A man rests his head against a photograph of actress Hedy Lamarr reproduced on a fabric pillow.
Photo by Nina Leen, 1947.
Beautiful and smart as a whip, Hedy befriended a maverick musician, George Antheil. They met at a Hollywood party where they discussed the war in Europe and the threat to America from Germany and Hitler. The following afternoon, Antheil went to Lamarr’s home to discuss what they could do to stop Hitler.With Antheil’s help, Lamarr designed a new kind of guidance system for torpedos.
Hedy knew that “guided” torpedos were much more effective hitting a target, a ship at sea for example. The problem was that radio-controlled torpedos could easily be jammed by the enemy. Neither she nor Antheil were scientists, but one afternoon she realized “we’re talking and changing frequencies” all the time. At that moment, the concept of frequency-hopping was born. Their only goal was to stop the Nazis. Unfortunately or predictably, the military establishment did not take them or their novel invention seriously. Their device was never put to use during World War II. By the 1950’s, the patent on the device had expired when engineers at Sylvania “re-discovered” frequency-hopping. They called it “spread spectrum.”
Fifty-five years and six marriages later, Lamarr was recently given the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Award for their invention. Antheil was also honored; he died in the sixties. From her Florida apartment where she lived on a pension from the Screen Actor’s Guild, Lamarr responded, “It’s about time.”
Hedy Lamarr and Orson Welles.
