WEBVTT - How Did Hedy Lamarr Change Communications Technology?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>Vogelbaum here. Famed actress and the Hollywood bombshell Hetty Lamar

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<v Speaker 1>once said, any girl can be glamorous. All you have

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<v Speaker 1>to do is stand still and look stupid. In those

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<v Speaker 1>two short sentences, she managed to call gender stereotypes, beauty ideals,

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<v Speaker 1>and Hollywood artifice into question, using a hint of humor

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<v Speaker 1>to make meaningful social commentary. In a sense, this succinct

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<v Speaker 1>SoundBite offers more insight into Lamar's life and legacy than

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<v Speaker 1>any headshot or publicity photo ever could. But understanding the

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<v Speaker 1>context of the film star's words provides even more meaning

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<v Speaker 1>into the boundary breaking successes and unexpected influence she continues

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<v Speaker 1>to have more than two decades after her death. She

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<v Speaker 1>was born with the name hedvig Eva Maria Kis on

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<v Speaker 1>November ninth of nineteen fourteen in Austria. She took an

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<v Speaker 1>early interest in the performing arts, but seemed equally enchanted

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<v Speaker 1>with science and engineering. For the article this episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on How Stuff Works. Spoke via email with Alexandra Dean,

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<v Speaker 1>director of the documentary A Bombshell. The Hetty Lamar Story

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<v Speaker 1>she said Hetty Lamar grew up in a wealthy, middle

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<v Speaker 1>class family in Vienna, where she learned classical piano and

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<v Speaker 1>enjoyed ballet, opera and chemistry. She left tinkering with her

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<v Speaker 1>gadgets and took part her music box and smashed a

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<v Speaker 1>light bulb to see how it worked. She became an

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<v Speaker 1>actress because she thought it would be more fun than school,

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<v Speaker 1>so she forged a note from her mother allowing her

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<v Speaker 1>ten hours away from classes, and she went to her

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<v Speaker 1>first audition. At seventeen years old. Lamar scored her first

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<v Speaker 1>film role. She was already turning heads for her stunning

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<v Speaker 1>good looks, something that would both serve and arguably hinder

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<v Speaker 1>her cess Hostiff Works also spoke via email with Vincent Brooke,

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<v Speaker 1>an author and UCLA Media Studies lecturer. He said she

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<v Speaker 1>was too beautiful for her own good. Her glamour queen

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<v Speaker 1>sex goddess persona kept her from being seen for the brilliant,

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<v Speaker 1>complex person that she was. Lamar wed Austrian munitions dealer

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<v Speaker 1>Fritz Mandel in nineteen thirty three, but the marriage didn't

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<v Speaker 1>last long. She later said of the union, I knew

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<v Speaker 1>very soon that I could never be an actress. While

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<v Speaker 1>I was his wife. He was the absolute monarch in

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<v Speaker 1>his marriage. I was like a doll. I was like

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<v Speaker 1>a thing, some object of art which had to be

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<v Speaker 1>guarded and imprisoned, having no mind, no life of its own.

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<v Speaker 1>During their marriage, Lamar was often spotted on Mandell's arm

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<v Speaker 1>as he kept company with friends and business partners, many

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<v Speaker 1>of whom had alleged ties to the Nazi Party. By

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen thirty seven, Mamamarr had had enough and fled her marriage,

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<v Speaker 1>her former life, and all ties to Austria. She headed

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<v Speaker 1>to London and soon signed a contract with Hollywood's Metro

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<v Speaker 1>Goldwyn Mayer Studio under the name that we know her

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<v Speaker 1>by today. Her first American film, Algiers, kicked her career

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<v Speaker 1>into high gear, and soon Lamar was a household name.

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<v Speaker 1>She was reportedly the model for Disney's Snow White and

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<v Speaker 1>the inspiration for DC Comics Catwoman. In the early years

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<v Speaker 1>of her newfound fame, Lamar made a hobby of invention

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<v Speaker 1>and of dating some of Hollywood's most famous and infamous men,

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<v Speaker 1>including Howard Hughes. The pilot and businessman reportedly took Lamar

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<v Speaker 1>along to tour airplane factories and asked for Lamar's input

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<v Speaker 1>on aviation design and theory, but it wasn't until nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>forty two that Lamar's innovative thinking inspired an unprecedented invention.

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<v Speaker 1>In collaboration with composer George Antil, Lamar came up with

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<v Speaker 1>an all electronic device that minimized the jamming of radio signals.

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<v Speaker 1>Dean explained during World War Two, Hetty's mother was trapped

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<v Speaker 1>in Vienna, and since she was Jewish, she was in

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<v Speaker 1>great danger. Hetty already lived in Hollywood and was helping

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<v Speaker 1>her mother escape to America. She got as far as London,

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<v Speaker 1>but it was not safe across the Atlantic because every

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<v Speaker 1>American ship was getting blown up by the Nazis. Hetty

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<v Speaker 1>was terrified her mother would die in the London blps,

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<v Speaker 1>and so every night she worked on inventing a remote

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<v Speaker 1>controlled torpedo so advanced that it would be able to

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<v Speaker 1>hunt down and blow up every Nazi submarine in the Atlantic,

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<v Speaker 1>thus securing safe passage to the US. To make sure

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<v Speaker 1>the Nazis couldn't hack the radio signal for her torpedo

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<v Speaker 1>and send it back to blow up the Allied ship

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<v Speaker 1>that launched it, she created a secret communication system that

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<v Speaker 1>couldn't be hacked. This secret communications system utilized changing radio

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<v Speaker 1>frequently to prevent enemies from decoding messages. A Multiple radio

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<v Speaker 1>frequencies were used to broadcast a radio signal which changed

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<v Speaker 1>frequencies at split second intervals in an apparently random manner.

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<v Speaker 1>To anyone listening, it would just sound like noise, but

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<v Speaker 1>the signal would be clear if both the sender and

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<v Speaker 1>receiver hopped frequencies at the same time. Although the technology

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<v Speaker 1>was never used in wartime, it wound up playing a

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<v Speaker 1>critical role in communication methods throughout the decades. She gave

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<v Speaker 1>the patent to the US Navy. It saw its first

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<v Speaker 1>use during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and is one of

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<v Speaker 1>the inventions that made technology like Wi Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as devices like cell phones possible. However, by

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<v Speaker 1>the time it was implemented, her patent had expired, meaning

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<v Speaker 1>Lamar never received a penny for her invention. Dean said,

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<v Speaker 1>even though many inventors and scientists had heard the rumor

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<v Speaker 1>that one of Hollywood's most glamorous stars had invented a

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<v Speaker 1>secret communication system, most of them thought it was an

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<v Speaker 1>urban legend and told me so. Hetty had never told

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<v Speaker 1>her story to the public before, and most people who

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<v Speaker 1>heard it dismissed it as too outlandish to be true.

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<v Speaker 1>Robert Price, the top historian of secret communications, was the

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<v Speaker 1>only scientist to ask Hetty directly if she came up

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<v Speaker 1>with the invention, but when she told him that she did,

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<v Speaker 1>he thought it was a lie and didn't record her

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<v Speaker 1>answer in his history of the invention. Instead, he told

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<v Speaker 1>everyone she was a spy who stole the invention from

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<v Speaker 1>the Nazis. While she wasn't able to achieve critical acclaim

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<v Speaker 1>or recognition for her technical aptitude, Lamar continued to see

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<v Speaker 1>success in Hollywood, but her career began to decline in

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen fifties, and she experienced strife in her personal

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<v Speaker 1>life through six marriages, two arrests, and a host of

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<v Speaker 1>substance abuse issues. A well after her retirement and her

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<v Speaker 1>retreat from the spotlight, however, Lamar finally received acknowledgment for

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<v Speaker 1>her achievements off screen. In nineteen ninety seven, the Electronic

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<v Speaker 1>Frontier Foundation jointly awarded Lamar and Antyle with their Pioneer Award,

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<v Speaker 1>and Lamar also became the first woman to receive the

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<v Speaker 1>Invention Convention's Bulby Mass Spirit of Achievement Award. She was

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<v Speaker 1>posthumously inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in

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<v Speaker 1>twenty fourteen. Although Lamar died in the year two thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>her legacy has lived on through film and the belated

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<v Speaker 1>recognition of her technological contributions, and according to Dean, she

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<v Speaker 1>was so much more than the silver screen star who

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<v Speaker 1>turned heads and detracted audiences. Dean said, when I first

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<v Speaker 1>listened to Hetty's voice on tape, I was bowled over

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<v Speaker 1>by her sense of humor. She's so funny and quirky.

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<v Speaker 1>The first thing she said on the tape was I

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<v Speaker 1>think I'll be able to control people after my death,

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<v Speaker 1>And sometimes I think she meant to scare whomever listened

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<v Speaker 1>to the tape and set out to tell her story.

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<v Speaker 1>I was tickled by that idea, as she also said

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<v Speaker 1>she knew what she had done in her life, she

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<v Speaker 1>didn't need anyone to believe her. I loved that sense

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<v Speaker 1>that she alone could give herself that recognition for her

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<v Speaker 1>gargantuan achievement. Today's episode is based on the article how

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<v Speaker 1>Hollywood's screen siren Hetty Lamar helped pioneer Wi Fi and

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<v Speaker 1>GPS on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Michelle Constantinofsky.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how

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<v Speaker 1>Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. For

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<v Speaker 1>four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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