HEDY LAMARR
Hedy Lamarr's life story is far more interesting than any of her movies. She quit school at the age of 16, and got a job working for director Max Reinhardt. Starting as a production assistant, Hedy eventually appeared in a couple of films in bit parts before making the headlines starring in the Czech film, Ecstasy. In it, she appeared nude on screen, and this shocked even European audiences.
Hedy Skinny dipping in Ecstasy
Not yet twenty, Hedy married a man thirty years her senior. Mandl was an arms merchant, selling munitions to Germany. He was a very controlling person who had her watched at all times. One night at an evening party, Hedy drugged her maid and escaped on a train to London.
In London, she signed a contract with MGM and moved to Hollywood to become a film star. Louis B. Mayer promoted her as the next Greta Garbo. She starred opposite such leading men as Charles Boyer, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Victor Mature. In one film, Heavenly Bodies, she played the wife of an astronomer, William Powell who is insanely jealous. It was shot at the Mt. Wilson Observatory north of Los Angeles.
Beautiful and smart as a whip, Hedy befriended a maverick musician, George Antheil. He is known for his experimental symphonies. One required 16 player pianos. They met at a Hollywood party where they discussed the war in Europe and the threat to America from Germany and Hitler. The following afternoon, Antheil went to Lamarr's home to discuss what they could do to stop Hitler.
Cut to photo of Antheil adjusting
his equipment before a performance.
THE WAR EFFORT
With Antheil's help, Lamarr designed a new kind of guidance system for torpedos. Eventhough her formal education consisted of private schools without technical training, she had absorbed quite a bit about weaponry during her marriage to the arms merchant, Mandl. Her role was the proverbial "arm piece." She was present at all of her husband's business meetings, but her brain was always in high gear.
Hedy and Mandl horseback riding.
FREQUENCY HOPPING
Hedy knew that "guided" torpedos were much more effective hitting a target, a ship at sea for example. The problem was that radio-controlled torpedos could easily be jammed by the enemy. Neither she nor Antheil were scientists, but one afternoon she realized "we're talking and changing frequencies" all the time. At that moment, the concept of frequency-hopping was born.
Antheil gave Lamarr most of the credit, but he supplied the player piano technique. Using a modified piano roll in both the torpedo and the transmitter, the changing frequencies would always be in synch. A constantly changing frequency cannot be jammed.
Cut to a ship blowing up in the Pacific.
They offered their patented device to the U.S. military then at war with Germany and Japan. Their only goal was to stop the Nazis. Unfortunately or predictably, the military establishment did not take them or their novel invention seriously. Their device was never put to use during World War II.
Close-up of U.S. Patent # 2,292,387
Lamarr wanted to continue working at the National Inventors Council, but she was persuaded to raise money for war bonds back in Hollywood, selling kisses for $50,000 a smack.
WEB APPLICATIONS
By the 1950's, the patent on the device had expired when engineers at Sylvania "re-discovered" frequency-hopping. They called it "spread spectrum." These electronic devices were designed for use during the Cuban Missile crisis in the sixties. Hedy's film career was winding down. She had turned down the lead in Casablanca and made a few other bad career decisions. In one interview, she estimated that she went through about 30 million dollars. She never made a dime on her and Antheil's invention.
Today, spread spectrum devices using micro-chips, make pagers, cellular phones, and, yes, communication on the internet possible. Many units can operate at once using the same frequencies. Most important, spread spectrum is the key element in anti-jamming devices used in the government's 25 billion Milstar system. Milstar controls all the intercontinental missiles in U.S. weapons arsenal.
Fifty-five years and five marriages later, Lamarr was recently given the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Award for their invention. Antheil was also honored; he died in the sixties. Hedy's son accepted the award for her since she no longer makes public appearances. From her Florida apartment where she lived on a pension from the Screen Actor's Guild, Lamarr responded, "It's about time."
Copyright 2000 by Kevin A. Nies
OTHER INVENTOR LINKS:
MIT's Invention Dimension
Dead Inventor's Corner
Women's Inventors Project (in Canada)
National Inventors Hall of Fame - with 3 women inventors listed
Girl Tech's Girl Inventors
