Hedy Lamarr

Explore the amazing life of Hedy Lamarr, one of the most adored and influential women of her time.

04/10/23, Zoe Bartlome

Early Life

Hedy Lamarr was born on November 9th, 1914 in Vienna, Austria with her original name being Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. She was an only child to her father Emil Kiesler and her mother Gertrud Kiesler. Her father was a very busy man working as a bank director, but he never failed to inspire his daughter to look at the world with open eyes. He spent much time explaining to Hedy the phenomena of how different machines worked and functioned. These conversations with her father would influence her lifetime and allow her to go on and invent incredible mechanisms that we use in our modern world today. Her mother on the other hand guided her interests to the arts, such as ballet and piano lessons. Hedy’s brilliant brain would be ignored and her beauty would take center stage for the beginning of her career.

Early Career

At the young age of 16 Hedy was discovered by an Austrian film director by the name of Max Reinhardt. Hedy would begin studying acting in Berlin and would be in her first film by 1930. Soon enough by 1933 she would receive international recognition as an actress in her role in the controversial film, Ecstasy. Young Hedy would gain many adoring fans as she continued and progressed her film career. Fritz Mandel was one of her many passionate fans and who would later receive the privilege to marry the beautiful Hedy in 1933. However the marriage was very short lived as Hedy described their relationship dynamic, “I was like a doll. I was like a thing, some object of art which had to be guarded—and imprisoned—having no mind, no life of its own.” She was incredibly unhappy within their marriage and decided to no longer put up with it. Hedy even discovered Mandl’s scandalous business partners, some even being associated as firearm merchants within the Nazi party. In 1937 Hedy escaped to London and took with her the knowledge of her prior husband and his colleagues.

Hedy was in luck during her time in London when she was introduced to Louis B. Mayer, of the famous MGM studios. She was offered a contract at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio in Hollywood where she put her name down as Hedy Lamarr. The American audience adored her for her beauty, grace, and accent. Hedy became an immediate box office sensation after the release of her first film in the United States, Algiers. Hedy was even referred to as one of the most gorgeous and exotic women of Hollywood. During her career, Hedy was introduced to many large figures in Hollywood, one of them being Howard Hughes who was a businessman and pilot. Hedy and Howard dated but she was most interested in his innovative mind and character. Hedy in fact had a very scientific and brilliant mind that went ignored during her time as an actress.

Later Career

Hedy with Howard by her side began to fuel her innovative mind. She stepped aside from acting and began seriously inventing. Howard showed her the ropes of how airplanes were built and even introduced her to the scientists behind the process. Hedy picked up on even the smallest details almost instantly and began inventions and designs of her own. Some of her very first inventions were, an upgraded stoplight and a tablet that dissolved in water to make a soda similar to Coca-cola. However Hedy would not stop there, one of her greatest inventions would be engineered as the United States geared up to enter World War II. Her concerns for the war would continue to rise until her acquaintance with George Antheil. George and Hedy would begin working on one of the most important inventions to date. The two of them would go on to patent a brand new communication system that would guide torpedoes to their precise targets in war.​​ This brought to the surface the new concept of “frequency hopping” amongst radio waves. The idea was that the transmitter and receiver would both hop to new frequencies together. This would prevent the interception of radio waves which would guarantee the torpedo to reach its target. They would also develop the “Secret Communication System” with the same idea of frequency hopping but this time with the intent to keep enemies from decoding messages. It was specifically designed to defeat the German Nazis. Unfortunately the US Navy would reject their work and claimed to refuse to implement it merely due to its “impracticality”. However the military refused it largely because of sexist biases about women’s roles that were amplified by Hedy’s screen persona.

Hedy and George would not receive much recognition for their work until 1997 when they were honored with the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award.​ That same year Hedy would become the first woman to receive the BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award. She was even inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. The system became an important and necessary part in the development of maintaining the security of military communications and even cellular devices. Such an achievement has earned Lamar the name of “the mother of WIFI” and other corresponding wireless technologies such as bluetooth and GPS. Without this incredible invention many of the modern technologies today would not be possible.

Sources

Works Cited

Cheslak, Colleen. “Hedy Lamarr.” DEV: National Women’s History Museum, 2018, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/hedy-lamarr.

“Hedy Lamarr - Inventions, Movie & Spouses.” Biography, 19 Apr. 2021, www.biography.com/actors/hedy-lamarr.