Both a great star and a talented inventor who laid the foundation for Wifi: It is the untold story of a beauty icon that once rocked Hollywood.
Wifi is a very popular service, almost indispensable in today’s modern society. But few people know that the “mother” who conceived it was not recognized by contemporaries as worthy of her great invention.
The beautiful Austrian-born actress, Hedy Lamarr once rocked Hollywood because of her graceful appearance. But few people know that, hidden beneath Lamarr’s jet-black hair is a very intelligent mind. And it was she who used that intelligence to invent a new technology – the foundation for a service that can be found everywhere today – Wifi.
Let’s learn the story of the life full of ups and downs of Hedy Lamarr – the beauty icon of Hollywood – and the revelations of a sharp intelligence that has not been properly appreciated by his contemporaries.
Exceptional intelligence from an early age
Born on November 9, 1914 in Vienna, Austria, Lamarr displayed a remarkable intellect from an early age.
Her father used to talk to his daughter about the inner workings of machines, and under his encouragement, Lamarr tried taking apart a music box when she was 5 years old to see how it worked inside. She also showed a talent for languages when she was able to speak four languages when she was 10 years old.
But people’s strongest impression of Hedy Lamarr is his attractive appearance. At the age of 16, she caught the eye of film director Max Reinhardt, who once passionately said that her beauty was unparalleled in Europe – and even around the world.
From there, Lamarr’s life took a different turn. She studied acting at the Reinhardt drama school in Berlin and landed a role in the 1930 film Geld auf der Straβe (“Money on the Street”).
This early success led to a 1933 film that shocked the world – Ekstase, or Ecstasy. Although the film caused some controversy, Hedy Lamarr also made a name for himself on the screen. And the auras have only just begun.
From sad housewife to Hollywood star
As his career was on the rise, Hedy Lamarr caught the eye of an Austrian merchant. Very quickly, he flirted with her and the two married in 1933.
But Lamarr – like a character she once played – is stuck in an unhappy marriage. Her husband – Mr. Mandl – banned Lamarr from acting, even turning his bright talented wife into a housewife all day at home to serve and entertain friends,
“I was like a doll,” Lamarr recalls. “Like an object, a controlled, imprisoned art object, without a mind, without a life of its own.”
Tired of his long nights serving Mandl and his friends, Lamarr plotted to escape. In 1937, she ran away from an obsessive marriage and moved to London.
There, fate brought her to meet Louis B. Mayer. Together, the two began their journey across the Atlantic to the United States of America.
Lamarr’s life continued to turn pages when she set foot on American soil. The name Lamarr immediately made a big splash in Hollywood. For 10 years, she was continuously praised for participating in a series of Hollywood’s cult film projects.
But even at the height of his acting career, Lamarr has never forgotten the joy of discovering the music box. “The human brain is more interesting than it looks,” she once shared.
And as Europe was rattled by World War II, Hedy Lamarr began to think of ways he could use his mind more productively for society.
The Wisdom of a Genius Inventor
Few people know that Hedy Lamarr always keeps curiosity simmering in his body, even in Hollywood. During the day, she is still an actress, but when night falls, she delights in research and invention, with achievements such as a new type of traffic light or a carbonated tablet to make soft drinks. And when Lamarr came to creative entrepreneur Howard Hughes, she was conditioned to develop a taste for invention.
Unlike other men in Hollywood, Hughes was very supportive of Lamarr’s passion and even once called her a “genius”. With strong backing from Hughes, Lamarr had his greatest invention in 1940.
During a dinner party, Lamarr struck up a conversation with inventor George Antheil about the war spreading in Europe. When she thought back to the boring dinners she had had to organize for her ex-husband Mandl and his friends, Lamarr and Antheil had an idea of what is known as “dancing”.
Frequency hopping is a technique that allows the frequency to be changed between the aircraft and the guided torpedo so that the enemy cannot interfere with the radio signal. Due to the constantly changing signals, the enemy will be unpredictable.
Lamarr is very passionate about science. Photo: Forbes.
This invention earned Lamarr and Antheil a patent in 1942, but the US Navy still decided not to apply frequency hopping to military operations. And Lamarr still did his best to support the US military in World War II, with his star status and power, not with that overlooked genius invention.
Fortunately, Hedy Lamarr’s work did not go to waste. Her ideas would later be used to develop modern WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS technologies. And Lamarr will one day be recognized as the “Mother of WiFi”.
Tragedy of a beautiful page
The second half of his life, Lamarr’s genius mind was completely obscured by dramas related to his private life. Along with that, 6 controversial marriages and autobiography are the subject of thorough exploitation of the tabloid pages. And her arrests for shoplifting in 1966 and 1991 also put her in the spotlight.
Information about her final years remains a mystery, as she was known as a recluse, rarely appearing in public. What is known is that she died on January 19, 2000, at the age of 85. The cause of death was later revealed to be heart disease.
Also in the last years of his life, Lamarr fell into a state of self-loathing. She once wrote that her beautiful face “has brought tragedy and suffering for five decades. My face is a mask that cannot be removed: I must always live with it. I curse it”.
But even as Hedy Lamarr’s glory faded before her death, her genius mind and inventions were never forgotten. In the 1960s, frequency hopping technology was first applied in the US military. In the decades that followed, it could not have changed the world more dramatically, with global applications like WiFi and Bluetooth. And Lamarr is also recognized by international organizations for his great contribution to radio engineering.
It can be said that, during his life, Hedy Lamarr was remembered mainly for his beauty, rather than for his technical talent. But it was her wisdom that was most valuable, and later also brought Lamarr the recognition she deserved.
Lamarr’s life resembles a role she played in the 1941 film Ziegfeld Girl, in which she portrayed a glamorous woman with a headdress full of shimmering stars. But those stars, no matter how bright, how bright they are, can’t be compared with the bright wisdom of the woman wearing them on her head.
