doing

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anything bad he was just literally there

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she's of course jealous and you know she

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doesn't want to be taken for a fool

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right and then she has a best friend who

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is also following her dream of being in

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the ice capades that's right and she

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falls and doesn't get into the ice

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capades and she basically throws

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everything away and starts working at

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the strip club and then doesn't she kind

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of encourage then from there she

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encourages her like hey you need to

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follow your dream do your thing well

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she's she just she gets her friend out

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of the strip club and she realizes how

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far her friend has lost her Focus yeah

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because she's lost her chance and so I

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think she sees all of that and

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goes for the audition and what I love

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about the audition

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is first of all the auditions filmed in

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La not even filmed in Pittsburgh so yeah

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there's there's big chunks if you look

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it up so actually

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this one wasn't as difficult to research

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for locations because there's a there's

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a website that that does a lot of this

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stuff yes and we were able to find a

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good portion of them some of them we

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kind of had to do some hunting yes

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because Nick's house is in La yeah yeah

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the where she dances is in La it's

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actually like a Bob Hope Center because

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if you look on the wall there's all

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these pictures of service members and

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it's actually a Uso Bob Hope Center that

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she dances at and

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I I think her Warehouse place is

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actually in La like so a couple of these

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places they actually filmed in the bar

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I'm pretty sure is is oh yeah not in

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Pittsburgh either so a couple of these

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places are not yeah local

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but one of the cool things and of course

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is the dance yeah right so at the very

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end of the song and I think the song was

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nominated for the Oscar I think it wins

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the Oscar What a Feeling yeah I think

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that song in Maniac we're both nominated

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yes and What a Feeling wins right but um

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so she dances at the end and of course

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you're watching this girl who has had no

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training whatsoever Rock This Dance and

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then would you come to find out is

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actually three people actually four

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people yeah do this dance before

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including her including her yeah do this

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dance so here's a person who's

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pretending to not have any dance and

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actually this so it's the the dancer who

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does all the dancing right the

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professional the professional who her

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face is kind of skewed in most things

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because Jennifer Beal is not a dancer so

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there's a woman who does all of her

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dancing and then there's a gymnast

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so they have a gymnast do the leap yeah

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yeah she has like this beautiful perfect

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Super Famous shot yeah just a gymnast

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for that one shot and then you have a

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break dancer right who's actually a guy

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yeah who's doing the break dance move

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and so and then you have some Jennifer

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Beal so you have four people creating

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this one dance

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of a person who's never took and dance

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in their life yeah that was great and

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and part of the and one of the things

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about this movie too as I was as I was

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editing it and things like that

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[Music]

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it was all the different kind of fashion

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that came out of this so the fashion was

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like so there's the there's the movie if

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you Google Flashdance if you've never

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seen it if you've never seen it

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after you're done listening to this

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podcast go go watch Google it because I

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can just the off the shoulder yeah the

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the holes that's that's from her that's

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all from Flash and didn't she kind of do

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some of that hers so she claims that she

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cut the hole so basically she said she

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couldn't fit her head in her sweatshirt

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it was too small so she cut the hole and

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they just kind of went with it hung off

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her shoulder yeah and they just kind of

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went with that and that's that's the

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move that's the cover of the movie yeah

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and she wears the rat of jeans yeah and

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this changes fashion for the 80s like

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yeah and then she did the leggings the

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wart like the warm-up leggings yes with

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like the leotards she wore those like on

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from the calf down yes like it's just so

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great so much fashion influence from

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this movie and you might think well no

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that was 80s no that was Flash Dance

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yeah like people think that the chicken

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came before the egg or no Flashdance

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came and then fashion caught up with it

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yeah it was like this whole kind of

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dance Jazzercise aerobic after

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Flashdance with the leg warmers and all

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that stuff but the cutting off of the

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sweatshirts hanging off your shoulder

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the holes in your jeans that's all

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Flashdance influence yeah it was it was

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it was really cool just kind of doing

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like finding pictures and and finding

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the shots and

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um and all this stuff and just there's

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so many classic scenes and classic shots

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in this movie and classic songs people

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still recreate the water on you still

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see that today recreate or Maniac people

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trying to like Yeah Yeah Chris Chris

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Farley you know for for my guy listeners

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out there you know Chris Farley and uh

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and what is it Tommy Boy yes right

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um you know so it's it's famous more

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than just outside of the 80s yes and

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it's so you get that it's the high it's

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the third highest grossing film of the

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80s so I was having this of 83 yeah so

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it's having this influence on people but

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the story of Alex is supposed to be

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based on a real character I think I

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talked about this that was very

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interesting so it's her name was Maureen

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martyr and she was a construction worker

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welder in Toronto yeah and she danced at

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night so just like Alex right and she's

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she sells her story

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for twenty three hundred dollars

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somebody in Hollywood Universal I don't

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remember wants to just kind of pitch it

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pitch the story so she sells it for

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twenty three hundred dollars so then

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when it's the third highest grossing

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movie of 83 she tries to come back yeah

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and get reimbursed like some back and

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money right and takes him to court and

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everything and the court finds no you're

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2300 by the way yeah you sign it away

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that's what you got to read that fine

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print yeah I mean it Crystal 200 million

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oh my gosh that's crazy 200 million

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dollars and so the court told her sorry

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I mean I don't even think they gave her

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even a kickback just to be nice probably

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not I mean legally they don't have to

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right that's kind of that's business

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right that's if you sign it away you

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know it could have been it could have

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never made it into a movie at all and

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she would have made twenty three hundred

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dollars but it did and it became an

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enormously influential and popular movie

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sure and so we talk about its influences

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on feminism yes so I talked a lot about

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the bicycle yeah right because Susan B

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Anthony was very

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adamant about women learning how to

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Bicycle she wanted the bicycle to be the

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symbol of the feminist movement and she

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wanted that because it showed women

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having real Independence in their

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transportation because at the time women

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were very much

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you just had to be

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whatever you're Reliant yeah you're

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reliant on your husband or your

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significant other or whatever yeah

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whatever they had for a carriage or

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maybe a trolley you know so it wasn't

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like you're reliant on mass

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transportation you don't have your own

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individual it was very symbolic right

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the bicycle kind of became the symbol I

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mean they were like when I was again

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when I was looking at pictures yeah of

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kind of the women's right rights

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movements and stuff like that

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um they were they're posing there with

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their bicycles yeah so you it's so

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evident in the movie another like

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another symbolism she's bicycling

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everywhere in this movie she doesn't

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have a car she could easily afford a car

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she's a welder she was making 1980s

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actually making really good money in

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Pittsburgh Pennsylvania she could buy a

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car but she's not she's using her 10

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speed from her dance studio at night in

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the rain right at one point Nick is

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following her in his Porsche and she's

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bicycling home in in the rain so they

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make a point to really show this symbol

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yeah that she's that she's independent

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they drive that that's if there's one

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theme that they're driving through this

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right it's being independent and for her

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following her dream yes following her

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dreams so that that's the whole momentum

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here is that you're there it's a huge

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influence in pop culture is following

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your dreams maybe sometimes you do need

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help from other people it's okay to take

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the help from other people yeah the

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story of struggle yes we all need help

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every now and then that's okay you can

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still make your dreams come true and you

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know that you need people to believe in

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you in the end but I think the biggest

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thing is like opportunity when it meets

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preparation yes equals success

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absolutely and I think that's kind of

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what it was trying to show there like

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she's still doing it on her own because

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she was prepared for that moment right

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she had the opportunity she got it the

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opportunity from help but her

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preparation led to her success so I

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think

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that was the huge message that they were

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trying to get across especially for

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women in the early 80s you can do it

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yeah you know make sure you're prepared

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for when opportunity presents itself to

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you yeah and there was there was one

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other thing before we finish up that I

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want to talk about that I thought was

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really neat

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and that was the crossing guard oh yeah

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so we we go there the crossing guard

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what was this do you remember his name

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that's right and so I actually was able

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to find like original old footage on

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YouTube of vixianka he did it for 30

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years he did it so and if if you again

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if you haven't seen the movie finish

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this podcast then go watch the movie if

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you have seen the movie if you remember

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when she's crossing the street with her

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friend and they're kind of being playful

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with their play being playful with this

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crossing guard who's making him he's got

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very big arm movements and he you could

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you can tell he's got white gloves and

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he's being very he's having fun with it

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right he's kind of a little bit of a

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character sure but I didn't realize like

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he was a Pittsburgh staple yes for 30

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years he did that because you can

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imagine the traffic at rush hour yeah

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and he's he directed traffic for 30

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years getting people in and out of the

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city now that location was actually

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difficult to find very difficult because

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things have changed we we we're pretty

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sure we found the right spot where we

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were filming someone I think came back

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to us later and said hey no he actually

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used to stand over here that's where the

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shot is we're at

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537th Avenue were raid by the the

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Benedum theater yeah

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um word wood and Liberty like we're

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right there but I think the person said

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maybe it was Atwood and Liberty yeah I

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think we're like once again things have

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changed Bridges have been updated and

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stuff like that right since the you know

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the early 80s

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um but that was just such kind of a neat

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little tribute to to Pittsburgh history

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yes and he was in maybe so we say good

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that's right that's right he was a Navy

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guy

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um and little things like that are for

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me always kind of like a real pleasant

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surprise because here's this neat

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piece of History this neat character he

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wasn't seeking fame right he was just

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serving his community he was a police

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officer he was directing traffic and

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here here he is and now he's featured in

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a movie and he had he was well known

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before that right and now here he is

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cemented and another classic That's a

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classic scene it's not a big scene it

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doesn't really contribute too much to

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the story other than she's just having

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fun around Pittsburgh and here's his

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crossing guard they're being playful and

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he's having a good he's being playful

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right back that was just to me that was

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just like something that I that I took a

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lot of joy out of yeah just like it

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shows you very Community oriented

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Pittsburgh is just that loves its people

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yeah and he's got like classic 80s

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mustache oh man he's got the Tom Selleck

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mustache all day and he's pulling it off

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like a champ it was that that was just a

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ton of fun for me like that little piece

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I just got a ton of enjoyment out I

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loved filming this one I just loved

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being in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania it was

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fun it was fun driving her on Pittsburgh

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and again it's just such a fun movie so

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again if you haven't ever seen the movie

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or you haven't seen our video

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stop listening to this podcast once

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you're done go watch our video then go

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watch the movie

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um but because it's just such a blast

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it's a classic 80s movie and and filming

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it and driving around Pittsburgh was a

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ton of fun

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so Flash Dance was not only a great

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movie that showed how women and their

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independence were on the rise

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shifting out of that era of the 50s 60s

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and 70s

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but some of the underlying messages of

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women's rights and feminism while not

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giving up what makes them unique as a

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woman is what Flashdance is truly about

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that

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and that a steel town girl can still

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love a guy that loves her enough to not

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let her dreams die

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so thank you again for listening to the

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talk with History Podcast and please

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reach out to us at our website talk with

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history.com but more importantly if you

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know someone else that might enjoy this

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podcast any of these fans out there

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please share this with them especially

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if you think today's topic would

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interest a friend shoot him a text and

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tell them to look up the talk with

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History Podcast because we rely on you

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our community to grow and we appreciate

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you all every day and thank you Scott

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for loving the skilletown girl enough to

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not let her dreams die we'll talk to you

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next time

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