WEBVTT

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Hello this is Bill
Cunningham.

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At that notoriously
windy corner

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of 5th avenue
and 23rd st

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Early in the last
century,

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the police
who directed traffic

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from towers in the middle
of 5th avenue

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would often call out
to the men

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gathered there "Skidoo"

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Because the men were
there to see the wind

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blow up
the women's skirts

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So it became 23 Skidoo.

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Of course, skirts

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have just about vanished
from fashion

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Pants replaced them

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but now a new generation
who have discovered

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as you see all winter
the wide brimmed

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felt hats

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Of course
they have yet to learn

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to hold on to them

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in the wind

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and it was fabulous
to see unsuspecting women

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come along

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and suddenly
these ferocious blasts

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of wind nearly

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knocked you over

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they are grabbing
their coats to keep

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them down and trying
to hold their hats

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and little dogs

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What a scene

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and full of nostalgia

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It was wonderful

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but it emphasized to me

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the fashion world

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and its new intoxication
with wide brimmed

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felt hats

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Here you have a vanity

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and a conceit
just unexpectedly hit

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by these cyclones
of wind

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It is just a lovely
portrait,

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I thought, of New York

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in mid-March