I was pregnant, and I was scared.
This is my deathbed confession.
- The Positive Woman looks upon her femaleness and her fertility
as part of her purpose, her potential, and her power.
She starts with the knowledge
that America is the greatest country in the world,
and she must do her part to keep it that way.
Now the women's liberation movement--
they like to characterize the, uh,
Positive Woman as negative...
- ...as "Anti,"
when in fact, the opposite is true,
because the Positive Woman is pro-family and pro-life...
- ...and pro-American.
There's a question?
H-How does the Positive Woman cope with threats
to our nation's security both within our borders
as well as outside?
- My mother's now your mother's ringer.
Unbelievable. - You're referring, no doubt,
to our current political crisis?
Well, our last election was a rout.
There's no other way of describing it.
The liberals now control the courts
and the legislative and executive branches
and the media.
And in Jimmy Carter, well,
we have a president who is weak on foreign policy,
is complacent in the face of the growing red menace,
and he is ill-prepared to deal with the nuclear genie
that is well and truly out of the bottle,
not to mention that within weeks of his inauguration,
the First Lady ruthlessly lobbied Indiana
to become the 35th state to ratify the ERA.
- Your mother seems... - She's been like this
since the election. - Shh, shh.
- So thank you very much.
Uh, this is just a small appetizer from my new book,
"The Power of the Positive Woman,"
and if you want the full meal,
you'll need to buy a copy from me for $8.95.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Hi!
Phyl, sit up straight, sweetheart.
- You were wonderful. - Oh, you were, too.
- We should eat something before we head off to the theater.
- I can't believe I drove all this way from Boston
for "The King and I."
- I thought I was coming in for "A Chorus Line."
- "The King and I" is a classic.
- Clive Barnes called "A Chorus Line"
an occasion of joy. - Oh, Clive Barnes.
- "Like a rainbow after a thunderstorm."
- Is Clive Barnes a weatherman? - Oh, she's spent
one semester at Princeton, and she's already spouting
this liberal nonsense like it's gospel.
- You have just a bit of perspiration right there.
- Oh. - That's perfect.
- You're a traitor to your sex by waging war against women!
- Well, I'm--I'm glad it wasn't a cherry pie,
because it would've stained my dress.
- Is it...tongue?
- Mm. And some kind of... fish spread.
- That's a whitefish spread.
It's an old Cossack family recipe
from her father's butcher shop.
Say you're on a diet. That's what I always say.
- You are always on a diet.
- And we're here to cheer her up.
How bad is she?
- Just... don't comment on her hair.
I'm happy you're here to give her some good news.
- I hope she sees it that way. It's not even a paid position.
- I really thought she would win.
- No one's eating. Is someone sick?
- I'm not interrupting.
I just came out to sneak myself a sandwich.
- Oh, excuse my hair. I haven't been able to find anyone
as good as Lily in the city.
- You haven't found anyone as good in New York City.
- Uh, well, it was a walk from the House Beauty Parlor
to the Capitol that really made my hair shine.
No one's touched the liver.
- Mmm. Did Bella tell you that
we're going to Southern Italy next month?
- Yeah, we're taking a food tour,
see who makes the better salami.
- It's called salumi. - No, no, "salumi"
is the umbrella term for all cured meats.
- I have been waiting 25 years to get you back there.
I'd like to, uh, make a toast to Midge...
...on being the first female assistant to the president.
I can't believe it was only five years ago
you were my assistant at the convention,
running around, delivering papers.
- Cheers.
- You clearly have Carter's ear.
Use it wisely.
- Iusing it wisely.
I have asked the president to resurrect Jill's commission,
which means the first ever national women's convention
is back from the dead.
- The one that I--
- Funded with your bill. Yes. It's scheduled for November.
Just need to find the right person to run it.
Not this November.
That's not enough time.
Uh, it's designed to be run like a political party convention,
only it's bipartisan-- uh, an even bigger undertaking.
It takes years to plan.
- Which is why I've asked the president to appoint you
as Presiding Officer of the commission.
- Only you could pull off something this ambitious.
We could get so much done.
- I would certainly be the right man for the job.
- Cheers.
- You're still up.
It's late. Come to bed.
- Hmm.
- That was a great slogan.
- Hmm. It was.
But Bella Abzug won with it.
The most socialist, anti-war, radical libber
had the same slogan as me.
- Don't make it personal.
Come to bed.
- I want you to imagine
a group of Native Alaskan women getting on a bus in Fairbanks,
Appalachian women getting on a bus in Beattyville,
homemakers getting on a bus in Toledo.
They're all traveling to represent their state,
all of them yearning to have a voice in government,
to vote on issues that affect their lives.
It's easier to imagine if your eyes are closed.
When the state meetings are over,
all these buses, hundreds and hundreds of them
with women from all walks of life,
make their way to Houston.
We have very limited resources.
Do we wanna spend our money on these buses,
or on pretty skirts to decorate tables on the convention floor?
- Fine. No table skirts. Everyone, open your eyes.
You're gonna give a 10-minute meditation
on every line item in the budget?
- No, just the table skirts felt frivolous.
- Moving on. Coretta Scott King
has agreed to join the commission
and chair the minority rights committee.
- Oh.
That's fabulous.
- Uh, we have one more spot.
As much as I hate to say it,
I think we should appoint Betty as our final commissioner.
- Betty Friedan? No.
- Uh, I know she's divisive and a pain in the ass,
but she is a pioneer.
- Who almost singlehandedly kept lesbians out of the movement
for a decade.
- And we've been making a big push at the state meetings
to approve a gay rights resolution.
- If the resolution makes it on the agenda in Houston,
will the president still get up onstage for opening ceremonies?
- I'll make sure of it. - If Betty is on that stage,
it'll send a message that we're not welcome.
I'll resign. - So now we're not gonna have
people we disagree with participate?
- Not if we want Houston to be inclusive.
- You wanna be inclusive by excluding?
Would you listen to yourself?
- You cannot appoint her. - Okay. Okay, let's calm down.
- This is just how we talk in New York City.
- The West Side of New York City.
- This is exactly
what I warned would happen with the Democrats in charge.
It's a federally funded festival for frustrated feminists.
- They're gonna ram a whole platform
of lefty issues down our throats.
- Yes.
- Will the libbers use this to get those last three states?
- Well, they put that Marxist Bella Abzug in charge,
so I would guess yes,
but that doesn't mean we're gonna roll over
and let them win.
- They are truly the horribles. - Mm-hmm.
- Deviants and murderers.
Get ready to see our hard-earned dollars
go to fund abortion on demand, lesbianism,
shelters for beaten wives.
- Well, I think the husband will be more inclined to beat her...
- ...if he thinks she's gonna
get a vacation funded by his tax dollar.
- But, uh, we should organize a counter rally
to protest the convention.
Grab the attention of the press.
- No. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, wait a minute.
I do have a strategy.
Now Bella Abzug's commission is holding meetings
in every state this summer,
where they will elect representatives
to go to this national convention in Houston,
and each of these state meetings will be our battleground.
Now we need to get ourselves elected so that we can get seats
at the convention.
- Why shouldn't conservative women have a voice
on women's issues?
- Well, that's right. That's exactly my point.
- So anyone can run, not just the liberals?
- Yes, it's called the electoral process.
- Well, it's, um...
it's kind of like the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest--
thousands of women from every state competing
for a spot on the national competition
to see who has the best recipes.
- And we have to get pro-family bakers,
or we'll be stuck with a bunch
of liberal recipes in our cookbook
and force-fed ERA brownies, abortion cookies,
and lesbian pies till Kingdom come.
- Yes, well, every metaphor has its limits, Rosemary.
- Well, if we're going to war, we'll need protection.
I have some men that would be willing to help,
make sure we're not harmed.
- Do you really think it's that dangerous?
- Look at what they did to Phyllis.
- Oh! It doesn't hurt a bit.
But we do need to be smart about this.
Because if we're gonna take over their conference
by winning seats, they can't see us coming.
- Frankly, Phyllis, I have concerns
about you being the leader of this operation.
You're a lightning rod.
- I think she has a point.
Well, clearly, you're a target, given your...pirate status.
What--What if you get pied again or worse?
- I am not a pirate.
- I only meant let us do the work on the ground,
and you can recover and strategize from home.
- Yeah, well, I can see the wisdom in that.
- Well, I think it's clear who should be out front.
- I have done a pretty good job of running the Illinois chapter
of STOP ERA.
I would be honored to take your place on the front lines.
Yes.
- Congratulations, Rosemary. You've just been drafted.
- Well...
since STOP ERA and Eagle Forum are so closely tied
to your name and image, I think it might be a good idea
for me to create an ad hoc organization
with myself as president,
just to be sure the libbers don't see us coming
until it's too late...
like you said.
- The South Carolina office was burglarized?
- In broad daylight. The staff was there. The door was open.
- By who?
- Some group calling themselves Citizen's Review Committee.
Find out what they took.
- I'm not your assistant.
Judy, what'd they take?!
- It was like "The Pink Panther."
First, I created a diversion. - I don't wanna know.
The Eagle Forum is a law-abiding organization.
- Well, Eagle Forum is,
but the Citizen's Review Committee...
- Don't look at me.
I was setting up our hospitality suite.
- We should have a training manual like this.
We could write our own.
- Maybe even steal their typeface to make it
look like we're an official part of their commission.
- "The Citizen's Review Committee hospitality suite
"will be under 24-hour security supervision
and can only be accessed..." Get this.
"...using the secret hand signal."
- What kind of secret hand signals?
- According to this, the head of this new group
is housewife Rosemary Thomson.
- Who also happens to be head of the Illinois chapter
of STOP ERA and on the board of the Eagle Forum.
- They're trying to kill this national convention
just like they've been trying to kill ERA. I'm worried--
- Don't be. We have 1,400 delegate spots.
What's three ultra conservatives getting elected from Georgia?
- At what number should we start worrying?
- If they get 20%, they'll have real power.
- So every time the libbers would try to read
the ERA resolution...
- You can hear it on the recording.
- Well, I'll send copies to Senator Helms
to include their propaganda in the Congressional Record.
Where's the recording of the Texas meeting?
- Oh, I... - I'll need every single one
of those recordings, Pamela.
I need to know what's going on.
- They swept the Missouri meeting.
The entire delegation was taken over by the Antis.
They did well in Hawaii, too.
- How is that even possible?
- Well, there's an LDS cultural center out there.
All these Mormons came over on boats.
Why didn't Mildred warn us in advance?
Isn't that her job?
- Was. She quit when you threw your lunch at her.
- I didn't throw it at her. It was just a little cole slaw.
- The slaw that broke the camel's back.
This is not a good time.
- I could have predicted what happened in Missouri.
And let me tell you something.
Whoever is organizing this Citizen's Review Committee
is even more cunning than Phyllis Schlafly.
- It is Phyllis Schlafly.
The Citizen's Review Committee is the Eagle Forum,
is STOP ERA. It's all the same people.
- Oh. Well, if I was fooled, everyone's fooled.
But you want to get advice from Jean Stapleton.
Oh, ain't that smart?
- She's Edith Bunker.
She's on the commission because she's a celebrity.
- Well, I'm a celebrity,
and my fans are not gonna show up--
I have a lot of fans-- unless I'm there.
- Then get your ass to Albany
and run to represent New York state.
- Well...maybe I will!
Gosh.
- We have a big problem in Albany.
- Is Jesse Helms going to be at the state dinner?
- Mm.
- Make sure you corner him and find out where Phyllis
is getting her funding and reassure--
- The First Lady that we've got things under control
while finding private time for the president
with Anwar Sadat. Yes, I know.
- Doesn't she clean up well? - Oh.
- You're so beautiful.
- I feel like a chandelier.
- What's our plan?
- Chinese, followed by a drag show in Dupont Circle.
- Mm! My perfect man.
- Words I never thought I'd hear you say.
- Be good.
You were supposed to monitor any activity on the ground!
Who are you?
- I put a report on your desk. Did you even look at it?
- What happened?
- Citizen's Review Committee is busing people to Albany--
Mormons, thousands of 'em. You're fired.
- She didn't mean that.
We're just frustrated with the situation. I--
- Yes, everyone's frustrated. One person is fired. Go.
Morale is already low.
- We are in a crisis.
Nothing gets our side mobilized more than Phyllis Schlafly.
She's in hiding. I need to draw her out.
Judy, could you get me a flight to Normal, Illinois?
- I don't think you should go.
- You don't trust I know what I'm doing?
- You've been having outbursts. - I'm under a lot of stress.
- If you have an outburst with Phyllis
in front of thousands of people, that's how she got to Betty.
- Oh, so you think I'm Betty now.
If you're so concerned, come with me.
- I'm scheduled to speak at the California meeting.
- You know, that's the difference between you and me.
You wanna preach to the choir.
- Of course I'm gonna run in my home state.
Aren't these meetings open to all women?
- He's got Tommy's eyes. - And Buck's hairline.
- Ah. Anytime.
Well...
the press is crowing about a showdown.
And where Bella Abzug is, Gloria Steinem's not far behind.
- So does this mean you can come out and run
in the elections with us?
- Well, the cat's out of the bag.
They know that the, uh, Citizen's Review Committee
is my work, and... can't let my ladies down.
- Oh. I'm so relieved.
I've never run for anything in my life.
- You know, I think I should, uh,
make a speech from the floor,
something to make Bella really squirm.
It's gonna be fun.
- I'm expecting a package.
Did you see anything in the mail?
- Well, who's sending you a package, Phyl?
- A boy?
- Photographer's here.
- Oh.
- Well, this is a bit early, even for you.
- Well...
It's the only time all of the children are home.
It's warm in here.
I'd take the blanket off him.
- Hmm-hmm-hmm!
- Smile!
- Bruce, tuck in your shirt. - Oh. Sorry.
- Get in, Aunt Eleanor.
- Oh, honey, I don't have my Christmas sweater on me.
- You can have mine. I don't even wanna be in this photo.
- Let's get a few more on the count of three.
One...two...three!
- John, you're slouching.
Liza...
Phyl.
- Who's Liza? - It's a nickname.
- "Phyl" is already a nickname. Why--
- It's not important.
- It's important enough for you to keep it from me.
- 'Cause I knew you'd react like this. Doesn't matter.
- No, it matters to me.
I happen to like your given name.
- Do you know how hard it is
to be Phyllis Schlafly, Jr. on campus?
- Oh, there are a lot of, uh, students
with famous parents at Princeton.
- Not famous for being public enemy number one
of women's liberation.
I've changed my name. - To what?
- JOHN, BRUCE, ROGER: Liza.
- That's not a very pretty name.
- I...I think we're taking a break.
- Oh, thank you. - Thank you.
- You knew?
- It wasn't my news to share.
- I'm sorry. I didn't realize my name was such a burden.
- I feel like Hester Prynne whenever I introduce myself.
People laugh at me. You're famous. Good for you,
but it's embarrassing for me. - That's enough, Phyl.
- Busloads of my friends are headed
to the state meeting tomorrow. They're feminists.
They're interested in hearing what Bella Abzug has to say.
You know, they all wanna be Gloria Steinem, not--
- I said that's enough, Phyl.
Now apologize to your mother right now.
- You know, my mother worked at the library
for 25 years, 5 days a week, and on Sunday afternoons.
And on Saturdays, she worked at my high school
so that I could have a proper Catholic school education.
Now, uh, my classmates laughed and joked about my mother
working at the school, but I held my head high,
knowing that, uh, she was doing what was necessary
so that my life could be better, and I never, ever thought,
let alone said, that I was ashamed or embarrassed of her.
- I've decided to go to Berkeley.
- Did you talk to her this morning?
- How many times are you gonna ask me?
- I just hope she's okay.
- Well, if she wasn't planning on coming,
she should've given me the bullhorn.
- She's coming.
- Yeah, Bella! - Bella!
- How are you?
- Go home, Bella! - Go back to New York!
- We don't want you here!
- Has Schlafly arrived?
- We'll know when she gets here. All the trees will wilt.
- Boo! Boo! - Go home! Go back to New York!
- Go back to New York, Bella! Go home!
- Phyllis? I was just gonna pick up Anne from school.
Are you feeling all right?
Are you unwell?
Dr. Albert says that erratic sleeping,
sweating is often-- - It's not that.
I'm fine.
- I do know for me that I didn't know what was happening.
- I did not get into this fight to lose.
Not to that hideous battle-axe. I can't...
I just...
Why does she get to be inside the White House?
- You don't want to go to that women's convention anyway.
Going to Houston a week before Thanksgiving?
We always have so much to do.
- Oh, were you planning to spend Thanksgiving with us?
- Well...what do you mean?
- Well, I know it's been our tradition,
but Fred and I have been so selfish with your time,
and I know Robert's kids and Daniel's kids
love their Aunt Eleanor as much as mine do.
- Oh. I'll-- I'll check with them.
- Good. It's only fair.
- You can wait in here.
- Shh!
- Hello. I'm Bella.
- We know who you are.
- Let's see your sign.
So you're not going for wit.
Okay. But you spelled my name right. That's good.
You wouldn't believe how many people
spell "Abzug" incorrectly. It's phonetic.
Where's your queen?
- She's been held up in traffic.
- In Normal, Illinois?
She's not coming, is she?
Oh.
You don't know it yet.
Let me tell you the truth about Phyllis Schlafly.
She's a liar, a fearmonger, and a con artist,
but worst of all, she's a goddamn feminist.
She might be one of the most liberated women in America.
- Excuse me, but you don't know anything about Phyllis.
Before she took up our cause,
we were the punchline of jokes on late night talk shows,
made to feel guilty for being proud homemakers,
wanting to stay home with our children
instead of going to work in an office.
- We don't want to be working girls.
- She's been our savior, our Joan of Arc.
- Everything we know, we learned from her.
- What have you learned from her?
- So many things she's taught us.
- Has she taught you how to lobby legislators?
- Of course.
- Has she taught you how to draft a press release? A speech?
- Yes. - How to answer
reporters' questions, get the television interview?
- Yes.
- How to create a budget and balance it?
- Yes.
- Congratulations. You're working girls.
- Before we begin the voting,
it is my distinct honor to present our keynote speaker,
former U.S. Representative...
- Be sure to give Phyllis my best regards.
- ...Bella Abzug!
- Thank you. Thank you.
Ah.
Wow, it's great to be here.
When our country's forefathers wrote the Constitution,
they overlooked our foremothers...
...which is why I've come here today
to the great state of Illinois.
- Thank you. Thank you.
...it's because of all of your hard work.
Good, good, good.
- I heard you got four standing ovations.
- Actually, five-- six, if you count this one.
She never even showed when she heard I was coming.
How was California?
- We finally passed the resolution
to decriminalize prostitution.
Flo and I are happy about that.
- Ah, that's sweet, you think that's ever gonna make it
on the agenda.
But good news. 26 states have voted to approve
a gay rights resolution.
It's no longer the stepchild of the movement.
- I can't wait to hear the anti-change women
get up and preach about the dangers of perverts
teaching in our schools right before the vote.
- That's politics.
They're winning seats fair and square.
- They're busing Mormons to New York from out of state.
They're rigging the system,
and you're doing nothing to stop them.
- What would you have me do? - Kick them out.
- They'll rake us over the coals for being partisan.
We'll become the assholes.
- They're gonna bring bloody fetus banners
and tell us what we can and cannot do with our bodies,
and we' the assholes.
- We have to compromise. - Like we did with McGovern?
We finally have a place that's ours,
and they're going to ruin it.
- I've spent almost 10 years in this town.
I know what I can get done and what I can't--
something you've never had to learn.
- I've learned that I'm not willing to sit
on another convention floor getting called
a murderer of babies.
I'm not willing to let women speak
who are getting funded by the Birchers.
I'm sick of shrinking our dreams to appeal to the middle.
This was supposed to be our Eden,
and you've let the snakes in.
You were a bigger radical than me when we met.
- And you were a dilettante who wanted to play politics.
- Phyllis?
Phyllis? Is anybody here?
Oh, there you are.
- We must come together as sisters,
white, black, brown, heterosexual, and lesbian.
Lesbian rights are human r--
- What are you doing? I'm in the middle of something important.
- Why didn't you show up yesterday?
- It was a strategic decision.
For your information, I have had an inspired idea.
- I know you don't like to lose.
- Oh, I'm not losing. I'm winning.
- We got trounced. You left us to be humiliated
in front of Bella Abzug and 2,000 libbers.
- Lesbian rights are human rights.
- Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Ghost...
- I'm putting these libber quotes all together on one tape,
including, uh, some sermons that Lottie Beth sent me.
- Don't people realize that most women are working...
to destroy the home,
family, and religion.
- But that's not exactly what she said in her speech.
- Yes, but she said those words.
- Yes, but--but in a-- in a different way.
You're just taking them out of context.
- She said them.
Now the kids--they call these, uh, music compilations.
They're like movie soundtracks,
and they make them for their sweethearts,
but you can also make them for people
who are not your sweethearts.
If we're gonna mobilize more people,
we need them to know how truly horrible those libbers are.
- Yeah, in their own words. That's devious.
- Are you angry with me?
- I'll tell the girls you had food poisoning.
- Lesbian rights affect all of us.
- "You shall not lie with a male
as with a woman. It's an abomination."
- We fight for reproductive freedom!
- "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you."
- Women at home work harder than anyone,
and they work 99.6 hours a week without pay.
A man would have to pay a housekeeper $14,000 a year,
not including part-time prostitution.
- So that's the Horribles tape. - I miss Gloria.
- We're the Horribles?
- These tapes are everywhere.
They're spreading like wildfire across the churches.
- This must be how the swept Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi
last weekend--this tape.
- It's not just that they've mobilized more people.
They've emboldened the Klan to crawl out from under a rock.
- The Klan is showing up?
- Mississippi will be represented
by an all-white delegation in Houston.
That includes the wife of the Grand Dragon
of the Mississippi Klan. - They're not even hiding.
- Can you ask the president for more money for security?
- Delicately, I will.
- Use this to bury Phyllis Schlafly.
- I've waited years for proof that she's in bed with the Klan.
- Uh...
Uh, given all that's happening, I-I think, um...
I think it's...unwise
to keep a gay rights resolution on the agenda.
- You can't do that. It was approved in 30 states.
- Believe me, this is the hardest part of my job.
- I got you this job.
- Carter appointed me.
- Because I begged him.
Mrs. Carter thought you were pushy and loud.
- You know that's code for Jewish...
- And I fought for you. - ...and Italian.
- I thought you would fight for me.
- You want me to release hundreds of lavender balloons
on the convention floor that say, "We are everywhere"?
You're not even out of the closet!
- Well, maybe if I could hold Jean's--
I can't even hold her hand while we walk down the street
without getting the shit kicked out of me.
You're fearless. That's why I got you this appointment.
That's why I got into politics at all.
Because you went down to Mississippi at 28 years old
to defend Willie McGee. You risked your life--
- Sorry I let you down.
I tried to stop the Antis, but they're coming to Houston,
they're bringing the Klan,
and my job is to keep our women safe.
Your job is to make sure the president
is standing on that stage.
- The president isn't coming.
- Picked up the things from your office.
- Aw. What's this?
- Uh, it's from the South Dakota meeting.
Someone sent you a miniature Mount Rushmore statue,
remade with the Suffragettes.
Oh, Wisconsin? - Yes.
You know what goes nicely with this cheese?
From the Kentucky meeting.
- Kentucky? - Mm-hmm.
- This could be poisoned. - Well, I'll be your taster.
- Did you run into Bella?
- Uh...no.
No, she was in a meeting.
- I haven't gone this long without speaking to her and...
What's this?
- Uh...
- Huh.
They thought I would wear this?
- How could you let a Klansman guard our hospitality suite?
- Well, we didn't know he was a Klansman.
They don't walk around in hoods. Talk to Lotte.
- Well, you should've vetted him.
- You're right, and I-I got a bad feeling
from a lot of the men driving buses
into Mississippi and Alabama.
I should have said something. I'm so stupid.
It's all right. It's all right.
I've--I've fixed it. I've, uh, denied any association.
- Well, I think we need to go further.
- The--The Grand Dragon of the Klan in Mississippi
has already gone on record saying he collaborated with us.
The only way to make it absolutely clear
that we don't tolerate hate groups is to put out
a press release denouncing them once and for all.
- Now that is a very smart idea.
- With Lotte. - All right.
Now look, this, uh, certainly is a setback,
but, uh, given what we're up against,
I think it is remarkable how well we've done,
and, uh, Jacquie Davison called me,
and she's been elected, and Ann Patterson is--is going,
but I think we should count ourselves lucky
that we don't have to go to this crooked extravaganza
right before Thanksgiving.
- Well...uh...I have to go.
- What?
- I won.
- Oh. - I didn't know you won.
- Well, it took them a while to count the ballots.
I just got the call a few days ago.
- They didn't call me till this morning.
- Me, too. - We all won.
I can't believe it. - We all won?
- Oh. Um...it was too bad you got food poisoning
and couldn't run, too.
- Oh, yes. Yes. It's, uh... Ooh.
Well, anyway, I'm... I'm too busy to go.
- I-I think we should go.
They need to see us.
They need to see good people who are against the ERA,
that our cause is just,
and it has nothing to do with hate or prejudice.
- That's right.
Plus the government is paying us.
It's kind of like a job.
- Delegate-at-large?
- Oh, it's a very prestigious honor.
- What the hell does it even mean?
- Whatever we want it to. I made it up.
- I'm busy. I'm writing articles
for a new magazine called "Working Women."
It's like "Ms." but not dull.
- Come to Houston. You--
You don't get the credit you deserve
'cause you're difficult.
- And you're ruthless, and you don't listen.
- To you. I don't like a know-it-all.
- Well, I admit I do have very strong instincts.
- And I'll be honest with you.
My instincts tell me there's only one issue
that you should make a priority at your convention--
equal pay for equal work.
That's what Phyllis understands.
She has one message, and she sticks to it.
- Make it about everything, it winds up being about nothing.
As my father used to say,
you only pluck one chicken at a time.
- Yeah, was your father a butcher?
- Mm-hmm. - Oh.
Oh, and don't let them make it about lesbianism.
It's not our fight.
- Gloria doesn't understand that.
She has a vision of Houston
as being some magical feminist Woodstock.
- Well, sure, why not?
She's not going to get blamed if it's a failure.
It'll be you, and they won't say
that Bella Abzug couldn't pull it off.
They'll say that women just can't
pull off this sort of thing.
And it'll be another 150 years
until they let women gather like this again.
Do you wanna stay for dinner? I'm making soup from scratch.
I can't remember the last time I had people over.
- Uh, Marty's expecting me.
- Mm.
- Does it bother you that...
no one calls you a radical anymore?
- The movement is getting down to Middle America.
We're mainstream. That's a good thing.
- You never pick up your phone.
- Why are you holding a flashlight?
- It's not a flashlight. It's a torch.
- Oh.
- Don't you have any imagination?
After months of sitting silently in our meetings,
eating all our food,
Sey Chassler finally had a good idea--
a relay from Seneca Falls to Houston
in the weeks leading up to the convention,
women athletes of all ages, and I thought,
instead of a baton, why not a torch like Lady Liberty?
- Women on the move.
- That's good. That's good. Write that down.
- I'm not writing that down.
- Have you spoken to Midge?
Yeah. I've spoken to Midge.
- Midge remembers my defense of Willie McGee as heroic.
I was eight months pregnant when I went down to Jackson.
- With Egee?
- It was the first Supreme Court petition I'd ever written.
It was my first trip to the South.
It was the first time I got a death threat.
They said, "Willie McGee's white woman lawyer should be
executed along with him in the electric chair."
I slept, disguised, above a brothel...
...because vigilantes stalked the hotels.
The whole time, I was scared shitless.
I lost the baby.
Stress, the doctor said.
They got to me.
I left Mississippi before the case was over.
I had so much still to do.
There is so much still to do.
- Fear never moved mountains.
- What's right is right.
I have to do right by Midge.
But if I put lesbian rights back on the agenda,
it's true. We have to keep the Antis out.
I'll do my best.
What if we let them in?
What if we let everyone in?
Let the chips fall where they may.
- What do you mean, everyone? Not Schlafly's people.
- Everyone, everyone.
What's really revolutionary about a group of people
in a room agreeing with each other?
- The whole thing could blow up in our faces.
I invited Betty to be a delegate-at-large.
- I put the leftovers in the freezer.
Do you need anything else before I leave?
- Oh, no, thank you, Willie. I'll--I'll see you tomorrow.
- Okay. See you tomorrow.
- Lottie Beth Hobbs. - It's Phyllis.
- You're working late.
- Hmm. I've been reading your book. You, uh...
say some pretty powerful things about hate.
Now I don't hate anybody, and if we're gonna continue
to work together--
- You need to understand that to love completely
requires learning to hate properly.
It is to love what God loves and to hate what God hates.
- I want to be clear about something.
We can't have anything to do with the Klan.
- Goes without saying.
- But, uh, you know, I am tolerant,
and I let be against women's lib for the reasons of their choice.
Now about this idea you had for a counter-rally
at the end of their convention at Houston--it's a good one.
- You needn't sell me on my own idea.
- But I would call it a pro-family rally.
And I think if we pooled our resources,
we'd have a pretty good shot at matching their crowds,
don't you think? - Yes.
But if outside groups want to...lend support,
we can't control it.
- So we make a rule.
There's no official group name on any of the signs or buses.
- Understood.
- Now if we pull this off, Houston will be the death knell
of the women's liberation movement.
Let's blow it up.
Tom T. Hall: * Well...
How did you come to write The Feminine Mystique?
I thought there was something wrong with me
because I didn't have an orgasm waxing the kitchen floor.
What is Devs?
I had no idea what I would find
when I went searching for my father.
They flashed the Zodiac Killer, and my heart stopped.
He believes he is the son of the Zodiac.
They had come highly recommended
by a mutual vampire associate of ours,
but nevertheless, I found it prudent
-to run the traditional credit checks...
...and reference protocols.
Suffice it to say, I am part of the 33%
who find it necessary to utilize my complementary credit check
every year.