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SPEAKER_01: Before we get started, I have a quick request. We're eager to know more about our audience, so we created a short listener survey to help us learn more about you. Visit wondermedianetwork.com slash survey to share your thoughts and be entered to win some Wonder Media Network swag. That's wondermedianetwork.com slash survey. It's quick, I promise. You can also find a link in the episode notes. Now let's get to the show.
SPEAKER_06: Hey everyone, I'm Edie Allard, junior producer here at Wonder Media Network and one of the scriptwriters behind Encyclopedia Wamanica. In the last year of Encyclopedia Wamanica, we wanted to revisit some of the outstanding women we featured along the way. Today, we're looking back on Hedy Lamarr. Hedy was a genius brain living in a time where women weren't seen as much more than a pretty face. No matter how society or her husband or Hollywood treated her, she wasn't content just to sit around. When I first listened to this episode, my mouth was open the entire time. Hedy was seriously unstoppable. From secretly eavesdropping on Nazi military secrets to drawing inspiration from nature and her inventions to captivating the nation with her charm, her genius impressed me nonstop. Like we see again and again in history, it took far too long for her to get the recognition she deserves. But if you didn't already know about Hedy Lamarr and her incredible mind, you will soon. This episode aired initially in September for our Steminist Month, but I hope you enjoy re-listening now for a month of favorites. Now, here's host Jenny Kaplan to tell you all about Hedy Lamarr.
SPEAKER_01: Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Our Steminist of the Day pioneered the technology that would become foundational for today's Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. But if you know her name, it's likely as a star of old Hollywood. She was a famed beauty whose presence was treasured on the big screen. We're talking about Hedy Lamarr. Hedwig Eva Keiler was born in Vienna, Austria on November 9th, 1914 to a well-off Jewish family. Her artistic and inventive sides were both supported by her parents. Hedy was an only child and was very close with her father, a bank director. The two frequently took long walks together and discussed the inner workings of machines around them, like streetcars and the printing press. Hedy was fascinated by those conversations and took to tinkering herself, dissecting and reassembling her music box. Hedy's mother was also a major influence on Hedy. She was a concert pianist and introduced Hedy to the arts, enrolling her in both ballet and piano lessons as a young child. As she grew up, Hedy's beauty took center stage. When she was 18 years old, she was discovered as an actress by director Max Reinhardt and went to study with him in Berlin. She got her first roles on screen and began to gain name recognition, particularly for a 1932 role in a controversial film called Ecstasy. During her time in Berlin, Hedy also starred in a play called Sissy. One adoring fan turned into something more. Fritz Mandel, an Austrian munitions dealer, saw Hedy on stage and the two started dating. They married in 1933, but their relationship didn't last. Hedy once said about the marriage, I was like a doll. I was like a thing, some object of art which had to be guarded and imprisoned, having no mind, no life of its own. In 1937, Hedy fled to London. She escaped her unhappy relationship and she brought with her knowledge about German munitions that she'd gained through dinner conversations with her husband and his business partners, some of whom were associated with the Nazi party. In London, Hedy's fortunes took a turn for the better. She met Louis Mayer of MGM Studios and found her path to Hollywood. In the US, Hedy captured audiences with her beauty and accent. She also captured the attention of real life characters, including businessman and aviator Howard Hughes. Howard and Hedy dated and discovered a mutual interest in innovation. Howard gave Hedy a small set of equipment for her trailer on set, allowing her to work on inventions between scenes. Howard also took Hedy to see his airplane factories, where he taught her how the planes were built and introduced her to the scientists responsible. Howard wanted to make planes faster and Hedy decided to help. She purchased two books for inspiration, a book of birds and a book of fish. She looked at the fastest birds and the fastest fish and from the two drew inspiration from their fins and wings to design a new kind of wing for Howard's planes. When Hedy showed a sketch of the new design to Howard, he said, you're a genius. In 1940, she invented what would be her most ingenious creation of all. She met a man named George Antile at a dinner party. He was a Hollywood writer and composer and shared Hedy's inventive streak. George and Hedy were both extremely concerned about the looming war. It was the eve of the United States' involvement in World War II. Hedy's first marriage had equipped her with knowledge about German munitions and she and George decided to work on inventions to combat the Axis powers. In the end, the duo developed a new communication system to guide torpedoes to their targets. The system used frequency hopping between radio waves in order to prevent the interception of radio waves by the enemy. Hedy and George sought a patent and military support for the invention. They received a patent, but the Navy decided against implementing the technology during the war because of the complexity and expense. Hedy's patent expired before she received a penny for her invention. She continued her acting career and in April 1953, Hedy became a US citizen. Despite her continued success on screen until 1958, Hedy's inventive genius went largely unacknowledged for years. Finally, in 1997, Hedy and George jointly received the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for their work. Hedy also became the first woman to receive the Invention Convention's Bulby Nast Spirit of Achievement Award. Hedy died in the year 2000. 14 years later, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her frequency hopping spread spectrum technology. The technology Hedy developed to allow torpedoes to frequency hop had found a new home in the wifi and wireless devices we know and love. Her work led her to be dubbed the mother of wifi and other wireless communications like GPS and Bluetooth. Tune in tomorrow for the story of another world changing Steminist. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm Cynthia and I am one of the producers of Encyclopedia Whamanica. And if you love Encyclopedia Whamanica and wanna learn more about these women or even get to know us behind the scenes, well, you should go to glow.fm slash whamanica and join our new membership programs. And again, that is at glow.fm slash whamanica. Become a member today. I'll talk to you all soon. Peace.
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