When people think of Hedy Lamarr, if they think of her at all, they think of a Golden Age actress, described as “the most beautiful woman in the world.” Those people would be correct! However, Lamarr was more than just a pretty face: WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth would not exist without her, which means that so much of what our society has become in this digital age is all due to her work.
Lamarr famously said, “Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” But Hedy Lamarr was not any girl. She was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler to Jewish parents in Vienna in 1914, not exactly the best time to be a Jew in Austria. She scored her first starring role at age 18 and used her new celebrity status to attract one of the richest men in Austria, munitions manufacturer Freidrich Mandl. Though Mandl’s father was Jewish, he had close ties to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and the marriage became unbearable. She escaped to Paris in 1937. Some good came of it, though: through Mandl, Lamarr met scientists involved in military technology, which stoked her interest and talent in applied science.
Shortly after arriving in Paris, Lamarr was picked up by a talent scout and brought to Hollywood. She became an instant sensation. She starred opposite such names as Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and Jimmy Stewart. However, she became typecast as the “exotic seductress,” which emphasized her looks and gave her little dialogue to work with. The lack of creativity and acting challenges in her film roles led to boredom, and luckily for us, that boredom led to invention.
She started off dabbling in both mechanics and chemistry; she created an improved traffic light and an admittedly unpleasant-tasting tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink. Her real contribution came in 1942, when Lamarr and composer George Antheil invented and patented what they referred to as the “Secret Communication System,” in order to help the Allied Forces protect their torpedoes from jamming by the Axis. Their system, inspired by the way piano rolls work, manipulated radio frequencies to jump around at irregular intervals between transmission and reception, which made it impossible for enemies to crack their code. This system is comprised of what we would now call spread spectrum and frequency hopping, which are crucial elements of today’s wireless communication technology, from fax machines to WiFi. Unfortunately, the technology of the 1940s was not advanced enough to put this idea into practice on a large scale, but her system was finally able to be utilized in the 1960s on naval ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and from there, into the future of the digital age.
Lamarr wanted to help the war effort by joining the National Inventors Council. She was told by members that she was better off using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds. I wonder what those members would say if they saw what her invention is doing for the world now. I wrote this article using WiFi. You’re probably reading this with it. We would not have cell phones or Google Maps or wireless speakers if Hedy Lamarr hadn't gotten bored filming movies and wanted to contribute in other ways to society. She said, “Hope and curiosity about the future seemed better than guarantees. That’s the way I was. The unknown was always so attractive to me… and still is.” Hedy Lamarr did not sit idly by. She did not accept the status quo. She ventured into the unknown and came back with a treasure.
