9th November: Hedy Lamarr

Born on this date in 1914 was Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress, billed as "the most beautiful woman in the world" but as you are about to read, she was much more than just a pretty face.

1. She was born in Vienna, and her name at birth was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. Her father was a banker and her mother a pianist. Although her parents were of Jewish descent, she was brought up as a Christian, since her mother had converted to Catholicism.
2. Producer Max Reinhardt discovered her as an actress in the late 1920s. He brought her to Berlin, where she trained in theatre before returning to Vienna to work in films. One of her early roles was in a Czech film called Ecstasy. The film was released in 1933 and was somewhat controversial. It had nude scenes in it and was the first non-pornographic film to show a woman (Lamarr) having an orgasm.
3. Lamarr was married six times in all. Her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, was in the military arms business and was said to be the third richest man in Austria. She was 18 when they married and he was 33. The couple lived in a castle and threw lavish parties, with Hitler and Mussolini on the guest list. Mandl used to take her with him to business meetings and conferences, which ignited her interest in applied science.
4. Mandl was, however, extremely controlling and disapproved of her acting career. The New York Times reported that he bought as many copies of the film Ecstasy as he could because he didn't want other people watching her sex scenes. Lamarr claimed she was a virtual prisoner in their castle, and in due course, knew she had to escape. Her escape from her controlling husband, if her autobiography is to be believed, was worthy of a Hollywood film plot. In the book, it is claimed she hid in an empty room in a brothel, and had to have sex with a man who came in to maintain her cover; she hired a maid who looked a bit like her, drugged the maid and dressed in her uniform in order to escape. However, the book was written by a ghost writer, and Lamarr claimed during a TV interview that a lot of the anecdotes in the book were made up. More likely, she persuaded her husband to let her wear all her jewellery to a party after which she quietly disappeared.
5. She went to Paris, where she met Louis B. Mayer, who was scouting for talent in Europe. It was he who persuaded her to change her name, and she chose Lamarr after the silent film star, Barbara La Marr. In 1938, she moved to Hollywood.
6. She found herself frequently type-cast as the beautiful, exotic seductress, and often had few lines. Not much of a challenge (she once said, "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.") - so in order to exercise her mind, she started inventing things. Her inventions include a traffic stop-light and a tablet that would dissolve in Water to create a carbonated drink (though this wasn't very successful - it evidently tasted like Alka-Seltzer). She dated the millionaire Howard Hughes for a while and sketched designs for his aeroplane wings. He was one of the few people at the time who knew about her sideline as an inventor. He thoroughly approved and put a team of engineers at her disposal.
7. Her most significant invention was in collaboration with composer George Antheil. She'd been inspired to contribute to the war effort during the second world war. One problem the Allies faced was that the Nazis would jam Radio communications and the pair came up with a device which used ‘frequency hopping’ to help counter this. The technology was also able to jam the radio controlled guidance systems for torpedoes. The technology is still in use today, only for peaceful purposes. It's possible you're only reading this thanks to Hedy Lamarr's invention, because it is used now for WiFi and Bluetooth as well as GPS systems.
8. Her last husband was her divorce lawyer. She divorced him, too, in 1965 and then remained single for the rest of her life.
9. In her later years, the acting roles dried up, or at least, she was offered none which interested her. She was terrified of losing her looks, and had plastic surgery in the hope it would revive her career but if anything, it had the opposite effect, not turning out as she'd hoped. Her son Anthony claimed she was addicted to pills; there were two arrests for shoplifting, although charges against her were dropped on both occasions. In the last years of her life, she hardly went out at all, not even to visit her children, but spent six or more hours a day talking on the telephone.
10. She died aged 85, and her ashes were scattered in the Vienna Woods.

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