(Public domain image)
Austrian born actress, but SO much more! A self-taught inventor, she co-authored a patent for frequency hopping signals that could keep enemies from tracking or jamming guidance signals during World War II, and is incorporated into Bluetooth & GPS tech today.
Born Hedwig Eva Kiesler, she is a classic example of two social dynamics. The first is that what you do for a living doesn’t necessarily align with what you love. That can take some luck, and you’re a blessed soul if it wholeheartedly does! In her case, I sense that she would have been recognized as an innovator and tech genius.
And that is part of the second dynamic: what women in particular are “allowed” by their societies and cultural norms to be. She reminds me so much of a high school friend I had, who played the role of “dumb blonde” while carrying an extremely high GPA in our class and becoming valedictorian.
Hedy’s father stimulated her curiosity and analytical interests. At age five, she would disassemble and reassemble mechanisms like music boxes to understand their inner workings. Her concert pianist mother encouraged a love of the arts that included ballet.
All this took a back seat when a director “discovered her” at 16, and she began studying acting. At 18, she gained recognition for her lead role in the movie Ecstacy, a well made but controversial commercial film which includes the scene of a woman having an orgasm, unheard of in 1932. Puritanical America banned it for decades.
In 1937, she caught the eye of a well-known American film producer. She starred in 25 movies after that, alongside the best known actors of the day.
Age decreased the number of roles offered her, which gave her time to return to tinkering with technology. While dating Howard Hughes, she gained access to equipment that she kept on movie sets to dabble with. It was her reemerging technical abilities that led to affect the wing designs of Hughes’ military aircraft, and to develop the patented process of frequency hopping, which manipulates radio frequencies at random intervals between transmission and reception. This could keep the Nazis deciphering radio transmission use for data and missile guidance.
The American military did not implement this patent, but kept it classified for military use only until 1981.
That technology is what enables bluetooth and the WiFi we take for granted today. Lamar never received compensation for her invention. She was posthumously included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
In her words, “I know what I did. There comes a point where you can’t take anymore, and you have to make yourself heard!” Way to go, Hedwig.