Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story tonight May 18 2018 on PBS

This documentary premieres tonight on PBS American Masters. It's been on Netflix for some time, and I have not seen it. Most reviews of this are excellent.

I hope most people here know the basics of her story. She was not only a Hollywood actress - she conceived and co-invented and patented the basic technique that is one fundamental technology for cell phones, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. She never profited from that. Late in life she had an interesting lawsuit against Corel for using her image on their Corel Draw packaging without authorization. There should be both good and not so good things included in the documentary, and interviews with her children, and some use of taped interviews with her.

 

Isn't that Hedley???

 

I think that she got very angry at Mel Brooks et al for using her name like that in the movie...

 

I thought the documentary was superb. Except for the now to be expected nonsense of reframing all old 4:3 film to TV widescreen, and apparently only a VHS source, in color, of Hedy's self-produced Italian movie "Loves of Three Queens", which I've never seen. The Corel matter was not mentioned, which was a last success for her:
Corel settles in Lamarr pic lawsuit
The documentary made good use of apparently four hours of telephone interviews with Hedy Lamarr in 1990 by a Forbes Magazine reporter, which resulted only in a shortish Forbes article about her invention and patent at the time in 1990, but those interviews covered her whole life.
Recommended!

Mel Brooks appeared and was complementary and more toward her. It was nice to see a few bits from Robert Osborne too, filmed just for this documentary.

 

Great doc. I love the footage of her son accepting the 1997 award for her 'frequency hopping' contribution to the world of communication.

 

Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles

 

This was excellent. I was touched by her acceptance at the lack of compensation for her patent. She appeared more hurt than resentful later in life.

Impressive lady.

 

What annoyed me early in the Documentary was that they made it sound like Hedy was living under the Nazis in Austria, though she left Austria in 1937 and the Nazis didn't annex Austria until 1938. They weren't making any distinction between Pre-Anscluss and Post-Anschluss Austria.

 

Sometimes people just don't get it when they're being paid tribute. Just like Joe DiMaggio thinking of suing S&G when he heard "Mrs. Robinson."

 

"I am Tondelayo" (from White Cargo)



I agree with all the above comments praising this documentary, and I suspect like many others my age (I'm currently 48) probably only knew of her previously courtesy of Mel Brooks (nice to see him in this) by way of Blazing Saddles (too bad if she didn't appreciate it). IMHO, it is one of the best I've seen in a long time, which has given me a much greater appreciation of Hedy Lamarr as a result, particularly her gracious over-the-phone acceptance of her "frequency hopping" achievements (so glad she was at least partially recognized for this during her lifetime) and her comments used at the finale about never giving up despite massive odds.

Recommended!

 

Thanks for the announcement. Loved the doc.

 

Been wanting to see this. I think Howard Hughes consulted with her when he was designing aircraft.

"Lamarr is also credited with being an inventor. At the beginning of World War II, she and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes, which used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Although the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are arguably incorporated into Bluetooth technology, and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi. This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014."

 

Terrific doc, was aware of her but never really viewed her films. Did the "Ecstasy" thing kill her career before it started? It received sparse distribution in the states.
She should have been set for life with that patent if.....

 

No, it got her notoriety and added to her mystique. Her then-husband was rich and went around buying every print of the movie he could find; censorship laws prevented it from being shown uncut in the US anyway. I don't think MGM ever knew how to use her when she was under contract to them. And it's a rotten shame that the government couldn't have quietly awarded her compensation for her invention; it helped us win the war, after all!

 

Always knew her as an actress. Never know about her inventions. Hopefully I can catch this on another date.

 

I PVR'ed the documentary and watched it last night. I had no idea of Hedy's contributions to technology. I have a whole new respect for the lady.

It's kind of sad the way Hollywood treated strong intelligent women in the forties and fifties. Watching this put me in mind of Frances Farmer, another strong smart woman broken by Hollywood.

 

It's a shame, but looking at the way men thought of women back then, I guess it's not hard to see the way things went down. She was a really stunning beauty. Men would just drool over her, Mayer looked at her and saw dollars signs. Ironic that if she'd been a bubble head and posed for pictures for the GI's (like Betty Grable or Rita), she would have been remembered longer.

 

HARDLY! It only BEGAN it! Hedy was signed up by Louis B Mayer five years after ECSTASY was released, and I TAKE THIS WOMAN(1940)was a project designed expressly for her, shot all over again a second time because the first version didn't measure up! But many of Hedy's films at MGM suffered from a malaise that seemed to be affecting the studio in the early 40s. She subsequently filmed at Warners, then independently, then SAMSON AND DELILAH. After a few more films at Paramount, Hedy probably spent too much time abroad filming an ill-fated "Great Women of History" TV series that was released as a three-episode film instead(LOVES OF THREE QUEENS). In Hollywood you're only as good as your last picture! But the notoriety of ECSTASY probably helped her career more than hindered it.

 

I think she's remembered for the invention now BECAUSE she was a famous Hollywood beauty! If almost anyone else came up with "Frequency Hopping", we wouldn't know who it was!

 

Hedy was hardly "Broken" by Hollywood. She had her ups and downs but basically lived the way she wanted to, albeit without much money.

 

Well done documentary.

My wife loved it...

 

Come with me to the Casbah!

 

Hedy Lamar? I think she’s remembered as a Hollywood icon, not really forgotten. I think she’s is a “household name” among people who love the movies. Growing up I always knew her nam3 among the Mary Pickfords or Greta Garbo of the world.


The way women looked at men “back then”?

 

I'm not sure how many people under 40 know her name.

Men back then looked at women in much more un-PC way in the 1940's