She didn’t get screwed at all. I see this as more “women are victims” BS.
She was a famous actress for 20 years and made gobs of money at it.
Yes, she was also extremely intelligent and did come up with some technology for radio guidance of torpedoes - which, while patented by her, was never used by the Navy, or at least not for another 20 years. If anyone is to be blamed, you can blame the slow, bureaucratic culture of the Navy.
She was a very beautiful and successful actress - so she made a choice in her career, and by the $$ and status she earned, chose very wisely.
They sure painted it that way in the doc.
I don’t judge her on her career but rather her contribution to this country during WW-II. How many of today’s “A Listers” can claim the same love of country..........
She had to flee her native Austria disguised as a made, because of her Jewish ethnicity, I wouldn’t exactly call that a picnic.
I don't blame the Navy, there were so many things of this nature going on, some panned out, some didn't, and in her case the development of frequency hopping to prevent jamming (which is now used in all cell phone communications) really had to wait for technology to catch up to it to make it valuable. It was kind of developed in a vacuum...almost like "when the pupil is ready to learn, the teacher will arrive" kind of thing.
There was a really funny (to me at least) situation outlined by Richard Feynman during the Manhattan Project. He was a bit of a wise guy (just a bit!) and the military oversight had them sign over all their ideas that could be patented to the government, and the government by law would have to pay them. In the paper they all signed, it stipulated in very fine and small writing that the US Government would pay them 1 dollar for a patent to comply with the law. (Apparently, they couldn't just...TAKE them!)
Everybody just signed it and never read it. Except of course, Feynman.
So, all these bigwigs in physics and stuff were going so fast, developing things, and patents were being applied almost as fast as they could pump them out.
But since nobody ever read the fine print on that paper they signed except Feynman, nobody ever got their dollar per patent from General Groves.
One day, Feynman suddenly remembered it (probably bored) and goes in one day to General Grove's office and says he wants a dollar for one of his patents, and the General (I think it was General Groves, but might have been a lower level officer) says something like "Gee. Nobody ever asked for their money. We don't really have a fund set up. I don't know what to tell you. I'll look into it."
So Feynman went into the office every day, asking for his dollar, until the guy finally exploded, pulled out his wallet and handed him a dollar. "HERE! Now leave me alone!"
So, Wise Guy Feynman goes to the candy store, buys a dollar's worth of penny candy, comes into the work area conspicuously eating the candy and handing it out to people, and they all begin to ask where he got the candy, so he tells them that they pay a dollar for every patent. Next thing he knows, they are all lined up outside the guy's door, asking for their patent dollar!
Another funny related aspect to it, after the war, when he was a professor, Feynman got a phone call from a big aircraft manufacturer in California. He wanted Feynman to go to work for them, they were working on a big project, and he was just the guy they were looking for, and would pay huge money for him. He was puzzled, and said "I'm a physicist...I don't know anything about aircraft design. Why are you asking me?" He was very puzzled. Then the guy said "Well, there is a patent here for a nuclear powered plane, and your name is one of the names on it." Then he remembered. When he was working on the Manhattan Project, they called each one of them in for an interview, and had them brainstorm on things that the technology they were developing might be used for. They told them they were going to get patents on all of them, and his name could be on the patent as a contributor.
Being the kind of guy he was, he said things like "Well, you could have a nuclear source heat water to run a turbine, and it would make the screw drive the ship. Or you could put it in an airplane to drive a propeller to make a nuclear plane!" He thought of as many things as he could, just rolling them off his tongue like this, and the guy is furiously taking notes trying to keep up!
The guy at the California aircraft manufacturer was looking at the patent for a nuclear powered plane, and saw Feynman's name on it as a contributor!
What did she give the Navy? A gagdet?
Or an idea?
This Hedy Lamarr as an inventor is a bunch of Hooeeey. All she came up with is the concept of radio hopping.
Big Deal.
George Lucas has come up with the concept of laser swords.
But did he invent an actual one?
Nope.
Hedy Lamaar was a wonderful actress and stunningly beautiful woman but NOT an inventor of note.
That is all Hollywood invention and for all the Freepers who are normally very skeptic of anything coming out of Tinsletown, it is very surprising to see you all falling for all this glamour(see original meaning)