Hedy Lamarr: The Hollywood Goddess Who Gave Us WiFi
today's video is brought to you by athletic greens supplement your health and nutrition with their daily blend of vitamins and minerals more on them in just a bit she was described as the most beautiful woman in hollywood's nay the world she could enthrall audiences simply with her gaze or by parting her lips just enough to reveal the endless possibilities of sin her life had all the markings of a modern day fairy tale the story of a princess who made her way through life thanks to her beauty only to find herself locked in the castle of a warlord a captivity from which she would escape to conquer hollywood but nobody would suspect that this austrian-born star had the brains of a world-class inventor she was the screen siren who inspired catwoman and disney snow white and who invented the technology that would later enable wifi and bluetooth today the story of hedy lamarr the actress later known as hedy lamarr was born hedwig kissler on the 9th of november 1914 in vienna she was the only child of a mill and gertrude trude kisler both parents were part of the wealthy assimilated viennese jewish community and were able to provide hedwig with the best education trude introduced the young eddie to classical music theater and the arts in general she was enrolled in one of the best schools in the austrian capital the doblinger middle school which could boast anna freud daughter of sigmund as a teacher however pre-teen heady had other concerns beyond the liberal arts she had a knack for taking things apart to understand how they worked and reassembling them again afterwards a pastime which delighted a mill who was supportive of her early engineering endeavors but most of all hedy was conscious of her beauty and how she would turn heads wherever she went she also had an unruly spirit that her parents did their best to keep under control failing consistently for example one of hedy's grandmothers died when she was 12. as her parents were distracted by the funeral arrangements the tween seized the moment to enter a beauty contest which he won around the same time the kisslers decided to lock the rebel girl in a swiss boarding school as if that would work eddie asked her friends to cable the school pretending to be her dad demanding she return home the ruse worked and eddie slipped back to vienna to attend yet another pageant by her early teenage years the young kissler was back in vienna igniting the passion of older boys and dating for the first time one of them was a 21 year old actor wolff albacheretti later to become father of another austrian star remy schneider this period is also when hedwig took her first steps to stardom first she signed up for acting classes then got herself a job as a script clerk at sasha's film studios austria's largest movie production company she should have been at school but she forged a note in her mother's name to leave class and attend the interview while working there eddie learned that a casting call was being held for the minor role of a secretary so she stole some makeup from another aspiring actress and gave herself a bit of a glow up looking more stunning than ever had he boldly told the assistant director i want to play the part of the secretary and so it was that she got her first bit role in gold on the street released in 1930. the small part attracted the attention of max reinhardt a director with legendary credentials this wizard of theater cast her in the stage comedy the weaker sex with a part so small it didn't even have a name the character was credited only as first american but reinhardt uttered some magic words to a group of reporters saying hedy kissler is the most beautiful girl in the world the quote was picked up by trade papers in october of 1931 the spell had been cast and the future star received more offers for cinematic work hedwig moved to berlin where she shot two films in rapid succession the trunks of mr of and we don't need money hedy played similar characters in both movies a sweet unglamorous young woman who is able to defend herself with powerful slaps should the need arise contemporary critics found her acting just competent enough but obviously everybody agreed on her magnetic beauty hedy had enjoyed relative success in berlin but in february 1932 she decided to leave the city many fellow jewish performers had taken the same decision sending an imminent rise to power of the nazi party and they moved to vienna one star however had other motivations she had been hired by czech director gustav mahati to act in the film that would set europe ablaze with controversy ecstasy photography for ecstasy began in july 1932 taking place on the carpathian mountains had he played the part of eva a young woman married to an older man a mill who turns out to be impotent eva leaves him and decides to reconnect with nature by swimming nude and alike there she meets the young engineer adam and the two fall in love mahati's intention was to present the heroine as a modern-day eve who reconnects with the garden of eden where she meets her adam the main character is presented as an independent young woman who rejects the gilded cage built around her by a decaying husband in doing so she becomes a life-affirming force never ceding authority to other male figures not even to adam along the way mahathir and hedy earned a misleading reputation for pornography there is in fact a nude swimming sequence and a close-up of eva's face during orgasm all tamed by today's standards but not in the 1930s the star was initially fine with those scenes but when x to see premiered in vienna in february of 1933 she was dead embarrassed nonetheless ecstasy was becoming a wild success propelled by scandal and controversy on one hand traditional conservative cinema-goers found this tale of extra-marital sex disturbing and disgusting on the other hand everybody else found the nudity and the orgasm sequence to be too tame the marketing campaign for the flick promised all sorts of obscenity and not some kind of art house film with just one shot of a naked girl to them that was the scandal in any case all this publicity could only serve hedy's goals she was now the talk of european cinema and another contract soon ensued in march of 1933 when she got the lead role in a stage production about empress [ __ ] an iconic figure of austrian culture her performance was greeted with enthusiasm by critics who for once praised her skills instead of just her looks if this is the story of a fairy tale we could say that this is when our protagonist is recognized as princess of her realm but this was also the moment in which the princess met a dark and shadowy figure who would become her captor fritz mandel now just before we get into the rest of today's video quick word from athletic greens today's video sponsor athletic greens is a comprehensive all-in-ones greens powder engineered to fill the nutritional gaps in your diet and support your 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some athletic greens green powder with it and i don't know if it's placebo but i do feel better maybe i just feel better about myself having something healthy with the copious amount of coffee that i drink but whatever athletic greens is the perfect dietary support regimen so if that sounds like something you've been looking for you can grab your own immunity bundle that's a year of vitamin d plus you get these five additional travel packs with your first purchase at athleticgreens.com forward slash biographics again year supply vitamin d buy free travel packs at athletic greens.com forward slash biographics or just click the link in the description below and now back to today's video fritz mandel came from a wealthy hungarian family he had been born out of wedlock in february of 1900 from a jewish father and a catholic mother the two married only when the boy was 10. an
ambitious man mandel made it big in the armament's business earning the nicknames of austria's munitions king and the merchant of death pritz was also elegant charming and a smooth talker he nagged mercilessly hedy and her parents until the kistlers consented to an engagement announced in may 1933. hedy converted to roman catholicism and the two were married on the 10th of august 1933 soon embarking on a honeymoon across europe's most luxurious destinations venice capri nice paris all along the young bride had a taste of the riches that this marriage could offer but she soon realized that those solid gold bracelets weighed more than handcuffs as she later put it at every luxury except freedom in fact fritz was blinded by a furious jealousy he demanded that he quit acting and ensured that she did not get access to the movie and staged celebrities it was rumored that he ordered every print of ecstasy to be bought and destroyed the rumor was probably a publicity stunt concocted by the director mcatee but it captures mandel's character well after the honeymoon the munitions king locked up his princess in his version of rapunzel's tower villa fiegenberg about 160 kilometers outside of vienna mandel demanded that hedy spend all her time at home and not attend any social or business events he even ensured that she was always short on cash to better control her a battle of wit soon ensued as the princess bride staged crazy antics to escape pritz's control on one occasion she removed all 16 toilet seats from the vast mansion repainted them in bright colors and sat them out to dry on the front lawn this was happening just when fritz's business partners were arriving for a meeting she then took to escaping from the villa and going on wild shopping sprees buying on credit of course when fritz saw the extent of the bill he agreed to give her a fixed allowance one day after escaping to vienna had he realized that fritz was following her in her own version of events she evaded capture by sneaking into a notorious people show club but she entered the wrong door and found herself on stage with the performers having no other options eddie got into character and improvised performance with a young male actor it's often said that life imitates art in this case hedy's life seemed to follow the plot of ecstasy a young wife older husband and extramarital passion one of the such flings was inadvertently caused by a friend and client of mandals a former italian journalist you might have heard of this chap it's benito mussolini mussolini was happy to buy weapons at a premium rate from mandel he knew that fritz could use the extra cash to fund count ernst von stehenberg one of the top most austro-fascists and a leader of the heimther militia ernst happened to have a charming younger brother ferdinand who caught hedy's eye and the two started an affair in the meantime mandal was busy supporting the local brand of fascism while he was opposed to an annexation by german nazis mandel shared much of their ideology including anti-semitism in fact in 1936 the austrian association of cinema producers declared a ban on hiring jewish performers this may have prompted eddie's plan to elope with ferdinand on the 13th of november 1936 the two hopped on a train to budapest where had he planned to resume acting in theater but when the train pulled into the station eddie was shocked to see fritz waiting for her his face was a grey mask of fury mrs mantle was promptly returned to her gilded cage but it didn't take long for her next prison break in early 1937 hedy hired a new may laura her credentials she made for a credible lookalike one morning the runaway bride slipped three sleeping pills into laura's coffee after she fell asleep eddie donned her uniform packed a suitcase and snuck out from the servant store driving laura's wreck of a car had he made it to a nearby train station and hopped on a train to freedom the experience with mandel had not been entirely negative while she was supposed to play the role of a trophy wife at business gatherings she actually enjoyed discussing technical details with mandel's colleagues especially engineers what everybody had overlooked so far is that ms kessler may have frequently skipped school but when she was in class she excelled at science her propensity for experimenting and inventing would later pay off in a rather unexpected way the mandel's marriage was dissolved years later when hedy obtained a divorce in nevada after leaving the states her first destination was similar at switzerland a popular destination amongst jewish showbiz personalities seeking refuge from germany and austria while there the princess on the run had a brief affair with eric maria remark also a persona non grata due to his novel all quiet on the western front but the two soon parted ways and mrs kusla reached london in the summer of 1937. this is where she was introduced the man who would open the gates of hollywood for her co-founder of mgm louis b mayer the film tycoon was interested including her in his new batch of imported european talent he was also aware of the fame that she gathered thanks to ecstasy and was quick to admonish her he said never get away with that stuff in hollywood never a woman's is for her husband not theatergoers mayer also picked a new name for his new acquisition kisler sounded too german and mandel had political connotations from now on she would be known as hedy lamarr after the late silent film star barbara lemar on october 4th 1937 the reborn miss lamar signed her first contract with mgm with a weekly salary of 550 about 10 000 in today's money despite plenty of attention from the gossip columns hedy still struggled to find a suitable role she spoke little english and some camera tests convinced mgm directors that she really could not act that was until producer walter wagner had an insight with her dark hair wide eyes and foreign accent lamar was an embodiment of exotic beauty perfect casting for exotic dramas and so she got to star in 1938's algiers are all coveted by ingrid bergman in this drama set in algiers casbah lamar plays the role of a passionate woman torn between an older husband and her young lover a gangster what a surprise a review of the time read best of all is the smoldering velvet voiced wanton mouthed femme fatale blackhead hazel-eyed viennese actress hedy lamarr suddenly our heroine had broken into the fantasies of millions of american cinema goers her looks even inspired the character design of sydney's snow white initially drawn to be blonde later she would also inspire the first version of catwoman the success of algiers was followed by lady of the tropics in 1939. in this romance set in saigon hedy plays a multi-racial woman born to a french father and an indochinese mother and guess what she's torn between an older powerful industrialist lover and a younger suitor surprise another pattern that emerges is that mgm was typecasting heady into stereotypical roles the trend was confirmed by 1942 with white cargo here the austrian beauty plays another exotic seductress the half egyptian half arabic ton de laio these films did do well enough at the box office but lamar would later regret not sinking her perfectly aligned teeth into meatier roles for example in 1940 she had turned down the classic thriller gaslight even worse in 1942 she had to decline the part of ilsa in casablanca for contractual reasons the role went to ingrid bergman of course during her early tinseltown years hedy lamarr married and soon divorced two hollywood personalities first the producer jean markey with whom she adopted her son james then she married actor john loda with whom she had two children denise and anthony all the while she maintained a hobby only a few friends such as howard hughes were aware of designing inventions hughes gifted her portable engineering equipment so that she could invent away in her trailer between takes had he repaid the favor by streamlining the tycoon's racing airplane lamar also invented a tablet that could turn a glass of water into a cola drink she also invented an anti-aircraft shell with a proximity fuse after the u.s entered world war ii in december 1941 she wanted to do
more for the war effort together with a friend composer george anthel she developed an idea building on frequency hopping a concept originally patented by nikola tesla in 1903. lamar reasoned that naval torpedoes were given input for both depth speed and direction but were left unguided after launch how about developing a technology to control their trajectory remotely hedy went one step further how could one prevent the enemy from jamming those directions given via radio signals with the help of anthiol an expert in mechanical pianos she devised a contraption similar to a piano role that would switch between ata frequencies very hard for the enemy to intercept this method was patented on august 11th 1942 under the name secret communication system the invention was fully developed by the u.s military in 1959 as a device to control early drone models three years later during the cuban missile crisis all u.s navy vessels to enforce a blockade on cuba
were equipped with the technology and jumping even further ahead the lamar anthill secret communication system became a fundamental component of wireless communication systems including wi-fi and bluetooth this invention alone was estimated to be worth at least 30 billion dollars in today's money and yet hedy and george never saw a single cent the sad truth is that the navy rejected the invention back in 1942 they understood its theoretical advantages but found it to be too cumbersome to put into practice and in later years lamar failed to renew the patent application during the war years the armed forces believed that eddie lamar could serve her country of adoption in another way she bolstered the morale of gi joes by joining uso events and more importantly led a fundraising effort which sold 25 million worth of war bonds in just 10 days with her contract with mgm expired she invested heavily in producing her own movies the noir the strange woman of 1946 was a moderate success but dishonored lady one year later was savaged by censorship and tanked at the box office this did not help eddie's finances as she was known for reckless shopping sprees the 1940s though closed with hedy's biggest success to date the biblical epic samson and delilah directed by cecil b demille and starring victor mature as the male lead commenting on mature's pictorials groucho marx famously quipped first picture i've seen in which the male lead has bigger than the female as much as we love groucho barks and his humor we expect that lamar wished to be remembered for something more than a figure but such was the life of a hollywood star and one on the decline too at the age of 35 movie offers started to dry up after working with demille had he only appeared in six more films the last being the female animal in 1958 hedy's declining years were accompanied by trouble and heartache at home throughout the 1950s and 1960s eddie got married and then divorced three more times the wild spending the box office bombs and the divorce lawyer bills left the once glamorous star financially ruined in 1965 she confessed to a fan i have no idea where my next meal is coming from and some days i go hungry in 1966 she had the chance to return to the screen with the horror picture mummy dead but she first failed to show up on set and when she did she collapsed due to exhaustion in february she was fired from the production the year 1966 was the start of a series of curious appearances in court earlier that january she'd been arrested for shoplifting however the judge found her innocent and released her in the following years she appeared in court again and again this time as the plaintiff first she sued the ghostwriters who had penned her 1966 autobiography ecstasy and me and accused them of inventing scandalous details and lurid stories then in 1974 she dragged to court comedy legend mel brooks guilty of naming a character hedly lamarr in his blazing saddles apparently brooks was amused by the attention and agreed to settle out of court next up were the newspapers san francisco chronicle and the national enquirer the chronicle the dead publishing the photo of a two-headed goat called hedy lamar while the latter claimed that the once star had become a pathetic recluse old and ugly by the 1990s hedy was living in a small flat in miami supporting herself with a social security check and a screen actors guild pension she was arrested again for shoplifting in 1991 and this time she was sentenced to a year of probation in april 1998 eddie found the energy to file her final lawsuit against software company coral corp her photo had been used without permission on the cover of coral draw hedwig kissler better known as hedy lamarr died on the 19th of january 2000 in castlebury florida up to the end she kept coming up with new inventions a fluorescent dog collar a type of new traffic light and even improvements for the concorde in her last years eddie had become obsessed with plastic surgery some say she was attempting to recreate her long gone beauty true hedy owed her success and film career to her looks but deep inside she despised them in her autobiography she wrote my face has been by misfortune it has attracted all the wrong people into my boudoir and brought me tragedy and heartache for five decades my face is a mask i cannot remove i must always live with it i curse it perhaps that's what she wanted to do through surgery punish and erase the face that had distracted the world from her true talents a gift for innovation invention and inexhaustible lust for life she once said when i die i want on my gravestone thank you very much for a colorful life the actual quote in our gravestone represents much better heady's world view and achievements films have a certain place in a certain time period technology is forever i hope you found today's video interesting if you did please do hit that like button below don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching
2022-02-19 15:10
