HEDY LAMARR

(1914–2000)
FILM ::: ACTRESS ::: INVENTOR :::

Actress. Inventor. Samson and Delilah. The Ecstasy Lady. Hedy Lamarr possessed the face Hollywood called perfect and a mind it barely noticed. Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, she escaped an oppressive marriage, crossed the Atlantic and became one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s most luminous stars. Her screen presence transformed her into an international symbol of glamour, but the machinery of celebrity concealed the restless intelligence working behind it.

During World War II, Lamarr collaborated with avant-garde composer George Antheil on a “Secret Communication System” intended to prevent radio-guided torpedoes from being detected or jammed. Inspired partly by the synchronized mechanisms of player pianos, their invention rapidly shifted a signal between multiple radio frequencies. They received U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387 in 1942, but the Navy declined to adopt the system during the war.

The principles behind their invention later became important to spread-spectrum communications—the technological territory from which secure wireless systems, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi would emerge. Hollywood preserved Lamarr as an image while history gradually recovered the inventor concealed inside it. She did not stop being a movie star when she entered the laboratory. She proved that the distinction between beauty and intelligence had always been somebody else’s invention.