One hundred years ago November 9th 1914 – Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born in Vienna. She became a Hollywood Star, and a co-inventor of critical technology
Although better known for her Silver Screen exploits, Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) also became a pioneer in the field of wireless communications following her emigration to the United States. The international beauty icon, along with co-inventor George Anthiel, developed a “Secret Communications System” to help combat the Nazis in World War II. By manipulating radio frequencies at irregular intervals between transmission and reception, the invention formed an unbreakable code to prevent classified messages from being intercepted by enemy personnel.
Lamarr and Anthiel received a patent in 1941, but the enormous significance of their invention was not realized until decades later. It was first implemented on naval ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis and subsequently emerged in numerous military applications. But most importantly, the “spread spectrum” technology that Lamarr helped to invent would galvanize the digital communications boom, forming the technical backbone that makes cellular phones, fax machines and other wireless operations possible.
As is the case with many of the famous women inventors, Lamarr received very little recognition of her innovative talent at the time, but recently she has been showered with praise for her groundbreaking invention. In 1997, she and George Anthiel were honored with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Award. And later in the same year, Lamarr became the first female recipient of the BULBIE™ Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award, a prestigious lifetime accomplishment prize for inventors that is dubbed “The Oscar™ of Inventing.”
Proving she was much more than just another pretty face, Lamarr shattered stereotypes and earned a place among the 20th century’s most important women inventors. She truly was a visionary whose technological acumen was far ahead of its time.
http://inventionconvention.com/americasinventor/dec97issue/section2.html
Ironically, her real life, one of unusual twists and turns, is truly the stuff that movies are made of. Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, she grew up in Vienna, Austria and married millionaire Friz Mandl, a Nazi sympathizer who dealt arms to Hitler. During her four year marriage to Mandl, she listened and learned about advanced weaponry when he took her to all his business meetings as his showpiece wife.
She grew to hate the Nazis as well as her husband and escaped to London, where she met Louis B. Mayer. He brought her to the United States and gave her a shot in Hollywood by giving her a movie contract, a new name, and a new life – though she never forgot about the war that was brewing back in Europe.