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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I don’t know. What is this? The inquisition? I’m not under oath in a court room
I’m going by what is written. If it’s wrong it’s wrong. I don’t care
The point made in most reports is she didn’t get proper credit. And definitely not from the Navy.
From the synopsis of her bio:
“What if the person who helped shape the tech in your pocket was also a glamorous movie star—with a secret life as an inventor?
Most kids learn that great ideas come from labs and universities. Hedy Lamarr’s story flips that belief upside down. In Hedy Lamarr and the Secret of Wi‑Fi,”
I’ll try this again
I don’t know. What is this? The inquisition? I’m not under oath in a court room
I’m going by what is written. If it’s wrong it’s wrong. I don’t care
The point made in most reports is she didn’t get proper credit. And definitely not from the Navy.
From the synopsis of her bio:
“What if the person who helped shape the tech in your pocket was also a glamorous movie star—with a secret life as an inventor?
Most kids learn that great ideas come from labs and universities. Hedy Lamarr’s story flips that belief upside down. In Hedy Lamarr and the Secret of Wi‑Fi,”
“They loved Bob hope bing crosby and Hedy road to films, looked up her bio and this…”
‘That was Dorothy Lamour.’
You’re right
“MY FAVORITE SPY, Hedy Lamarr, Bob Hope, 1951 Stock Photo - Alamy
Hedy Lamarr and Bob Hope starred together in the 1951 Paramount spy-comedy film My Favorite Spy.”
I was not aware of “My Favorite Spy”. I will look that one up, for sure!
Mine as well. Beauty and brains to a heady degree
“...not so sure that Lamar’s patent was consequential to later developments of frequency skipping...”
https://www.americanscientist.org/article/random-paths-to-frequency-hopping
wy69
“...touched on her frequency hopping invention...”
Don’t think many men looked at her for her brains.
wy69
Lamar's patent for radio frequency rotation as a means of controlling a torpedo was never developed into a device. A radio controlled torpedo was beyond the technology of the era.
So, if Lamar's patent never resulted in a device, how did it influence later technology? Did someone working on communications devices decades later read her patent? Was it discussed in technology publications? Nope.
Like Jules Verne, Hedy Lamar deserves credit for an idea that was ahead of its time. It goes too far though to argue that her patent provided the inspiration for later technological development.
Yet I am justly confident that the story of Lamar's patent is overblown.
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