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| Hedy Lamarr in Lady of the Tropics |
Hedy Lamarr was an actress and
an inventor, but she wasn’t just any actress and inventor. She was the first
actress to ever be in a scene that depicted female orgasm that was released.
She is known as “The most beautiful woman in films.” With the help of another
inventor, she came up with a device, the principle of which is still used in
modern weapons and cell phone technology. In short, she was an amazingly
beautiful and intelligent woman.
Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna
on November 9, 1914. Her given name was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. She became
interested in acting at a young age and began attending Max Reinhardt’s acting
school in Berlin while she was still in her teens. She was only nineteen years
old when she starred in the film that would launch her acting career in the
United States. The film was called Ekstase (ecstasy). In the film she does
nudity and even simulates an orgasm, which was unheard of at the time.
The same year that Ecstasy was
released, Hedy Lamarr married weapons and aircraft manufacturer, Fritz Mandl.
While Hedy was married to Fritz, she was exposed to her husband’s trade and
seemingly became quite familiar with it. During this time she also entertained
guests such as Hitler and Mussolini. Apparently she didn’t think much of their
views because she eventually moved to the U.S. after leaving her husband.
Lamarr came to Hollywood in 1937.
Despite her risque role, or perhaps because of it, Hedy Lamarr was picked up by
MGM. It was then that her name was changed to Hedy Lamarr. She married GeneMarkey in March of 1939. Hedy stayed in Hollywood with her new husband and
their adopted son, James. It was here that she met the man who would eventually
be her partner, George Antheil.
George Antheil was Hedy Lamarr’s
neighbor. They met in 1940. The two were talking and Hedy mentioned that she
was thinking of quitting her job at MGM and joining the National Inventors
Council in Washington, D.C. They began discussing radio-controlled torpedoes
and Hedy told George of an idea that she had to prevent enemies from blocking
the radio signals of these devices. Her idea was called “frequency hopping.”
George then suggested a method by which this could be accomplished.
They applied for a patent on
June 10, 1941, which was granted in 1942, after the inventors had further
developed the device. The device that Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil had
invented was dismissed by the U.S. Navy when they presented it in 1942. It was
brilliant and useful, but it just wasn’t practical using the technology of the
day. George had developed the device using the same principle as a player piano
and the device would need some adjustments before it could be used practically.
Nevertheless, it eventually was used in 1960, three years after Hedy and George’s
patent had expired.
Hedy Lamarr divorced Gene Markey
in 1941. She married John Loder in 1943 and the couple had two children
together before they divorced in 1947. Hedy married again, this time to TeddyStauffer, in 1951. She divorced again in 1952. She continued acting throughout
this time. She starred in nearly forty films before she stopped acting in 1957.
Then, of course, she married again in 1963. This was to be her last marriage
and it was to Lewis J. Boies. They divorced in June of 1965.
Hedy Lamarr was eventually
awarded for her invention and is now given proper credit for her contribution
to modern technology. Oddly, she was also arrested for shoplifting twice in her
later years. Hedy Lamarr died of natural causes on January 19, 2000.
“Any woman can be glamorous. All
you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”~ Hedy Lamarr
“I must quit marrying men who
feel inferior to me. Somewhere there must be a man who could be my husband and
not feel inferior.” ~ Hedy Lamarr
Sources
Female Inventors Hedy Lamarr,
retrieved 1/4/10, inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html
Hedy Lamarr, retrieved 1/4/10,
imdb.com/name/nm0001443/bio
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