Hedy Lamarr

Hello! My name is Hedy Lamarr, though I was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9th, 1914, in the beautiful and cultured city of Vienna, Austria. From a very young age, I was endlessly curious about how the world worked. I remember taking apart my music box, piece by piece, just so I could understand its mechanics and put it back together again. My father encouraged this curiosity. On our long walks through Vienna, he would patiently explain the inner workings of everything from the electric streetcars to the massive printing presses that produced newspapers. These conversations ignited a dual passion in me: a love for the arts and a deep fascination with invention. As I grew older, my artistic side led me to acting, and by the early 1930s, I began my career as a teenager, starring in my first films across Europe.

My life changed completely in 1937. During a trip to London, I had a fateful meeting with Louis B. Mayer, the head of the giant American movie studio, MGM. He was so impressed that he offered me a Hollywood contract on the spot. I moved to America to pursue this incredible opportunity, and it was there that I was given my new screen name: Hedy Lamarr. My career took off almost immediately. In 1938, I starred in a film called Algiers, and its success made me famous overnight. For the next several years, I was known to the world as a glamorous movie star, one of the famous faces of Hollywood's Golden Age. While I truly enjoyed acting and the world of filmmaking, I always felt that people only saw one side of me. The curious girl who loved to understand how things work—the inventor—was still a huge part of who I was, hidden from the public eye.

While I was busy making movies, the world was thrown into turmoil as World War II began. Having come to America for freedom and a better life, I felt a powerful urge to contribute to my new country's efforts. I knew that my mind for invention could be far more valuable than my face on a movie screen. I started reading about military technology and learned that radio-controlled torpedoes, a new and important weapon for the U.S. Navy, had a major flaw. Their radio signals were easy for enemies to find and jam, which would send the torpedoes completely off course. An idea sparked in my mind. What if the control signal wasn't on a single frequency? What if it could jump rapidly and randomly from one frequency to another, much like how a player piano switches notes on a piano roll? If the signal hopped around constantly, an enemy would never be able to locate and block it.

This idea was complex, and I knew I couldn't develop it on my own. I found the perfect partner in my friend, George Antheil, a talented and avant-garde musician and composer. His deep understanding of synchronizing musical instruments was exactly what we needed. He figured out how to coordinate the frequency hops between the transmitter and the receiver using a method that was remarkably similar to how player pianos were automated. We worked tirelessly together, drafting our plans and perfecting our 'Secret Communication System.' We were filled with pride when we were granted a patent for our invention on August 11th, 1942. We offered it to the U.S. Navy, but at the time, they thought the technology was too complicated to implement. Although they didn't use it during the war, I never lost faith that our idea was important and would one day find its purpose.

After the war ended, I continued my film career for several more years and, in 1953, I proudly became an official United States citizen. For a long time, my invention and my patent were forgotten, filed away and overlooked. But decades later, as technology advanced, engineers rediscovered my work. The core concept of 'frequency hopping' from our Secret Communication System became a fundamental building block for many of the incredible technologies you use every single day, like Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth! It was a wonderful feeling when, in 1997, I was finally recognized for my scientific contributions with a special award. I lived to be 85 years old, and though my time as a movie star is part of history, I am so happy that my secret life as an inventor helps connect the world today. My story shows that you can be anything you want to be, and you should never be afraid to share all of your unique ideas with the world.