Hedy Lamarr was known in Hollywood as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” and she also invented the technology that ultimately led to WiFi.
A arresting Austrian - support actress , Hedy Lamarr dropped jaws wherever she get and took Old Hollywood by storm . But Lamarr was more than just the “ most beautiful girl in the existence , ” as one picture music director rave .
Beneath Lamarr ’s jet - black bob was a mind of science . Curious , inquiring , and insightful , the actress used her ofttimes - ignored word to dream up new technology . In fact , she ’s even been credited as the “ Mother of WiFi . ”
Public DomainHedy Lamarr became famous for her act as , but that was far from her only talent .
Public DomainHedy Lamarr became famous for her acting, but that was far from her only talent.
This is the story of Hedy Lamarr , the Hollywood sex symbolization whose striking life nearly obscured her needle - sharp intelligence .
The Early Years Of Hedy Lamarr
Donaldson Collection / Getty ImagesHedy Lamarr in the 1933 filmEkstase , orEcstasy , where she appeared nude .
Born Hedwig Kiesler on November 9 , 1914 , Hedy Lamarr spent her early years in Vienna , Austria , as the glamourous belle époque faded into the bloody eld of World War I. The daughter of a successful banker father and a concert pianist mother , Lamarr show high intelligence from a young age .
Encouraged by her forefather Emil , who often mouth to his only child about the inner works of machine , such as the printing pressing , Lamarrtook apart her euphony boxat the age of five just to see how it process . She also had an capitulum for voice communication and could speak four languages by the long time of 10 .
Donaldson Collection/Getty ImagesHedy Lamarr in the 1933 filmEkstase, orEcstasy, where she appeared nude.
But the first thing most people notice about Hedy Lamarr was her in force looks . At 16 , she grab the center of movie director Max Reinhardt , who raved that her beauty was alone in Europe — and maybe even the world .
From there , Lamarr ’s life took a turn . Instead of take aside more euphony boxful , she studied acting in Reinhardt ’s Berlin - based play school and won a role in a 1930 film calledGeld auf der Straβe(“Money on the Street ” ) .
This mild early succeeder lead to a 1933 film that would outrage the human beings — Ekstase , orEcstasy . In the pic , 18 - year - quondam Hedy Lamarr played the controversial character reference of Eva , a Modern bride disappointed by her husband ’s want of sexual appetite . In a series of disgraceful scenes that show Lamarr in the nude sculpture and portraying an climax , Eva falls into the arm of her lover .
Public DomainHedy Lamarr, far right, in a publicity still forAlgiers(1938).
grant to theNew York Times , “ Pope Pius XI denounced it , but Mussolini issued a permit so that it could be shown at the Venice Film Festival . It won no honor there but pull attentive audiences , most of them work force . ”
modern-day reviewscalledthe cinema “ indecent and morally severe , ” “ unsuitable , base , and lascivious , ” and “ extremely hardy . ” By the meter it was shown in the United States seven age afterwards , it appeared in only a handful of theaters and without the favorable reception of the moralisticHays Code .
For better or for unsound , Hedy Lamarr would shortly become known as the “ Ecstasy Girl . ” But her spark toward stardom was just commence .
Silver Screen Collection/Getty ImagesHedy Lamarr, pictured during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
From Bored Housewife To Hollywood Star
Public DomainHedy Lamarr , far properly , in a packaging still forAlgiers(1938 ) .
As Hedy Lamarr ’s impulse began to build , she take in the middle of another up - and - add up Austrian : Friedrich Mandl , an arm dealer . After seeing Lamarr in the playSissy , Mandl wooed her and the pair married in 1933 .
But Lamarr — much like her character Eva — find herself pin down in an unhappy and unsatisfying matrimony . Mandl forbade Lamarr from acting , sample to destroy every existing transcript ofEcstasy , and relegated his bright and talented wife to the function of a air hostess who entertained his friends .
Wikimedia CommonsHedy Lamarr filed a patent for technology that would pave the way for WiFi, but the U.S. military did not use it.
“ I was like a dame , ” Lamarr retrieve , name Mandl a “ monarch ” in their wedding . “ I was like a thing , some object of art which had to be guarded — and imprisoned — having no nous , no lifespan of its own . ”
timeworn of spending her nights catering to Mandl and his friends — many of whom were Nazis , to the chagrin of the Jewish - digest actress — Lamarr plotted her escape . In 1937 , she fled her marriage and moved to London .
There , she fatefully crossed paths with Louis B. Mayer , who ’d co - founded Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer Studios ( MGM ) in 1924 . Though Mayer had his dubiousness about the “ Ecstasy Girl , ” Lamarr slylybooked a ticketon the same ship as him and managed to exchange his mind during their transatlantic crossing .
Everett Collection/PBS.orgHedy Lamarr leaving the Sybil Brand Institution for Women on bail after being arrested for shoplifting in 1966.
Silver Screen Collection / Getty ImagesHedy Lamarr , pictured during the Golden Age of Hollywood .
She emerged from the voyage transform . No longer was the young actress Hedwig Kiesler . She would now be known as Hedy Lamarr — a name that was an homage to the silent film star Barbara La Marr . ( It was also Mayer ’s best attempt to distance his novel actress from her scandalous past . )
Lamarr instantly made a big splash in Hollywood . After the success of her first American filmAlgiers(1938 ) , Lamarr star inLady of the Tropics(1939),Boom Town(1940 ) — in which she appeared alongside Clark Gable and Spencer Tracey — White Cargo(1942 ) , andSamson and Delilah(1949 ) .
But Lamarr had never forgotten the pleasure of dissecting a medicine box . “ The brains of the great unwashed are more interesting than the aspect , I recall , ” she speculate .
And as tempest cloud forgather in Europe , Hedy Lamarr commence to recollect of how she could habituate her mind — and not her body — to aid during World War II .
How The Mind Of Hedy Lamarr Went To Work
Wikimedia CommonsHedy Lamarr file a patent for engineering that would pave the way for WiFi , but the U.S. war machine did not expend it .
Hedy Lamarr kept her peculiarity alive in Hollywood . An actress by day , she made small inventions by night , include a novel sort of dealings luminousness and a fizzing pad to make sodium carbonate . And when Lamarr date the modern businessman Howard Hughes , she took a deep dive into these pastime .
Unlike other humans in Hollywood , Hughes was supportive of her hobbies and once even call her a “ champion . ” And her great invention derive in 1940 .
Then , during a dinner party , Lamarr struck up a conversation with discoverer George Antheil about the war spreading in Europe . “ Hedy tell that she did not feel very well-heeled , sitting there in Hollywood and make lots of money when things were in such a state , ” Antheil commend .
As Lamarr thought back to the ho-hum dinners she ’d host with her ex - hubby Mandl and his national socialist friends , she and Antheil began to tinker with an idea . They came up with something called “ frequency hopping . ”
Frequency hopping involved shift the frequence between a plane and a guide torpedo so that the enemy could n’t impede the radio sign . Because the sign kept switch , they would be impossible to predict .
Though Lamarr and Antheil earned a patent of invention for their invention in 1942 , the U.S. Navy adjudicate not to adopt frequency hopping . Lamarr ended up bestow her celebrity powerfulness , and not her genius , to support the war effort .
But luckily , Hedy Lamarr ’s gruelling oeuvre did n’t completely go to waste . The off-white of her idea would later be used to develop modern - daylight WiFi , Bluetooth , and GPS technologies . And Lamarr would one 24-hour interval be recognized as the “ Mother of WiFi ” — but that did n’t bechance for decennium .
Hedy Lamarr’s Later Life And Legacy
Everett Collection / PBS.orgHedy Lamarr leaving the Sybil Brand Institution for Women on bail after being arrested for shoplift in 1966 .
Sadly , the brilliance of Hedy Lamarr ’s intellect was frequently diminished by her personal drama . Her six marriages allow for spate of tabloid cannon fodder , as did her controversial autobiography , Ecstasy and Me . And her arrests for shoplifting in 1966 and 1991 would put her in the spotlight yet again .
By the time Lamarr died in her Florida home in 2000 , she had a strained family relationship with her bequest as a famous screen siren . Her beautiful face , she write , “ bring me cataclysm and heartbreak for five 10 . My facial expression is a masque I can not remove : I must always live with it . I curse it . ”
Many detail about her final age remain a mystery story , as she infamously became a recluse in Casselberry , Florida , and seldom venture out into public . What is known is that she go bad on January 19 , 2000 , at age 85 . Hedy Lamarr ’s causal agent of demise was after revealed to have been ticker disease .
But even though Hedy Lamarr ’s star languish before her death , her genius judgement and the causes that she was so passionate about were never forgotten . In the 1960s , her frequency - hopping technology was applied during the Cuban Missile Crisis . In later tenner , it irrevocably convert the world by birthing technology that we depend on today , like WiFi and Bluetooth .
And as metre marched on , Lamarr was finally view for who she was . In 1997 , the Electronic Frontier Foundation awarded Lamarr and Antheil their Pioneer Award . That same class , the “ Oscars of Inventing , ” the Invention Convention , grant her the BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award . And in 2014 , Lamarr was induce into the National Inventors Hall of Fame .
Throughout her life , Hedy Lamarr had dally many character . But one function seize her in a prescient agency , even though it was probable by accident .
In the 1941 movieZiegfeld Girl , Lamarr portrays a glamorous cleaning woman who wear a shimmering headdress of stars . But as glary as they are , their radiancy ca n’t equate to the mind of the woman herself .
After reading about Hedy Lamarr , check out thesevintage photos that capture Old Hollywoodin its heyday . Then , take a look at some of the mostshocking Old Hollywood scandalsthat discover Tinseltown ’s ugly side .
