The Forgotten Inventions of an Icon Who Broke The Internet
I have spent A LOT of time thinking about Hedy Lamarr
Knowing very little about who this person was, back in 2020 I clipped an image of Heddy Lamarr from the internet:
Though I recognized the iconic name, I didn’t know her films or really anything about her. But the beauty and the intelligence she projected struck me as the perfect visual inspiration for the main protagonist in my forthcoming novel Florida Girls, Thelma Miles.
As I dug deeper (ahem! A clue as to why it takes me so long to write my books…), I was astonished to discover she’d pioneered technology that helped form WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. Essentially, life as we know it.
How was it possible I’d never heard of her contributions?
On this, International Women’s Day 2024, I want to talk about Hedy Lamarr.
Her story is not entirely unknown, I was the ignorant one. But until I decided I wanted to use a quote from her at the front of my book, I hadn’t dug deeper into the details of how she’d added “inventor” to her list of accomplishments. Turns out, those details were largely forgotten as well.
The problem was, in seeking out an epigraph, many quotes attributed to Lamarr weren’t particularly flattering.
To be a star is to own the world and all the people in it. After a taste of stardom, everything else is poverty.
Hedy Lamarr, Hedy’s Folly, 2017
Okaaay.
“Every girl would like to marry a rich husband. I did twice. But what divides girls into two groups is this question — do you first think of money and then love, or vice versa?”
― Hedy Lamarr,
Well that didn’t hold up well.
Then there was this gem.
Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.
Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood Highlights, 1941
Oof.
Was my inspo a bitter asshat?
My research took me from the interwebs to NPR to a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes, Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. And that will be the last time this piece refers to Lamarr’s (admittedly stunning) looks. The last thing I want here is to further perpetuate the enduring permissible misogyny of, “wow, imagine it, smart AND pretty.” Because this is basically an op ed with a few facts thrown in.
Poor little rich girl?
Born Hedy Kiesler to a wealthy Austrian family, Lamarr was doted on by her father and seemingly resented by her mother. “I underemphasized praise and flattery,” she said, “hoping in this way to balance the scales for her.” Nonetheless, they exposed her to the best education possible, and her father encouraged her scientific interests and curious mind.
Except for the wealthy part, I could relate to that kind of parenting. But whereas I found ways to skip school to become a teenager in rehab, she skipped school and landed a star turn in a movie, launching a career that would span more than 40 years. As soon as she managed to divorce her first husband.
Through said career, she quickly attracted another wealthy Austrian, a man who made his fortune in munitions. Just as fast, Lamarr found herself imprisoned by marriage. Especially when her husband started embracing fascist ideology and entertaining the likes of Mussolini. But never Hitler. They were both Jews.
That Lamarr kept her Jewish heritage a secret during her lifetime (her own children only found out after she died) was something else that added to my regret at this choice. Initially anyway. Her next move and subsequent ones changed everything.
Lamarr made her ‘lucky’ breaks
What struck me about Lamarr was her self-loving devotion, ingrained by her father who’d also taught her not to wait on luck. (Explaining this quote of hers, “Because you don't live near a bakery doesn't mean you have to go without cheesecake.”)
Once Lamarr fixed her mind on wanting a thing, she figured out how to get it. Like a career in film. But her husband—though he’d first encountered Lamarr on stage—did not want his wife pursuing career in film. And so Lamarr realized another opportunity in much the same way the main character in my book does. (And I can’t help but note here, I discovered all this synergy only recently, long after writing the book.)
The men around Lamarr never considered she could understand the state secrets they spilled. She would use this information to blackmail her way out of her unhappy marriage.
Whether Lamarr ended up threatening her husband with the information or not is something of a mystery. She told different versions of that story, and many others, throughout her life. What is known is that, at the earliest opportunity, she fled her home country.
Her next move was to buy a ticket on the same boat that was ferrying Louis B. Mayer and his wife to the States. (Interestingly, according to Rhoades’s book, Mayer had recently “taken the waters” in Carlsbad, uh, also a plot point in my book.)
From there, Lamarr managed to negotiate a better contract than Mayer wanted to give (go gurl!), and her film career took off. I can’t help but wonder if the many times she negotiated for better contracts held her back a bit, or if it was her accent, or both. And while “held back” might seem a stretch for a Hollywood starlet, I must mention her willingness to discuss terms as I think every woman who has done so has made it just a little bit easier for those that came after.
But really, here’s where it gets interesting.
In 1940, she decides she wants to meet a composer/writer because she’s interested in his work on the endocrine system, which he’d turned into articles for Esquire on how to attract mates. Apparently she was concerned about what Mayer had deemed problematic—her small breasts.
At that meeting, they apparently bonded over her “prepit-thymus,” which he claimed was responsible for her tits and could be altered. It’s unclear what became of that work. What is clear, however, was that they soon bonded over the dreaded prospects of the war in Europe. Lamarr was contemplating offering the knowledge she’d gained around her husband’s dinner table to help the Allied war efforts.
Even the composer, in his memoir (titled, Bad Boy of Music, I’ll just leave that there), described her work in demeaning terms, though they were the pair who would win a patent for their “frequency hopping” technology.
But back to the breasts for a minute. The composer, in addition to his scientific bent, had some experience in munitions. It’s my belief that she chose him to help her with her plans, and was really not at all interested in her pituitary “problems.” But she didn’t invoke them by accident.
So maybe it’s not so surprising that by all accounts, the spurned composer implied that Lamarr’s contributions were somehow subpar. That she’d been a sponge who merely parroted information she’d heard. Personally, when I consider all that transpired in Lamarr’s life between those dinner conversations and 1940 (including a subsequent marriage, an adopted child, and a divorce, to say nothing of memorizing lines), I can’t imagine describing that knowledge as imitative.
Also, incredibly, their work on this invention was happening at the same time she was filming (drumroll, please) ZIEGFELD GIRL. From the above pic! She was also securing her own citizenship, as well as papers for her mother. In her spare time.
In her, I guess, other spare time, Lamarr liked to read textbooks and draw up inventions at home. But most importantly, her idea of “frequency hopping” is an entirely original idea that formed the basis of the patent. More to the point, it was technical leap away from the conversations she’d heard, otherwise it wouldn’t merit a patent. And that idea was Hedy’s. Though I have no doubt the composer’s knowledge of bombs was useful to her. Plus, it wasn’t her only invention.
Between the colossal slowness of government and the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy let the new tech rot. Hedy, desperate to do something for the war effort, decided her talents were perhaps best used raising money through war bonds. At a single event, she sold more than $4.5 million worth of bonds, some $77 million today. In total she raised gobs.
It was only after the patent ran out that the Navy took a look back at the work, which became the basis of the internet, and which is how I justify using break in the headline, as in she broke the news. Broke open the field. Made another “lucky” break.
As for that denial of heritage? Pesky as that remains, she applied for the patent as Hedy Kiesler Markey (her most recently acquired married name), so her movie star status wouldn’t impact the decision. And it’s hard to imagine what life in Europe would have been like for her, or her family that remained there, if her heritage was known.
In an interview many years later, Lamarr lamented that her invention had gone largely unrecognized and unremunerated.
Ah, thought I. So she was bitter.
Not that I could blame her. However, another interviewer described her by saying, “Few people were ever blessed with a merrier sense of humor, few sailed through the calamities of life with more of a blithe spirit, few apologized less frequently and seemed to be having more fun.”
And isn’t that the best revenge? May we all apologize less frequently and have more fun.
The coda here is that, in 1997, three years before she died—and thanks to the efforts of a retired U.S. Army colonel who’d had a crush on Lamarr as a boy and when he discovered the patents smelled misogyny—she was awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Sixth Annual Pioneer Award. Her remarks are, well, in keeping with her record on quotes.
In acknowledgment of your honoring me, I hope you feel good as well as I feel good about it, and it was not done in vain. Thank you.
Astute readers will notice, there is no quote from Lamarr in my book. Yet I still find much to admire in her. And I’d give anything to hear her assess whatever that weird, 1950s, kitchen-table counterpoint to the State of the Union was last night.
Before you go, some freebies!
Check out these free historic fiction shorts:
And longer works of historic fiction:
And if you want to read Florida Girls—
(You won’t be subscribed twice to anything but you’ll get the Florida Girls news—like bonus chapters and preorder links—first.)
And tell me…
Did you know about Hedy Lamarr, her inventions, pluck, or grit?
What’s the most extreme thing you’ve done to escape a relationship?
Tell me about a synergy you experienced recently. I love that sh*t!
How are you celebrating International Women’s Day?
Very interesting, loved your switch back at the end to the 50's rebuttal--Yikes!