A STORY THAT NEEDS TELLING

Lamarr was MGM '40s Star

Everyday when you use a wifi enabled device or make a call on your cell phone a technology called 'spread spectrum' is at work.  Essentially, it enables a radio signal to be spread across the entire available radio spectrum - increasing that signal's speed and quality.  The odd thing, is that this very valuable technology was invented by a 1940's Hollywood siren - Hedwig Kiesler, who was better known by her stage name:  Hedy Lamarr.

Lamarr's story is not only engaging but very fascinating and inspirational.  She said that the secret of her beauty was "to stand there and look stupid" - but in realty she was anything but.  She was a genius and math prodigy, who was not only an actor but inventor.  She juggled these endeavors with six marriages. Her beauty made her rich but her great accomplishments resulted from her intellect and inventions, which are still shaping the way we live today.

Hedy Lamarr's interest in wireless communications began in the 1930s. At that time she was married to Friedrich Mandl, then Austria's leading arms maker and supplier to the Nazis.  One of the most interesting topics for Mendl and his customers was the technology surrounding radio-controlled missiles and torpedoes. Wireless weapons offered far greater ranges than the wire-controlled alternatives.  Lamarr sat through Mendl's meetings and dinners "looking stupid" while absorbing all the information on the subject.  In 1937, Hedy left Mandl and escaped to London, selling her jewelry to finance her trip and new household.  In London, Lamarr met with Louis B. Meyer, then head of Metro, Goldwyn, Meyer (MGM) Studios, and signed an acting contract. She became one of MGM's biggest stars. In 1942, at the height of her acting fame, she invented a new kind of communications system, optimized for sending coded messages that couldn't be jammed.  Her innovation was encoding a message across a broad area of the wireless spectrum - if one part of the spectrum was jammed, the message would still get through on another frequency.

In August of 1942, Hedy Kiesler Markey (her married name at that time) was granted a U.S. patent for the 'spread spectrum' technology. Born in Vienna in 1914, she died in 2000 at the age of 85. She had three children.  At 18 she began her film career in a movie entitled 'Ecstasy'.  The film was widely acclaimed but notorious for Lamarr's facial close-up during a simulated orgasm and brief nude scenes.  Her memoir, entitled "Ecstasy and Me" was published in 1967.

Almost no one knows who Hedwig Kiesler was and less know that she was the pioneer in wireless communications.  Many do know Hedy Lamarr, the actress, but not the great inventor.  Hollywood should take note.  Hedy Lamarr's life story should be made into a movie - it's a special tale that need telling.

Jim Lavorato