during Women’s History Month **

Biz Heros & Bio’s Topics: Who is? Bombshell, Patriotic, Ignored, Early Career, AeroSpace, the Entrepreneur, 5 Facts, best Quotes.

Who is Hedy Lamarr? “The most Beautiful Woman in Movies in 30’s & 40’s,” most said. She was also an avid inventor and the person behind advances in communication technology in the 1940s that led to today’s Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. She’s a true Biz Hero & this her Bio.

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. Alexandra Dean is the director and producer of this new documentary about Lamarr . “People thought she was way too dazzlingly beautiful to have come up with such a brilliant idea,” Dean said. That brilliant idea was called Frequency Hopping – a way of jumping around on radio frequencies in order to avoid a third party jamming your signal.

Patriotic. Lamarr invented it in the 1940s for use as a secret World War II communication system that could keep the enemy from interfering with a ship’s Torpedoes. She got a patent for it in August 1942, and then donated it to the U.S. military to help fight the Nazis. “When she gave it to them, [the Navy] said, ‘What do you want to do, put a Player Piano inside a Torpedo? Get out of here!’ And so they didn’t use it during the WWII. It was after the War that it emerged as a way of secretly communicating on all the gadgets that we use today,” Dean explained.

Ignored. It took decades for Lamarr to receive any recognition for her incredible invention. Finally, in 1997 (35 yrs later), she was honored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Dean said, it might have been too late for Lamarr to appreciate the standing ovation she received when it was publically announced.

Early Career. During her peak of her success (30’s & 40’s), Lamarr was considered the “most Beautiful Woman in the world. Her face was the inspiration for Disney’s Snow White & for Cat Woman. She was a famous Hollywood star who would finish performing on set with Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and Spencer Tracy, and then go back to her trailer and work on her inventions.

Even helped in AeroSpace. She was friends AeroSpace pioneer Howard Hughes. According to Dean’s film, the relationship was more cerebral than romantic — she helped him streamline his aircraft design. Wow !!! An AeroSpace Engineer. In rare, long-lost cassette tapes from the 1990s, Lamarr describes her contributions to AeroSpace engineering: “I thought the Aero-Planes were too slow. I decided that’s not right. They shouldn’t be square, the wings. So I bought a book of fish, and I bought a book of birds, & then used the fastest bird, connected it with the fastest fish. And I drew it together and showed it to Howard Hughes and then he said, ‘You’re a genius.'”

The Entrepreneur. That genius extended to her business sense as well. What makes Lamarr seem “like somebody living among us today, that accidentally wandered into the past,” Dean said, is her entrepreneurial spirit. Lamarr started one of the first woman-owned Film production company in 1946 that was successful.

Five Facts about Actress & Inventor Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr was one of the most popular actresses of her day, but she was also an inventor, patenting a concept known as “frequency hopping”. Here are some other facts about Hedy Lamarr you might not know:

Hedy Lamarr’s real name is Hedwig. She was born in Vienna, Austria in 1914 and started acting in German movies, where she caught the attention of Hollywood producers who brought her to America in the late 1930s.
She was unhappily married to a Nazi Arms dealer. Lamarr’s move to America was as much an “escape” as a movie deal. However, the marriage afforded her the opportunity to rub elbows with German Generals & Admirals – which is probably where she first learned about military technology.
Lamarr’s co-Inventor was a composer. During WW II, Lamarr partnered with George Anthiel, who used his knowledge of Player Pianos to help her come up with a workable concept for Frequency Hopping.
Their Patent is the basis of modern Cell Phone technology. The basic concept of Frequency Hopping was for radio signals to jump frequencies – so that enemies couldn’t jam the signals. The technology was truly ahead of its time and was never used during World War II. However, the Navy used Frequency Hopping or as it is mainly know today as Spread Spectrum technology. It was first used during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis by President Kennedy. Today it forms the basis of how Mobile phones, and other Wireless Communication works – WiFi, GPS, BlueTooth, etc.
Google honored LaMarr’s 101st birthday with a Google doodle. The short video shows Lamarr’s double life as a famous actress in front of the cameras, and non-stop tinkerer/ inventor in private.

** It’s Women’s History Month during March – highlighting the great contributions to Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics or STEM fields made by women throughout history, as well as taking a look at fascinating work that women are doing in STEM fields today.

The best Quotes by Hedy Lamarr

“Confidence is something you’re born with. I had loads of it even at the age of 15.”

“Hope & curiosity about the future seemed better than guarantees. The unknown was always so attractive to me, that I continually pursued it.”

“All creative people want to do is the challenge of the unexpected. That’s why I’m so madly in love with life – for the new opportunities it offers.”

“The world isn’t getting any easier. With all these new inventions, I believe that people are hurried more and pushed more. That’s why they have more stress. The hurried way is not the right way; you need time for everything – time to work, time to play, time to rest.”

“I know why most people never get rich. They put their money ahead of the job. If you focus on doing any outstanding job, the money will automatically follow.”

Comments: What do you think of this Actress’s talent – that gave us our present technology of Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth & Cell Phone Networks.

from Multiple Sources 3/18 by Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz Blog

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