Hedy Lamarr

Hello! My name is Hedy Lamarr, and I want to tell you my story. I was born with a different name, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, on November 9th, 1914, in a beautiful city called Vienna, in Austria. Even as a little girl, I was incredibly curious. I would take apart my music box and put it back together just to see how it worked. This curiosity about how things were made would stay with me my whole life, even when I became famous for something very different.

When I was a young woman, I dreamed of being on the big screen. I moved from Europe to America and arrived in Hollywood, the land of movies! In 1938, I starred in my first big American movie, 'Algiers,' and people started to know my name. The movie studio I worked for, MGM, called me the 'most beautiful woman in the world.' It was exciting being a movie star, wearing glamorous dresses, and acting in many films, but I always felt there was another side to me that people didn't see.

When I wasn't on a movie set, my mind was always buzzing with ideas. I had a workshop in my house where I would tinker and invent things. I loved problem-solving. While everyone saw me as just a pretty face on a poster, I was secretly an inventor. I knew I was much more than just an actress; I wanted to use my brain to make a difference in the world.

In the early 1940s, a big conflict called World War II was happening. I was very sad about the war and wanted to find a way to help. I learned that the navy was having a problem with its torpedoes, which were guided by radio signals. The enemy could easily block, or 'jam,' the signal, sending the torpedo off course. I had a brilliant idea! What if the signal could jump from one radio frequency to another so fast that no one could catch it? I worked with my friend, a musician named George Antheil, to design a system that did just that. We called it a 'Secret Communication System' and received a patent for our invention on August 11th, 1942.

Even though we had a patent, our invention was very advanced for its time. The military thought it was too complicated to build back then, so they didn't use it during the war. My idea was filed away, and I continued my acting career. But I never forgot about it, and I always hoped it might be useful one day.

Many years later, long after the war was over, people rediscovered my invention. Starting in the 1960s, engineers used the 'frequency hopping' idea to build amazing things. Today, the technology I helped create is used in things you use every day, like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS! I lived to be 85 years old, and I am so proud that I am remembered not just as a movie star, but as an inventor whose curiosity helped connect the world. In 2014, I was even added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. It goes to show that you can be anything you want to be—or even two things at once!