Posted on 11/13/2015 10:42:10 AM PST by SkyPilot
If you were on Google earlier this week -- and let's face it, you were -- you may have spotted a Google Doodle which celebrates the life of one of Hollywood's most iconic actresses.
Hedy Lamarr, an actress of the golden age of cinema, would have been 101 years old this week, although simply calling her an actress might be something of a misnomer. As well as appearing in films, Lamarr also applied her incredible intellect to a series of scientific and technological endeavors, which eventually earned her a place in the National Inventors Hall of Fame and practically every household in America.
Even as an actress, Lamarr broke ground and took cinema in new, and sometimes controversial, directions. While working in Germany in the early 1930s, Lamarr (then named Hedy Kiesler) appeared in the Czech/German film, Ecstasy, which caused quite a stir at the time.
Although often inaccurately referred to as the first film to feature nudity, Ecstasy did probably feature the first cinematic scene of sexual intercourse and the first portrayal of female orgasm -- the latter of which confused many of the more naive and incredulous husbands in the world at the time. The film caused her career in Europe to skyrocket, with influential director Max Reinhardt naming her the "most beautiful woman in Europe," a view shared by many.
The film was particularly seized upon by censorship and religious groups in America. The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it as morally objectionable, while Joseph Breen of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America claimed it was "highly — even dangerously — indecent." Due to this, Ecstasy was only released in America in 1940, and then only on a limited basis. Which version you could see, largely depended...
(Excerpt) Read more at moviepilot.com ...
Fascinating woman. Fascinating story. She really was the co-inventor of Frequency Hopping, which makes today's WiFi, Blue Tooth, GPS, and so many other things possible.
If you missed the Google Doodle on her a few days ago, you can view it here:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/09/entertainment/hedy-lamarr-google-doodle-feat/
It HEDLEY!
LOL - it only took two posts..
She was making wartime weapons? Interesting.
Beat me by 40 seconds...
What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874. You’ll be able to sue her!.
She was very beautiful, too.
She was friends with Ann Bancroft (Mel's wife), so I doubt she was malicious about it.
Another look at her invention.
I always heard she invented stuff and had a stratospheric IQ
Yes. She was known for her torpedoes.
[rim shot!]
Don't you realize this man is a Ni..?
But you had the cool graphic to tie it all together for the people who don’t know the true classics! I defer to you good sir!
Her autobiography, “Ecstasy and Me” was good read. Pretty racy.
B4l8r
Haha, good one.
She was indeed a fine specimen of a woman as far as I can see by her picture. I have no idea how she thought politically or if she had a relationship with Jesus.
Her first husband was a wealthy Austrian arms manufacturer, who hung out with Hitler and Mussolini.
She even said in her autobiography that she had had Hitler over to her home for a dinner party. She was pretty smart, and over all the dinner table conversation she learned a great deal about weapons technology.
She understood that the main problem with submarine torpedoes at the time was they could be jammed at frequency. So she and a musician came up with the idea to frequency hop using a device based on a player piano.
Hitler was supposedly obsessed with her. He had a copy of her 1933 movie "Ecstasy" and he played it over 100 times. Don't know if anyone has ever seen the movie, but it was shocking for the time. She is naked in part of it, and it was the first movie to depict a woman in orgasm. And she was really naked in the film, not implied naked.
No wonder Hitler watched it so many times.
She escaped Austria and made it to the US, and became a famous actress of course. But she also raised millions in War Bonds - $7,000,000 in just one night - another record.
“She was friends with Ann Bancroft (Mel’s wife),”
Anne “are you trying to suduce me Mrs. Robinson” Bancroft?
I didn’t know that!
I always heard she invented stuff and had a stratospheric IQ
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