Posted on 04/16/2026 8:45:24 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Hedy Lamarr lived a remarkable life as an actress of Hollywood’s Golden Age after leaving Europe shortly before the start of World War II. Fleeing a restrictive marriage in Austria in 1937, Lamarr arrived in Hollywood and skyrocketed to fame, starring in films like Algiers (1938), Ziegfeld Girl (1941), and Samson and Delilah (1949). However, only late in her life was she recognized for a lesser-known aspect of her work: inventing.
During World War II, she invented a “Secret Communication System,” together with avant-garde composer George Antheil. The system used the concept of frequency hopping to guide torpedoes in a way that was un-jammable. They received a US patent for their invention, but it was never adopted by the US Navy during the war, and Antheil and Lamarr never received a penny for their work. The technology was later used for military communications, including during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and was a precursor to modern-day technologies such as Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalww2museum.org ...
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The kids told me about this. They loved Bob hope bing crosby and Hedy road to films, looked up her bio and this…
She also invented more or less plastic surgery. Every woman thinking about letting their sister or their MD talk them into plastic surgery must take a look at Hedy later years and beeeware
But Hedy was very smart. She came from Austria and her parents were appreciative immigrants with a real sense of education starting, of course, with language and music in language formative years- 2-5
She is not uncute.
NOT Beyond the mental capability...
Beat me to it. 4 posts. not bad.
They named it the Hedy. Because "it sounds like a young man's lust going off."
> Antheil and Lamarr never received a penny for their work <
That seemed very unfair. So I just looked it up. Antheil and Lamarr donated their patent to the U.S. Navy.
Respect to them. Not every hero wears a uniform.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-hopping_spread_spectrum#
“What are you worried about, this is 1874, you can sue her.”
She was a walking UNIVAC. She had an IQ of 154 and she co-invented frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology during World War II, intended to prevent enemy jamming of radio-controlled torpedoes. This technology laid the foundation for modern wireless technologies like Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.
And she was a knockout in addition to the brains.
wy69
I laugh every single time I think of this!!!!!!
I don’t agree with you on many things on this forum, but admiration for Hedy Lamarr is one of them.
A remarkable combination of brains and beauty.
Last week TCM showed a famous 16 minute short silent film called “Ballet Mecanique”. Antheil wrote the soundtrack. Avantgarde it certainly the word to describe the film and the music.
https://youtu.be/oMnZgykH1Bk?si=zVwtNxR8vB0s5H8S
As reported here several years ago, she spent many months in DC trying to get the attention of the USN bureaucracy...
Meanwhile, our torpedoes were laughably pathetic, ultimately costing many Amercan sailor’s lives, either missing or not exploding 80% of the time they were used on jap ships...
It took the Naval bureaucracy 2 years before they finally did something about it (instead of continuing to blame the sub commanders as incompetent), using, in part, her brilliant designs...
I had an uncle who was part of that WWII Naval bureaucracy and, when I returned from Korea in 1953, he regaled me with the torpedo story...
THAT’S what I was waiting for.😏
Ii’m old enough to remember WW2, in fact I was listening to the radio while mom, dad, and a guest couple ate Sunday Dinner (midday back then). I heard Roosevelt’s voice saying “We are at war” and rushed into the dining room to tell the adults. Of course the entire country listened to radio news every night. Totally aware what war meant.
Very clear memories of that fateful day. Dad had taught me to read at 4. Picked up picked up novel “Dwarf’s Blood” to read while waiting for adults to finish meal. Probably thought it was a kid’s book. Bought a copy on eBay a few years ago.
That’s what I dred, every time Hedy Lamar’s genius and beauty are brought up, it never fails that somebody will quickly bring up that Harvey Korman quote too. Just one of those benign annoyances, the way “Talk Like A Pirate Day” happens with all the obligatory lines spoken like a Scottish Sailor from 1888.
LOL!! You beat me to it. They wouldn’t be able to make that movie today.
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