Hedy Lamarr Facts
Hedy Lamarr Facts
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| Interesting Hedy Lamarr Facts: |
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| Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born in Vienna, Austria, to Jewish parents. |
| She was 19 when she starred in the controversial and notorious film, Ecstasy. |
| Her wealthy husband, Friedrich Mandl, attempted to buy up and destroy copies of the film to prevent its public viewing. |
| Her husband made his fortune in munitions and took her to conferences with scientists and other researchers in the field of military technology, where she developed an interest in applied science. |
| In 1937 she escaped her controlling and abusive husband by fleeing to Paris disguised as a maid. |
| There she met the director Louis B. Mayer, who changed her name to Hedy Lamarr and cast her in many films as the exotic seductress. |
| She made 30 films during her career including: Ecstasy (1933), Algiers (1938) with Charles Boyer, Boom Town (1940) with Clark Gable, Tortilla Flat ( 1942) with Spencer Tracy, and Samson and Delilah (1949) with Victor Mature. |
| Although better known as an actress, she was an inventor and a pioneer in the field of communications technology. |
| Her earliest invention was a tablet that dissolved in water to make a carbonated beverage. |
| After her emigration to the US, she developed a system which manipulated radio frequencies at irregular intervals to encode classified military messages. |
| She and her co-designer, George Anthiel, received a patent in 1941 but the full impact of their invention wasn't realized until much later. |
| She became a naturalized citizen in 1953. |
| It was first used during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and had extensive military applications. |
| The applications of her invention has made cell phones, fax machines, Bluetooth, and other wireless communications possible. |
| In 1997 she and Anthiel were awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award. |
| They were inducted into the Inventor's Hall of Fame in 2014. |
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