Category: Friday Favorites

Did you know if not for a movie star we would not have WiFi and GPS now? No? Then you need to read about Hedy Lamarr.
Lamarr was a beauty that captured the screen but what captured her heart was inventions. She loved to design and come up with items that she thought would benefit her beloved adopted country, The United States. It is estimated she requested some hundred patents over her lifetime but the one that matters the most was U.S. Patent 2,292,387 which reads as Subject-matter directed to cryptographic mechanisms involving encryption effected by mechanical apparatus, as rotating cams, switches or key-tape punchers.”
Lamarr stared in some 30 movies which led her to meet Howard Hughes. Hughes funded many of her inventions and ideas because “it made her happy”.
This is a woman who little girls should learn of and look up to. She was beautiful outside but also had a mind that gave the world what we now use every moment of every day. Gal Gadot is set to play her for Apple TV+ soon.
To get a taste of Hedy Lamarr’s life you can read about her on Wikipedia here.

Amazon Link

“But I don’t regret anything. I learned a lot.” —Hedy Lamarr

Hollywood Beauty. Brilliant inventor. The incredible story of a remarkable and misunderstood woman.
Hedy Kiesler, Austrian actress of Jewish heritage, scandalizes Europe with her nudity in the art film Ecstasy. Her hasty marriage to a wealthy munitions merchant disintegrates as he grows increasingly controlling and possessive. Even worse—he supplies deadly weapons to Hitler’s regime.
She flees husband and homeland for Hollywood, where Louis B. Mayer transforms her into Hedy Lamarr, an icon of exotic glamour. Professional success clashes with her personal life as marriage and motherhood compete with the demands of studio and stardom.
Motivated by the atrocities of World War II, Hedy secretly invents a new technology intended for her adopted country’s defense—and unexpectedly changes the world.