George Putnam
Friday, Nov. 14, 2003

It is this reporter's opinion that many strange stories have come out of Hollywood, but one real eye-opener is that of Hedy Lamarr. Her breathtaking beauty has all but eclipsed her scientific genius. Scientific genius, you say? Hedy Lamarr?

Hear this: Born the daughter of a prominent Viennese banker, Lamarr's real name was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. She gained notoriety while still a teenager for running through the woods naked in the 1933 Czech film "Ecstasy."

Shortly afterward, she married the wealthy arms manufacturer Fritz Mandl. They lived a royal life in a 25-room hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps. But Mandl supplied Adolf Hitler with his weapons of war. Lamarr detested Hitler and broke off the marriage after only three years.

Lamarr abandoned Vienna in 1937 and met film mogul Louis B. Mayer in London, signed a seven-year contract, and she was off to Hollywood. Hedy went on to star in such hit films during the '30s and '40s as "White Cargo," "Sampson & Delilah" and "Comrade X," and she appeared opposite immortals like Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Spencer Tracy and Judy Garland.

We know all of this. But what few of us know is that Hedy Lamarr – along with a film score composer, George Antheil – invented a secret communication system, an anti-jamming device that is used in our U.S. government's $25 billion Milstar Defense Communications Satellite System. Neither Lamarr nor Antheil ever received a nickel from their patent, yet it ultimately became a staple of secure military communications.

The system, as devised by Lamarr and Antheil, is known as "frequency hopping" and is now in extensive use in military communications. It works like this: a signal is broadcast over a seemingly random series of radio frequencies, hopping from frequency to frequency at split-second intervals. The signal could carry spoken words or commands – or a torpedo!

A receiver hopping between frequencies picks up the message. Would-be eavesdroppers can hear only unintelligible blips. It wasn't until 1957 when their concept was developed by engineers at Sylvania's electronic system division that frequency hopping found application and ultimately became a staple of secure military communications.

It was quite a discovery! Yet neither Antheil nor Lamarr ever gave much thought to promoting their invention, and whenever George Antheil spoke of it, he credited the idea entirely to Hedy Lamarr. In 1942 Hedy patented the anti-jamming radio and gave it to the U.S. government as her contribution to the war effort. The technology she helped produced plays a major part in today's wireless communication gear.

But her patent wasn't her only contribution. Cinematic talent combined with her technological ingenuity, and during the war Lamarr raised $7 million in a single evening selling war bonds.

Howard Hughes was so impressed that he once loaned her a pair of top-flight chemists to help her develop a bouillon-like cube that, when mixed with water, would create a soft drink similar to Coca Cola. Both Hughes and Lamarr admitted with a laugh that the experiment was a flop.

I was able to secure a television interview with Hedy Lamarr at her hideaway Benedict Canyon Hollywood home in the early '70s. It was less than successful. When she appeared out of a back room, I thought it was the maid. She had dyed her beautiful black tresses fire engine red, and when I asked her about her pictures with Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable, she indicated that she had never appeared with either of them. From there, it got worse.

I suspect the dear lady might have been suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's. There were the sad stories about charges of shoplifting. Obviously, it was her mind, forgetfulness and dementia. During our interview she repeated, "My daughter's going to have a baby." She said it over and over again.

I returned to the studio and edited the filmed interview very carefully. It was not one of my better interviews; I was able to air only a very select, well-edited portion of the interview. It saddened me beyond belief, but I want to emphasize that her tragic downfall does not in any way diminish her genius and her scientific contribution to our American way of life, which is not to be forgotten.

In her Hollywood days, Hedy Lamarr commanded as much as $250,000 a picture – an astronomical amount at the time. And she could have received millions for her patent, but she lived her latter years in Miami, Fla., on a small pension and Social Security. She was often quoted as saying, "Any girl can be glamorous – all she has to do is stand still and look stupid." As an adoring friend put it, "Hedy was glamorous, stupid she was not."

Related Links:

Forbes Magazine, May 14, 1990:
http://www.ncafe.com/chris/pat2/index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/Relationships/
techtv_hedylamarr030421.html

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/
TPStory/LAC/20030703/TWTICO/TPTechnology/

http://www.inventionconvention.com/americasinventor/
dec97issue/section2.html

The legendary George Putnam is 89 years young and a veteran of 69 years as a reporter, broadcaster and commentator ... and is still going strong. George is part of the all-star line-up of Southern California's KPLS Radio – Hot Talk AM 830. Click here for George's complete bio

Editor's note:
Barbra Streisand, Hollywood left naked – Click here now!