Hollywood Glamour, Secret Inventor: Hedy Lamarr’s Remarkable Life

Hedy Lamarr: Actress, Inventor, Trailblazer – A Remarkable Life Biography

Born as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria, Hedy Lamarr was so much more than an actress. Many people called her “The Most Beautiful Woman in Film,” though it was her creative genius that later made her famous for inventing new communication technologies.

Lamarr displayed a love for learning very early in life. Because her father controlled the bank, he often told her about how things worked, leading her on guided tours of objects and explaining them one by one. Learning about engineering when I was young made me passionate about invention for the rest of my life. At age 16, she started acting and was trained by Max Reinhardt in Berlin.

Both fame and infamy traveled with Hedy Lamarr from her first role in Ecstasy, a 1933 movie from Czechoslovakia. Because of the brief nudity and the scene of a simulated female orgasm, the film was banned in several countries including the U.S. The issue brought her to the world’s attention.

Ecstasy may have cost her a free spirit, but in 1937 she managed to get away from her abusive husband and arrived in Hollywood. At MGM, Louis B. Mayer found her and changed her name, giving her the famous moniker Hedy Lamarr. Shortly after, Ingrid appeared in a number of films that became hits: Algiers (1938), Boom Town (1940), Come Live with Me (1941), Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and Samson and Delilah (1949). Lamarr achieved a lot, yet often was perceived only as a stylish temptress, not valued for her brains by both the crowd and studio leaders. She once humorously made the point—Any girl can be glamorous; just stand like a fool and don’t move.

Indeed, Lamarr made her most important contributions during World War II. Based on what she learned from her first husband’s discussions about military technology, Lamarr developed a “frequency-hopping” technique against enemy torpedoes. The technique involved rapidly changing radio frequencies at irregular intervals that made it difficult if not impossible to jam or intercept torpedo guidance. In the year of 1942, Lamarr and Antheil patented their “Secret Communication System.”

The U.S. Navy did not immediately pick up the technology but nevertheless was a groundbreaking technology regarding wireless communications. Their spread-spectrum technologies became the cornerstone for a variation of frequency-hopping models still relevant to all forms of communication we utilize today such as Wi-Fi networks, GPS, and Bluetooth technologies among others. Even though she contributed immensely to technology and science, Lamarr benefitted little, if at all, for her invention. It wasn’t until the late 1990s and early 2000s that Lamarr’s role in the invention of burst-spread spectrum technology started reaching popular recognition. Ultimately, Lamarr was inducted into the National Inventor Hall of Fame in 2014, showcasing her contributions to the field.

Hedy Lamarr passed away on January 19,2000, near Orlando, Florida at 85 years old. She had lived the life of a woman whose beauty had transgressed a million, but her mind as a inventiveness portrayed the trials and tribulations of humanity.

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