Posted on 11/26/2017 6:29:47 PM PST by ETL
Bombshell tells the story of Lamarrs double life as a Hollywood starlet and inventor
Once billed as the most beautiful woman in the world, actress Hedy Lamarr is often remembered for Golden Age Hollywood hits like Samson and Delilah. But Lamarr was gifted with more than just a face for film; she had a mind for science.
A new documentary, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, spotlights Lamarrs lesser-known legacy as an inventor.
The film explores how the pretty veneer that Lamarr shrewdly used to advance her acting career ultimately trapped her in a life she found emotionally isolating and intellectually unfulfilling.
Lamarr, born in Vienna in 1914, first earned notoriety for a nude scene in a 1933 Czech-Austrian film. Determined to rise above that cinematic scarlet letter, Lamarr fled her unhappy first marriage and sailed to New York in 1937. En route, she charmed film mogul Louis B. Mayer into signing her. Stateside, she became a Hollywood icon by day and an inventor by night.
Lamarrs interest in gadgetry began in childhood, though she never pursued an engineering education.
Her most influential brainchild was a method of covert radio communication called frequency hopping, which involves sending a message over many different frequencies, jumping between channels in an order known only to the sender and receiver. So if an adversary tried to jam the signal on a certain channel, it would be intercepted for only a moment.
During World War II, Lamarr partnered with composer George Antheil to design a frequency-hopping device for steering antisubmarine torpedoes.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
ibtbsr
In before the Blazing Saddles references.
Dangit, missed by 5 seconds.
Hahaha. its Headly
It’s 2017 so it doesn’t matter now.
You just had to do that didn’t you.
Nice if true but everybody’s trying to embellish any female they can find with a connection of tech into some idol responsible for singlehandedly pulling us into the new age these days for muh equalities, so take these stories with a grain of salt.
It’s not Hedy, It’s Headly, Headly Lamarr.
This is 1874. You’ll be able to sue *her*.
“By the start of World War II, they were two of the most accomplished talents in Hollywood. Leading lady Hedy Lamarr was known as the most beautiful woman in the world, and composer George Antheil had earned a reputation as the bad boy of music. What brought them together in 1940 was that timeless urge to preserve ones youth and enhance ones natural beauty, but what emerged from their work was a secret communications system that Lamarr and Antheil hoped would defeat the Nazis.
It didnt work out that way: The patent they receivedNo. 2292387simply gathered dust in the U.S. Patent Office until it expired in 1959. But three years later, the U.S. military put their concept to use during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And ultimately, the two unlikely pioneers work on frequency hopping would be recognized as a precursor to the spread-spectrum wireless communications used in cellular phones, global positioning systems and Wi-Fi technology today.
She was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9, 1913, in Vienna; her father was a well-to-do Jewish banker and her mother was a concert pianist. Sent to finishing school in Switzerland, she grew into a strikingly beautiful teen and began making small German and Austrian films. ...”
(in before the blazing saddle reference)
Well, you weren't quite in before I referenced it. In fact, it was a deadheat! Check out the times on our posts 2 and 3.
Must be a line from Blazing Saddles? 1874, sue her, I guess for the name ripoff.
She also appeared nude on film in a picture Hitler reportedly watch over and over again (Ecstasy - 1933). That film also depicted the first female orgasm in a movie.
This one IS true, and is actually reasonably accurate. I first read about this YEARS ago...probably back in the late 1970’s.
Figures. I’m only a pawn in the game of life.
yes
;)
“They don’t make many like her!”
Nope, one of the very few with both beauty and brains.
It’s a true story, whether you want to believe it or not.
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