WEBVTT

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Imagine getting punched right in the jaw by your

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employee. Oh, wow. Yeah, in a private room at

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a nightclub and deciding that your best possible

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response is to give her a massive promotion.

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Right, which in the modern world is just a fast

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track to a massive corporate lawsuit. Exactly.

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But in 1935, that wasn't an HR nightmare. It

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was literally the inciting incident of an actual

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feature film. It perfectly captures. this very

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specific, incredibly strange era of storytelling,

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where absolute shock value just completely overruled

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any semblance of human logic. Welcome to the

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Deep Dive. Today, we are going on a bit of a

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rescue mission into the dusty, chaotic back alleys

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of film history. We really are. Because our mission

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today is to explore a totally forgotten piece

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of media. It's a 1935 American black and white

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indie film called $20 a week. Such a great title,

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honestly. It is. And we are taking the surviving

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documentation of this 80 minute movie, mostly

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it's Wikipedia article, and we're just pulling

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it apart for you. Because on the surface, you

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know, this is just another obscure melodrama

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lost to time. Right. But when you actually dig

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into the details, it becomes this hilarious,

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chaotic time capsule. We're talking about whiplash

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-inducing narrative choices and a production

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schedule that genuinely defies the laws of physics.

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Oh, the timeline is completely wild. And it also

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reveals a fascinating mystery about how human

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history is actually recorded and how easily it

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decays. Which is something we don't think about

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enough. No, we really don't. OK, let's unpack

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this. because the plot of $20 a week is basically

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a master class in absolute chaos. It genuinely

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moves at a speed that barely leaves you time

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to process what you just watched. So let's dive

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into this narrative. Our protagonist is Sally

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Blair. Right. She's she's a stenographer and

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she works for an insurance agent named Mr. Warner.

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And Mr. Warner makes it very clear that he wants

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to be, you know, more than just her boss. Classic

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1930s setup. Totally. Now, Sally actually has

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a date lined up with the new salesman at the

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company, a guy named Peter. Okay. But for reasons

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that already feel a little shaky, she completely

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ditches Peter and accepts a date with her boss

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instead. Which immediately establishes Sally

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as this really pragmatic, if slightly ruthless,

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character for 1935. Yeah, she knows what she's

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doing. Exactly. I mean, she is navigating a workplace

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dynamic where the boss holds literally all the

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cards. So she decides to play the game. Right,

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until she violently flips the board over. Literally.

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Because Warner takes Sally out to a nightclub.

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They end up in this private room and Warner makes

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his move. He tries to kiss her. And Sally retaliates

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by punching him squarely in the face. A completely

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understandable reaction. Absolutely justified.

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But the consequence of that punch is where the

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script just completely severs its ties with reality.

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Yeah, it really goes off the rails here. After

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getting clocked in the jaw by his stenographer,

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Warner's reaction is to promote her. Makes total

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sense. Right. She instantly becomes his personal

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secretary. There is no disciplinary action, no

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awkward tension, just an immediate bump in pay

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and status. It's incredible. And the movie just

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keeps barreling forward without looking back.

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Later on, they are all attending a wedding. Right.

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The pacing is just breathless. Exactly. And Peter,

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the salesman she ditched earlier, suddenly corners

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Sally and proposes to her. With virtually no

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romantic buildup to justify a lifelong commitment,

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by the way. None. But before she can even process

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the proposal, Peter's mother pulls Sally aside.

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She tells Sally to stay away from her son and

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accuses her of being a gold digger who is only

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after Peter's money. Now, in a traditional story,

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this is the part where the protagonist tries

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to prove her pure intentions. But Sally just

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operates on pure spite. She really does. In Defiance

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of the Mother, Sally and Peter just go ahead

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and get married anyway. The end. That's the movie.

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Roll credits. I mean, it's basically an absurdist

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modern day HR training video. You punch the boss,

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you get a promotion. I have to ask you... Looking

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at the sheer speed and absurdity of this, why

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would the writers Rob Eden and L .V. Jefferson

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think this makes any narrative sense? Like, is

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this supposed to be comedy or drama? Well, what's

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fascinating here is how the historical categories

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try to label this chaos. Right, because it's

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hard to pin down. It is. The records list $20

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a week as both a 1930s melodrama and an American

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comedy drama. Which feels like a contradiction.

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Yeah. But to really understand why this script

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got greenlit and why it was structured this way,

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we have to look at the psychology of the depression

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-era moviegoer. Okay. In 1935, audiences buying

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tickets to a low -budget B -movie. were not looking

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for deep psychological realism or subtle character

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arcs. They just wanted a distraction. They wanted

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raw escapism, and they wanted it delivered at

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a breakneck pace. And they probably wanted to

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see the wealthy boss get exactly what was coming

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to him. Precisely. The visual of a working -class

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stenographer literally punching her wealthy,

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entitled boss in the face was incredibly cathartic

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for an audience struggling through the Great

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Depression. Oh, I bet people cheered in the theaters.

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I'm sure they did. The writers knew that the

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punch was the selling point. The logical fallout

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of the punch didn't matter. Right. Who cares

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about HR protocols in 1935? Exactly. They needed

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a reason to keep Sally in the boss's orbit for

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the rest of the film. But they also needed her

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to have more power. So they simply invent the

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most convenient outcome possible. The promotion.

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It's basically narrative duct tape. Huh, exactly.

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You just slap it on the plot hole and keep the

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machine moving. You don't have time to write

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a nuanced three -episode arc about workplace

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negotiations. You just write, punch, promotion,

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next scene. Narrative duct tape is the perfect

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way to describe it. Yeah. And they apply that

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exact same adhesive to the romance. Oh, right.

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The spite marriage. Yeah. They need a dramatic

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climax for the third act. They have a wedding

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set available. So Peter proposes, the mother

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objects, and boom, we get a spite marriage. Every

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single emotional beat is compressed into its

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most extreme, explosive version. Because they're

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racing against the clock. Exactly. And that race

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against the clock on the page brings us to the

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actual physical reality of making this movie.

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Because here's where it gets really interesting.

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Oh, boy. The production timeline. Yes. If you

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think the plot of $20 a week moves fast, the

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real -life production timeline is just an absolute

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logistical impossibility. It's hard to even wrap

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your head around. Let's look at the timeline.

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It's November 1934. An independent producer named

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Burton L. King buys the rights to Rob Eden's

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story. His plan is to make the film independently

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and distribute it through an entity called the

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Ajax Distributing Corporation. And he announces

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to the press that this will be the first of four

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planned pictures. Which is a pretty standard

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ambitious goal for an indie producer trying to

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establish a foothold. Sure, but the ink is barely

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dry before everything shifts. Later that exact

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same month, still November 1934, King seemingly

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pivots. He forms his own distinct production

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house called Four Leaf Clover Productions. OK,

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so a rebrand already. Right. And under this new

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banner, he manages to sign and establish actress

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Pauline Stark to star in the film. A great get

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for an indie film. Huge. Then we cross into December

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1934. Suddenly, the production company's name

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has changed again. It is no longer Four Leaf

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Clover. Now it is Ajax Pictures. Another pivot.

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and those four planned films. That number vanishes.

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Bertinelle King announces that $20 a week is

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actually the first of 10 films planned by his

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company. A staggering escalation of promises.

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Staggering doesn't even begin to cover it. But

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the wildest part is that by the end of December

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1934, filming on $20 a week is completely finished.

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Wow. And the movie officially hits theaters on

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February 2nd, 1935. Now I have to push back on

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this entire operation. Please do. Because I am

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trying to understand the basic cash flow and

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logistics here. Wait, they went from buying this

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story to a finished film in under two months.

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Yes. And changed their company name mid -stride

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and suddenly promised 10 movies instead of four.

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Wasn't this destined to be a complete mess? Well,

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if we connect this to the bigger picture, the

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answer lies in a very specific, ruthless business

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model from that era called state rights distribution.

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OK, what is that? So the record showed this film

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was distributed via the state rights market.

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Burton L. King wasn't operating a major studio

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like MGM. He didn't own a chain of theaters and

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he didn't have a massive vault of studio cash.

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Right. He was a pure independent. Entirely. And

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in the state rights system, producers didn't

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sell their movie to a national distributor. They

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had to hustle and sell the exclusive rights to

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exhibit the film territory by territory. Wow.

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That sounds exhausting. It was. You literally

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sell the state rights for Ohio to one guy. the

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rights for Texas to another guy, and the rights

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for New York to someone else. Which means your

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entire revenue relies on convincing regional

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businessmen to take a gamble on your specific

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product. Exactly. Now, put yourself in Bertinelle

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King's shoes. You walk into a room with a regional

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distributor in Chicago. If you say, I have one

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cheap movie about a stenographer. That distributor

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might not even take the meeting. Right. There

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is no long -term value for them. But if you walk

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in and say, I am launching a massive new studio

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called Ajax Pictures, and I have a slate of 10

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fully -produced feature films coming down the

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pipeline. Suddenly, you look like a titan. You

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look like an institution. Ah. So the announcement

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of 10 films wasn't a reality. It was a bluff.

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It was a total bluff. It was just a marketing

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tactic to create an illusion of scale so these

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regional distributors would open their wallets

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and buy into the franchise. It was pure survival.

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King needed their upfront cash to actually pay

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for the first movie. That is wild. Yeah. And

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the changing company names, from Four Leaf Clover

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to Ajax, those were likely frantic attempts to

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rebrand and look more legitimate, or maybe to

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outrun previous debts. Just constantly staying

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one step ahead. Exactly. It was all about generating

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forward momentum. And when your entire business

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model is built on a bluff, you cannot afford

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a leisurely production schedule. Which explains

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how they finished filming in a matter of weeks.

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I mean, if you were burning through the cash

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you just hustled out of a distributor in Ohio,

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you don't have time for a second take. time for

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anything. To shoot an 80 minute feature in a

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few weeks, you are stripping the art of filmmaking

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down to its absolute bare bones. How does that

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even look on set? Well, you rent a sound stage

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that already has a generic office or living room

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set built for a bigger movie that wrapped the

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day before. You bring your actors in, you set

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up a massive array of flat bright lights so the

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entire room is illuminated. So you don't have

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to keep moving lights around for different shots.

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Exactly. Which means you never have to waste

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time moving the camera or adjusting the shadows.

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You just point the camera, yell action, and whatever

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happens, happens. Pretty much. If an actor stumbles

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over a line but the scene still makes basic sense,

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you keep rolling. Right. Film stock was expensive

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and time was their most precious commodity. Wow.

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That is how you go from purchasing a story in

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November to having a locked edited film ready

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for theaters by February. Which naturally leads

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us to the final result of this high speed collision

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of art and commerce. What actually happened when

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this frantic two month hustle hit theaters? The

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reviews were. Yeah, the contemporary reviews

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paint a very clear picture of that rushed schedule.

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The Film Daily reviewed the movie, and they were

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not kind. I can imagine. They specifically called

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out the director, Wesley Ford. They described

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his direction as unnatural. Ouch. And they said

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the cinematography was only fair. Unnatural is

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the exact word you would expect. when a director

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is functioning more like a traffic cop than an

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artist. Right. He didn't have the time to help

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the actors find the emotional truth of the scene.

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He just needed them to stand on their marks and

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deliver the dialogue before the lighting rental

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expired. And regarding the only fair cinematography,

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honestly, just keeping the camera in focus while

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sprinting through a shoot like that feels like

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a monumental achievement. Definitely. But amidst

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all of this unnatural direction and rushed production,

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there is a fascinating bright spot. Oh. The film,

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Daily, explicitly singled out Pauline Stark,

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the actress who played our feisty stenographer,

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Sally. The star they signed under Four Leaf Clover.

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Exactly. The review noted that her performance

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actually rose to the level of excellent work,

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completely defying the mediocrity of the film

00:12:31.870 --> 00:12:34.169
around her. Which is a testament to her profound

00:12:34.169 --> 00:12:35.850
professionalism. I mean, she had been working

00:12:35.850 --> 00:12:38.399
in the industry since the silent era. She knew

00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:40.440
what she was doing. She knew how to find the

00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:43.440
camera, hit her marks, and project genuine charisma,

00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:46.120
regardless of the chaos happening behind the

00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:48.679
scenes. It reminds me of those brutal group projects

00:12:48.679 --> 00:12:51.279
in college. Oh, no. You know the ones? You have

00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:53.980
a team of five people. Four of them are just

00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:56.240
desperately trying to scrape together a passing

00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:58.740
grade before the midnight deadline. Right, just

00:12:58.740 --> 00:13:00.899
copy and pasting, formatting. Cutting corners,

00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:02.940
just trying to survive. But then you have that

00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:05.860
one person, Pauline Stark, who actually cares

00:13:05.860 --> 00:13:08.009
about the subject matter. The hero of the group.

00:13:08.330 --> 00:13:10.750
Yes, she is doing all the heavy lifting, refining

00:13:10.750 --> 00:13:13.490
the arguments, and basically carrying the entire

00:13:13.490 --> 00:13:16.409
project on her back. She took a script made of

00:13:16.409 --> 00:13:19.070
narrative duct tape and actually made the audience

00:13:19.070 --> 00:13:22.350
believe in Sally's defiance. She elevated the

00:13:22.350 --> 00:13:24.929
material purely through sheer force of will.

00:13:25.309 --> 00:13:28.070
But unfortunately, even Pauline Stark's excellent

00:13:28.070 --> 00:13:30.690
work couldn't save $20 a week from slipping into

00:13:30.690 --> 00:13:33.600
total obscurity. Which is a shame. It is, and

00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.779
this is where we get to the most compelling part

00:13:35.779 --> 00:13:38.419
of our source material today. Because this film

00:13:38.419 --> 00:13:41.159
is so obscure and the production was so fast

00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:44.360
and cheap, the actual historical record we rely

00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.399
on today is quite literally falling apart. It

00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:49.879
really is. The Wikipedia page that documents

00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:52.399
this film is full of glaring contradictions.

00:13:52.500 --> 00:13:54.840
It becomes a physical demonstration of how history

00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:57.590
decays. Yes. If you look at the credits listed

00:13:57.590 --> 00:14:00.389
on the page, the main info box states that the

00:14:00.389 --> 00:14:02.590
cinematography, that only fair camera work we

00:14:02.590 --> 00:14:05.409
mentioned, was done by a man named Arthur Martinelli.

00:14:05.710 --> 00:14:08.269
Okay. But if you scroll down and read the text

00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:11.610
detailing that film Daily Reception, it casually

00:14:11.610 --> 00:14:14.149
states that Al Martin's cinematography was only

00:14:14.149 --> 00:14:17.240
fair. Wait, really? Two different names. We have

00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:19.879
two completely different names credited for the

00:14:19.879 --> 00:14:22.080
exact same job on the exact same movie on the

00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:24.220
same page. And the contradictions don't stop

00:14:24.220 --> 00:14:26.500
behind the camera. No, they bleed right into

00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:29.379
the cast list. The official cast breakdown highlights

00:14:29.379 --> 00:14:31.759
an actor named James Murray playing the role

00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.120
of Peter Douglas. The salesman who proposes out

00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:37.159
of nowhere. Right. But if you read the timeline

00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:39.899
of the production, it proudly notes that in January

00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:44.220
1935, the studio revealed to the press that John

00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:46.600
Murray was starring in the film. James Murray

00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:49.159
or John Murray. Dr. Martinelli or Al Martin.

00:14:49.720 --> 00:14:51.980
So what does this all mean? It's a mess. How

00:14:51.980 --> 00:14:55.080
does a modern encyclopedic record end up cementing

00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:57.460
these clashing facts right next to each other

00:14:57.460 --> 00:15:00.000
as objective truth? Well, this raises an important

00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.279
question about the physical reality of historical

00:15:02.279 --> 00:15:05.039
archives. What do you mean? We tend to view history

00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:09.139
as this solid, immutable bedrock of verified

00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:13.059
facts. But that level of certainty is a luxury

00:15:13.059 --> 00:15:16.000
reserved for massive cultural events or, you

00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.279
know, blockbuster studio films where thousands

00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:20.460
of people were taking notes. The big stuff. Right.

00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:22.879
When you're dealing with an 80 minute independent

00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.860
B -movie shot in a few weeks by a producer who

00:15:25.860 --> 00:15:27.919
is changing his company name every other Tuesday,

00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:31.240
the bedrock crumbles. Yeah. The primary sources

00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:33.919
we have left aren't pristine studio ledgers.

00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:37.919
They are decaying. Ephemeral materials? Exactly.

00:15:38.500 --> 00:15:40.460
The historians trying to piece this together

00:15:40.460 --> 00:15:43.559
today are relying on crumbling trade papers from

00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:47.139
1935. They are looking at hastily typed press

00:15:47.139 --> 00:15:49.320
releases that Bertinelle King sent out to regional

00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:51.639
theaters. Which were probably full of errors

00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:54.519
to begin with. Oh absolutely. Imagine a typesetter

00:15:54.519 --> 00:15:57.899
at a local Ohio newspaper in 1935 receiving a

00:15:57.899 --> 00:16:00.919
blurry telegram about the movie. He accidentally

00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:03.080
types Al Martin instead of Arthur Martinelli

00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:06.480
to save space on the page. Right. Or an editor

00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:09.320
mishears James' John over a crackly phone line.

00:16:10.340 --> 00:16:13.480
In 1935, nobody cared enough to issue a correction

00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:16.940
for a B -movie. But 90 years later... that typo

00:16:16.940 --> 00:16:20.139
is preserved on microfilm. It is the analog version

00:16:20.139 --> 00:16:22.120
of digital rot. That's a great way to put it.

00:16:22.220 --> 00:16:24.120
It's like trying to build a solid house out of

00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:26.960
sawdust. Modern researchers find these contradictory

00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:28.899
clippings, and because there is no surviving

00:16:28.899 --> 00:16:31.559
master document to verify against, both the typo

00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:33.679
and the truth get uploaded to the digital archive

00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:36.539
side by side. The chaos of Bertinell King's production

00:16:36.539 --> 00:16:40.019
in 1934 has literally transcended time to infect

00:16:40.019 --> 00:16:42.559
the digital record of the present day. The hustle

00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:44.840
left a messy permanent footprint. Which brings

00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:47.259
us back to why we decided to explore this weird

00:16:47.259 --> 00:16:50.360
little movie in the first place. For you, the

00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:53.840
listener Why does $20 a week matter? Yeah, why

00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.480
do we care? We started this deep dive looking

00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:00.399
at a forgotten title, an 80 minute slice of 1930s

00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:03.039
melodrama. But what we actually uncovered was

00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:06.940
a frantic, deeply human endeavor. We found the

00:17:06.940 --> 00:17:09.420
wild, almost delusional ambition of an independent

00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:12.160
producer bluffing his way into a 10 picture slate

00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:15.140
just to keep the lights on. And we examined a

00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:18.559
bizarre narrative logic born not out of bad writing,

00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:21.150
but out of absolute necessity. where a punch

00:17:21.150 --> 00:17:23.990
in the face leading to a promotion was just the

00:17:23.990 --> 00:17:26.109
fastest way to give an audience the catharsis

00:17:26.109 --> 00:17:28.349
they craved. And we found a brilliant actor,

00:17:28.710 --> 00:17:30.910
Pauline Stark, standing in the middle of her

00:17:30.910 --> 00:17:33.029
rented set, dealing with unnatural direction

00:17:33.029 --> 00:17:36.190
and chaotic pacing, giving it her absolute all

00:17:36.190 --> 00:17:38.329
to deliver an excellent performance. She really

00:17:38.329 --> 00:17:40.890
did. It is a powerful reminder that behind every

00:17:40.890 --> 00:17:43.289
piece of media that history casually dismisses

00:17:43.289 --> 00:17:45.930
as mediocre or just completely forgets, there

00:17:45.930 --> 00:17:48.910
is a frantic story of human beings desperately

00:17:48.910 --> 00:17:51.130
trying to make something happen. They were fighting

00:17:51.130 --> 00:17:54.250
against time, budget and logistics to create

00:17:54.250 --> 00:17:57.190
art. Even if that art only lasted 80 minutes

00:17:57.190 --> 00:17:59.990
exactly and the fact that we can only view their

00:17:59.990 --> 00:18:03.589
efforts today through a fractured lens of mismatched

00:18:03.589 --> 00:18:08.089
names and single surviving reviews is Incredibly

00:18:08.089 --> 00:18:10.930
sobering it really is which leaves us with a

00:18:10.930 --> 00:18:13.619
critical thought to carry forward We currently

00:18:13.619 --> 00:18:16.240
live in an era of absolute media saturation.

00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:19.619
We are constantly scrolling, consuming, and discarding

00:18:19.619 --> 00:18:22.240
content faster than ever before. If a fully funded

00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:25.420
feature film from 1935, a project that required

00:18:25.420 --> 00:18:28.240
physical film stock, rented sound stages, theatrical

00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.000
distribution, and professional actors, if that

00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.359
massive physical undertaking barely survives

00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:35.720
in our public record today as a series of typos

00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:38.539
and a single review calling it unnatural, What

00:18:38.539 --> 00:18:41.140
is the fate of our current media? It's a scary

00:18:41.140 --> 00:18:43.859
thought. Think about the endless stream of TikToks,

00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:46.079
the countless hours of streaming filler, the

00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.359
web series, the digital content we consume and

00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:50.720
forget in a matter of seconds. What percentage

00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:53.259
of that will even exist in 90 years? Probably

00:18:53.259 --> 00:18:55.640
very little. How will future historians ever

00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:57.980
be able to piece together the sheer overwhelming

00:18:57.980 --> 00:19:00.940
chaos of our modern pop culture when the Museum

00:19:00.940 --> 00:19:03.359
of History has already proven it only has so

00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:06.140
much room on its shelves? next time you're scrolling

00:19:06.140 --> 00:19:08.539
past something you think is just obscure disposable

00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:12.059
filler remember $20 a week remember the dusty

00:19:12.059 --> 00:19:15.180
chaotic back alleys of history and ask yourself

00:19:15.180 --> 00:19:17.440
what parts of our world are destined to be hiding

00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:18.019
in the dark