WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.840 All right. Welcome back to the deep dive. Today, 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:05.559 we have a story that it's just so incredible. 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:07.879 Really is. I mean, if you tried to write this 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:09.599 as a piece of fiction, your editor would probably 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:12.419 send it back and say, this is just it's too unrealistic. 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:15.380 Exactly. We're talking about Hedy Lamarr. And 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:18.420 this is a story that goes so, so far beyond the 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:21.160 velvet ropes and the Hollywood glamour. We're 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:24.489 really trying to get at the woman who was. you 00:00:24.489 --> 00:00:27.190 know, globally famous for her beauty, but whose 00:00:27.190 --> 00:00:29.649 real legacy, the one that affects us all today, 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:32.439 lies in the genius of her mind. Think about that 00:00:32.439 --> 00:00:34.679 for a second. You listening to us right now, 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:36.799 you're probably connected through Wi -Fi. Maybe 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:39.780 you're using Bluetooth earbuds. What if the fundamental 00:00:39.780 --> 00:00:41.899 principle that makes all that secure digital 00:00:41.899 --> 00:00:44.799 communication possible was co -developed by one 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:47.079 of Hollywood's most glamorous and frankly notorious 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:50.539 movie stars? It's the ultimate collision of art 00:00:50.539 --> 00:00:53.479 and military science. And that's our mission 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:55.899 for this deep dive. We're going to synthesize 00:00:55.899 --> 00:00:58.079 the biographical accounts we have of Hedy Lamarr, 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:02.270 who was born. Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler back in 00:01:02.270 --> 00:01:06.409 1914. We have to peel back all those layers of 00:01:06.409 --> 00:01:09.310 celebrity and controversy to understand the path 00:01:09.310 --> 00:01:12.390 that led her from Vienna to a U .S. patent office 00:01:12.390 --> 00:01:14.969 during World War II. And the source material 00:01:14.969 --> 00:01:17.769 is just fascinating. It details these huge contradictions. 00:01:17.829 --> 00:01:21.390 Her wealthy cultured childhood, her really scandalous 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:24.090 film debut, and then the suffocating marriage 00:01:24.090 --> 00:01:26.790 that somehow becomes her education. And then, 00:01:26.829 --> 00:01:29.790 of course, her Hollywood stardom, which was meteoric 00:01:29.790 --> 00:01:33.280 but also creatively just... crushing for her. 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:35.459 And that's what pivots her towards invention, 00:01:35.579 --> 00:01:37.599 an invention that was dismissed at the time. 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:40.280 But now, well, it basically defines our digital 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:42.120 age. I think the key takeaway for you listening 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:44.219 is this. This isn't just a fun anecdote about 00:01:44.219 --> 00:01:46.140 a bored actress. Lamar's story really proves 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:48.000 that genius can be found in the most unexpected 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.400 places. It's a profound lesson in how specialized 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.260 knowledge, you know, knowledge she gleaned under 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:55.680 terrible circumstances can decades later completely 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:57.939 revolutionize how the world communicates. OK. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:00.920 Let's get into it. Let's start this journey where 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:04.799 it all began in the very sophisticated but also 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:08.039 very politically fraught world of Vienna in 1914 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:11.560 with Hedwig Kiesler. Right. So Hedwig was born 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:15.199 into this very cosmopolitan, very privileged 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.699 world. Her father, Emil Kiesler, was a successful 00:02:18.699 --> 00:02:21.039 bank director. He came from a Galician Jewish 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.189 background. And her mother. Her mother. Gertrude 00:02:24.189 --> 00:02:26.930 was a gifted concert pianist from a very upper 00:02:26.930 --> 00:02:29.449 class Hungarian Jewish family. Now, her mother 00:02:29.449 --> 00:02:31.449 had converted to Catholicism and raised Hedwig 00:02:31.449 --> 00:02:34.330 as a Christian. But that family heritage is so 00:02:34.330 --> 00:02:36.530 important, placing them right in the middle of 00:02:36.530 --> 00:02:39.430 this complex, shifting landscape of Central Europe 00:02:39.430 --> 00:02:41.870 right before the wars began. And this is where 00:02:41.870 --> 00:02:43.930 the seed of the inventor is planted, isn't it? 00:02:43.990 --> 00:02:46.530 The sources really emphasize how important her 00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:49.590 father was in nurturing her sort of latent technical 00:02:49.590 --> 00:02:52.370 mind. Absolutely. On their walks together, he 00:02:52.370 --> 00:02:54.650 wasn't just talking. about society or art. He 00:02:54.650 --> 00:02:56.590 was actively explaining the mechanics of the 00:02:56.590 --> 00:02:58.789 world around them. Like how things worked. Exactly. 00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:01.449 He'd break down how the streetcars ran, the engineering 00:03:01.449 --> 00:03:03.830 behind the city's streetlights. Really fundamental 00:03:03.830 --> 00:03:06.490 practical stuff. He was basically teaching her 00:03:06.490 --> 00:03:08.629 to look at the world with an analytical eye, 00:03:08.750 --> 00:03:10.870 to be curious about how things function, not 00:03:10.870 --> 00:03:13.729 just to accept that they do. And that's the critical 00:03:13.729 --> 00:03:16.169 detail. It's an intellectual foundation that 00:03:16.169 --> 00:03:18.750 is completely at odds with the path she seemed 00:03:18.750 --> 00:03:20.909 to be on, you know, winning a beauty contest 00:03:20.909 --> 00:03:23.150 when she was just 12. And that path leads us 00:03:23.150 --> 00:03:26.569 straight to 1933. She's only 18, she's been taking 00:03:26.569 --> 00:03:29.509 acting classes, and she lands the lead role in 00:03:29.509 --> 00:03:32.669 a Czech film called Ecstasy. And this film is 00:03:32.669 --> 00:03:36.110 the first huge contradiction in her life. Huge. 00:03:36.310 --> 00:03:38.710 Ecstasy, the film itself, was a sophisticated 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:41.669 European art film. It was directed by Gustave 00:03:41.669 --> 00:03:44.389 Machadi and it was celebrated in artistic circles. 00:03:44.550 --> 00:03:46.669 It even won an award at the Venice Film Festival. 00:03:46.909 --> 00:03:49.830 So critically, it was seen as a serious piece 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:52.349 of cinema. But the art was completely overshadowed 00:03:52.349 --> 00:03:54.530 by the scandal. I mean, for the 1930s, this was 00:03:54.530 --> 00:03:56.889 shocking stuff. Well, completely. The film showed 00:03:56.889 --> 00:04:00.349 her face in what was clearly a simulated orgasm. 00:04:00.349 --> 00:04:03.550 And it also featured brief, full nudity. In that 00:04:03.550 --> 00:04:05.830 social climate, it was an explosion. She was 00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:08.330 immediately branded the ecstasy lady. And the 00:04:08.330 --> 00:04:10.840 film was banned, right? banned outright in the 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:13.639 United States and also in Germany. And this is 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:16.279 where the story gets a bit messy, biographically 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:19.160 speaking. How so? Well, Lamar herself always 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:21.939 claims she was duped by the director. She said 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:24.399 they used high -powered telephoto lenses to capture 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:26.639 things she never consented to. She apparently 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:29.220 walked out of the premiere screaming. But there 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:32.139 are other accounts, right? There are. The cinematographer, 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:34.240 for example, insisted she was fully aware of 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:36.740 what was being filmed. So the exact truth is, 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:39.019 you know, it's hard to pin down. But what mattered 00:04:39.019 --> 00:04:42.240 was the result. She had this worldwide reputation 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:45.740 that horrified her and made her deeply disillusioned 00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:47.879 with acting. And that disillusionment, that feeling 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:50.160 of being trapped by her own image, pushes her 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:52.399 directly into the next dramatic and honestly 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:54.939 formative period of her life. The marriage to 00:04:54.939 --> 00:04:58.699 Friedrich Mandel. An industrialist, an arms dealer. 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:01.800 And this marriage wasn't just unhappy, it was 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:05.199 dangerous. Who was this guy? The sources paint 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:07.720 him as this larger -than -life figure. He was 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:10.139 a titan of the Austrian military industry, a 00:05:10.139 --> 00:05:12.959 munitions manufacturer described as the third 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:15.720 richest man in Austria. He was 15 years older 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:18.220 than her and became utterly obsessed after seeing 00:05:18.220 --> 00:05:20.160 her perform. And this was a politically toxic 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:22.000 marriage from the get -go, especially with her 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.639 family's Jewish heritage. Absolutely. Her parents 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:27.199 were strongly against it. Mandel had very close, 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:30.939 very public ties to rising fascist leaders. He 00:05:30.939 --> 00:05:33.000 was dealing directly with Benito Mussolini in 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:37.000 Italy and alarmingly with officials connected 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.500 to Adolf Hitler in Germany. And this is despite 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:41.560 the fact that Mandel's own father was Jewish. 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:44.040 So she marries him. And you mentioned a gilded 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:45.920 cage. This sounds like the definition of it. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.980 It was. She quickly found herself a virtual prisoner 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:52.129 in their castle, Schloss Schwarzenau. He was 00:05:52.129 --> 00:05:55.089 intensely controlling. He hated the notoriety 00:05:55.089 --> 00:05:57.589 from ecstasy and immediately put a stop to her 00:05:57.589 --> 00:06:00.290 acting career. She felt like an object. Completely 00:06:00.290 --> 00:06:02.629 dehumanized. Her own words are chilling. She 00:06:02.629 --> 00:06:05.439 said she was like a doll. some object of art 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:07.660 which had to be guarded and imprisoned, having 00:06:07.660 --> 00:06:10.379 no mind, no life of its own. So here we have 00:06:10.379 --> 00:06:13.199 this brilliant, inquisitive young woman, now 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:15.879 totally constrained, but this is where the story 00:06:15.879 --> 00:06:19.220 takes that incredible, unexpected turn. It's 00:06:19.220 --> 00:06:22.500 the profound, unintended consequence of this 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:25.920 awful marriage. Because Mandel was so possessive, 00:06:26.110 --> 00:06:28.870 He insisted she be by his side at all times. 00:06:29.050 --> 00:06:30.990 Which meant she had to go with him to his business 00:06:30.990 --> 00:06:33.970 meetings. Exactly. Not just social dinners. These 00:06:33.970 --> 00:06:36.649 were deep, technical, high -stakes conferences 00:06:36.649 --> 00:06:39.009 where Mandel was meeting with the top scientists, 00:06:39.170 --> 00:06:41.610 engineers, and military minds in Europe, all 00:06:41.610 --> 00:06:43.750 involved in cutting -edge weapons technology. 00:06:44.189 --> 00:06:46.129 How much do we think she was actually absorbing 00:06:46.129 --> 00:06:48.009 in those meetings? I mean, she's only 18, 19 00:06:48.009 --> 00:06:50.550 years old. The accounts suggest she was listening 00:06:50.550 --> 00:06:52.930 intently. Remember that foundation her father 00:06:52.930 --> 00:06:55.730 built? She had the curiosity, she had the mental 00:06:55.730 --> 00:06:57.709 framework to understand the mechanics they were 00:06:57.709 --> 00:07:00.250 discussing. She was hearing about signal transmission, 00:07:00.569 --> 00:07:03.149 the challenges of radio control, and the critical 00:07:03.149 --> 00:07:05.350 problem of jamming signals. So while she's being 00:07:05.350 --> 00:07:07.509 paraded around as this beautiful trophy wife, 00:07:07.829 --> 00:07:10.649 she's receiving an accidental high -level education 00:07:10.649 --> 00:07:14.129 in applied military science. An education that 00:07:14.129 --> 00:07:16.750 no other woman in her position, certainly no 00:07:16.750 --> 00:07:19.029 other Hollywood star, would ever have access 00:07:19.029 --> 00:07:22.220 to. It's the darkest irony. She's learning state 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:24.579 -of -the -art military secrets from fascists 00:07:24.579 --> 00:07:26.899 and arms dealers, knowledge she's eventually 00:07:26.899 --> 00:07:29.100 going to use against those very people. It's 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:32.680 incredible. And that brings us to 1937 and her 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:34.339 great escape. Sounds like something straight 00:07:34.339 --> 00:07:37.060 out of a movie. What are the stories? I know 00:07:37.060 --> 00:07:40.199 the sources conflict a little. They do. One version 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:42.339 says she disguised herself as her own maid and 00:07:42.339 --> 00:07:45.060 just slipped away. Another, which is even more 00:07:45.060 --> 00:07:48.339 spectacular, suggests she persuaded Mandel. to 00:07:48.339 --> 00:07:50.500 let her wear all of her extremely valuable jewelry 00:07:50.500 --> 00:07:53.000 to a dinner party. And then she just disappeared 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:55.379 with her fortune on her person. Whatever the 00:07:55.379 --> 00:07:57.680 method, she gets out. She makes it to London, 00:07:57.740 --> 00:07:59.819 and that's where she meets the head of MGM, Louis 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:02.639 B. Mayer. And right away, she shows this sharp 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.779 business sense. Mayer makes her this pretty lowball 00:08:05.779 --> 00:08:08.699 offer of $125 a week. And she just turns it down 00:08:08.699 --> 00:08:12.399 flat. Flat out rejects it. But she's smart. She 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:14.560 finds out what ship he's taking back to New York 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:17.110 and books herself passage on the same one. So 00:08:17.110 --> 00:08:19.610 she has a captive audience for the entire Atlantic 00:08:19.610 --> 00:08:22.110 crossing. Exactly. She spends the voyage impressing 00:08:22.110 --> 00:08:24.290 him, not just with her beauty, but with her intelligence, 00:08:24.430 --> 00:08:26.970 her sophistication. And by the time they dock 00:08:26.970 --> 00:08:29.910 in New York, she secured a contract for $500 00:08:29.910 --> 00:08:33.970 a week. A four -fold increase. That's incredible. 00:08:34.269 --> 00:08:36.730 And Mayer, the marketing genius, immediately 00:08:36.730 --> 00:08:40.190 starts a rebranding campaign. He insists she 00:08:40.190 --> 00:08:42.529 change her name from Hedwig Kiesler, the ecstasy 00:08:42.529 --> 00:08:45.700 lady, to Hedy Lamarr. And his entire marketing 00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:47.679 angle was to promote her as the world's most 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:50.200 beautiful woman. And it worked instantly. Her 00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:53.100 first American film, Algiers, in 1938, was a 00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:55.159 sensation. People said her appearance on screen 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:57.440 literally took one's breath away. The success 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:00.500 was massive, but it came with a huge price, which 00:09:00.500 --> 00:09:03.700 was immediate and intense typecasting. She was 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:06.460 always cast as the, quote, archetypal, glamorous, 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:09.460 seductress of exotic origin. All beauty, no depth. 00:09:09.779 --> 00:09:12.100 Pretty much. You see it in her biggest hits from 00:09:12.100 --> 00:09:15.309 that era. Boomtown with Clark Gable, Comrade 00:09:15.309 --> 00:09:18.370 X, also Gable, Ziegfeld Girl. Yeah. These were 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:20.990 all roles that showcased her looks over anything 00:09:20.990 --> 00:09:23.230 else. And there's the one role, the one line 00:09:23.230 --> 00:09:25.509 that really kind of sums up that whole persona 00:09:25.509 --> 00:09:29.549 for her. Tondaleo from the huge 1942 hit White 00:09:29.549 --> 00:09:32.610 Cargo. She plays this exotic Arab seductress. 00:09:32.610 --> 00:09:34.809 And the line is, I am Tondaleo. I make tiffin 00:09:34.809 --> 00:09:37.730 for you. It's all about the accent, the exoticism, 00:09:37.769 --> 00:09:39.950 her beauty, nothing about her intellect. And 00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:42.700 this leads us to the critical shift. The sources 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:45.139 are very clear on this. Despite all the fame, 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:47.600 the glamour, the money, the complete lack of 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:49.899 intellectual challenge in Hollywood profoundly 00:09:49.899 --> 00:09:53.460 bored Lamar. It wasn't just a mild annoyance. 00:09:53.460 --> 00:09:55.820 It was a deep need for mental stimulation that 00:09:55.820 --> 00:09:58.200 the studio system just couldn't or wouldn't provide. 00:09:58.539 --> 00:10:00.360 So this is where it gets really amazing. The 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:02.919 world's most beautiful woman at the absolute 00:10:02.919 --> 00:10:05.850 peak of Hollywood glamour. decides that the cure 00:10:05.850 --> 00:10:08.490 for her boredom is to become an inventor. She 00:10:08.490 --> 00:10:10.750 starts teaching herself, right, building on that 00:10:10.750 --> 00:10:12.590 knowledge from her father and from those awful 00:10:12.590 --> 00:10:15.710 meetings in Austria. Relentlessly. She would 00:10:15.710 --> 00:10:18.190 spend her spare time working on practical solutions, 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:22.629 sometimes literally on set, between takes, in 00:10:22.629 --> 00:10:25.210 full costume and makeup, sketching out designs. 00:10:25.710 --> 00:10:28.570 Can you just picture that? One minute, a director 00:10:28.570 --> 00:10:30.029 is telling her how to catch the light on her 00:10:30.029 --> 00:10:32.389 cheekbones, and the next, she's drawing schematics 00:10:32.389 --> 00:10:34.909 for, like, A traffic light. It's incredible. 00:10:35.110 --> 00:10:36.750 And she didn't just jump straight to the big 00:10:36.750 --> 00:10:39.570 one. She had other smaller inventions. She designed 00:10:39.570 --> 00:10:42.090 an improved traffic stoplight. She worked on 00:10:42.090 --> 00:10:44.169 a tablet that would dissolve in water to make 00:10:44.169 --> 00:10:46.970 a carbonated drink. It shows a practical, engineering 00:10:46.970 --> 00:10:49.230 -focused mind at work. She was trying to solve 00:10:49.230 --> 00:10:52.049 everyday problems. And offscreen, it paints this 00:10:52.049 --> 00:10:54.769 picture of a really sophisticated but very lonely 00:10:54.769 --> 00:10:57.899 person. The sources say she shunned the Hollywood 00:10:57.899 --> 00:11:00.519 party scene, felt homesick, and would sometimes 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:02.419 even talk about herself in the third person, 00:11:02.500 --> 00:11:04.879 as if Hedy Lamarr, the Tsar, was a different 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:07.259 person entirely. Her inner life was science and 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:09.659 engineering. Her outer life was selling glamour. 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:12.059 And that inner life was about to collide with 00:11:12.059 --> 00:11:14.600 the reality of World War II. And it would give 00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:17.159 her a purpose far greater than any movie role. 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:19.779 Which brings us right to the heart of her legacy, 00:11:20.059 --> 00:11:23.840 the secret communication system. By 1940, the 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.659 war is raging in Europe, and the U .S. Navy has 00:11:26.659 --> 00:11:29.460 this very specific, very dangerous technical 00:11:29.460 --> 00:11:32.220 problem. And that problem was radio -controlled 00:11:32.220 --> 00:11:34.519 torpedoes. Yeah. The idea was great. You could 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:36.879 guide a weapon with a radio signal, but the execution 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:39.500 was flawed. The signal was sent on a single, 00:11:39.620 --> 00:11:42.960 fixed radio frequency. A sitting duck. A total 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:45.320 sitting duck for the enemy. Once the Axis powers 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:47.980 found that one frequency, they could just blast 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:50.320 it with a powerful jamming signal, just a wall 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:52.559 of noise. And the torpedo would either become 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:55.399 useless or veer completely off course. And this 00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:57.460 is where that toxic education from Mandel's castle 00:11:57.460 --> 00:11:59.639 pays off, because she'd heard all about this 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:01.720 stuff. Jamming strategies, secure communications. 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:04.899 She understood the problem intimately. She had 00:12:04.899 --> 00:12:06.840 the insight. A fixed signal was always going 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:08.500 to be vulnerable. The only way to make it secure 00:12:08.500 --> 00:12:11.159 was to keep it moving. Her idea was that the 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:13.419 signal needed to jump between frequencies in 00:12:13.419 --> 00:12:16.379 a rapid, synchronized, and seemingly random pattern. 00:12:16.539 --> 00:12:19.370 What we now call frequency hopping. Exactly. 00:12:19.490 --> 00:12:22.230 If the transmitter and the receiver could both 00:12:22.230 --> 00:12:25.789 hop frequencies at the exact same time, a jamming 00:12:25.789 --> 00:12:28.070 signal would only hit the right frequency for 00:12:28.070 --> 00:12:30.710 a split second before the signal was already 00:12:30.710 --> 00:12:32.730 somewhere else. But the big challenge there is 00:12:32.730 --> 00:12:34.649 the synchronization, right? How do you make sure 00:12:34.649 --> 00:12:36.330 the transmitter on the ship and the receiver 00:12:36.330 --> 00:12:38.389 and the torpedo are always on the same page, 00:12:38.509 --> 00:12:40.950 hopping to the same frequency at the exact same 00:12:40.950 --> 00:12:43.490 millisecond? And that is where ART, unexpectedly, 00:12:43.909 --> 00:12:46.529 provides the solution. Through her collaboration 00:12:46.529 --> 00:12:49.490 with the composer George Antheil. Her neighbor, 00:12:49.590 --> 00:12:52.110 right. He was this avant -garde musician. Very 00:12:52.110 --> 00:12:54.669 avant -garde. And she discussed the problem with 00:12:54.669 --> 00:12:57.049 him. And it sparked this incredible connection 00:12:57.049 --> 00:12:59.490 in his mind. To his own music. I've heard about 00:12:59.490 --> 00:13:01.929 this. His piece, Ballet Mécanique. That's the 00:13:01.929 --> 00:13:04.830 one. For that piece, Antheil had to synchronize 00:13:04.830 --> 00:13:07.690 up to 16 player pianos to play together perfectly. 00:13:07.950 --> 00:13:10.370 It was a huge mechanical challenge. And how did 00:13:10.370 --> 00:13:13.330 he do it? With perforated paper rolls. Like the 00:13:13.330 --> 00:13:14.909 kind you'd see in an old -timey player piano. 00:13:15.700 --> 00:13:19.000 To make the piece work, every single piano needed 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.639 an identical roll, running at the exact same 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:24.279 speed so all the notes would hop in time together. 00:13:24.659 --> 00:13:27.320 He understood mechanical synchronization on a 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:29.740 massive scale. So that was the light bulb moment. 00:13:30.139 --> 00:13:33.200 Lamar has the military problem needing frequencies 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:36.659 to hop, and Antheil has the mechanical solution 00:13:36.659 --> 00:13:39.559 from his music. It was an explosion of creativity. 00:13:39.980 --> 00:13:42.179 They realized you could just replace the musical 00:13:42.179 --> 00:13:43.960 notes on the piano roll with radio frequencies. 00:13:44.220 --> 00:13:46.860 You put one roll in the transmitter, an identical 00:13:46.860 --> 00:13:49.320 synchronized roll in the torpedo, and they would 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:51.460 jump frequencies together, following the secret 00:13:51.460 --> 00:13:54.100 pattern. A jammer would be left completely behind. 00:13:54.360 --> 00:13:57.120 It's this incredible blend of artistic mechanics 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:59.820 and military science. And they were determined 00:13:59.820 --> 00:14:02.399 to get this to the war effort. They submitted 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:04.399 their idea to the National Inventors Council, 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:08.019 the NIT, in late 1940. This was the government 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:10.100 body that was supposed to evaluate these kinds 00:14:10.100 --> 00:14:12.120 of ideas from the public. And they were serious 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:14.559 about it. They consulted with a professor of 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:17.320 electrical engineering at Caltech, Samuel McCune, 00:14:17.460 --> 00:14:19.919 to help them with the details. They hired a patent 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:23.220 lawyer. And they got it. U .S. patent number... 00:14:23.389 --> 00:14:28.429 $2 ,292 ,387 for a secret communication system, 00:14:28.690 --> 00:14:32.250 granted on August 11, 1942. It was under her 00:14:32.250 --> 00:14:34.970 married name at the time, Haiti Kiesler Markey. 00:14:35.230 --> 00:14:37.570 The proof is right there in the historical record. 00:14:37.789 --> 00:14:40.190 But this is where the story turns tragic. Despite 00:14:40.190 --> 00:14:42.750 the patent, despite the brilliance of the idea, 00:14:43.070 --> 00:14:46.309 the Navy rejected it. The official reason they 00:14:46.309 --> 00:14:48.389 gave was that the mechanism... the miniaturized 00:14:48.389 --> 00:14:50.730 player piano device would be too big and bulky 00:14:50.730 --> 00:14:52.710 to fit inside a torpedo. But the sources suggest 00:14:52.710 --> 00:14:54.590 there was something else going on, a deeper bias. 00:14:54.809 --> 00:14:57.230 Oh, absolutely. The accounts say they were basically 00:14:57.230 --> 00:14:59.870 shunned by the Navy. Instead of taking the invention 00:14:59.870 --> 00:15:03.370 seriously, a member of the NIC, a famous inventor 00:15:03.370 --> 00:15:05.850 named Charles Kettering, told Hedy that she could 00:15:05.850 --> 00:15:08.210 better help the war effort by using her celebrity 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:11.070 to sell war bonds. It's just the ultimate intellectual 00:15:11.070 --> 00:15:14.610 dismissal. They looked at one of the most famous, 00:15:14.669 --> 00:15:18.169 beautiful women in the world who had just handed 00:15:18.169 --> 00:15:20.850 them a solution to a critical military problem, 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:23.769 and they decided her face was more useful than 00:15:23.769 --> 00:15:25.809 her brain. They just couldn't reconcile the glamorous 00:15:25.809 --> 00:15:28.269 movie star with the brilliant engineer. The two 00:15:28.269 --> 00:15:30.389 things just didn't compute for them. And so she 00:15:30.389 --> 00:15:32.470 did what they asked. She went out and sold war 00:15:32.470 --> 00:15:35.370 bonds using her glamour. There's that incredible 00:15:35.370 --> 00:15:38.429 story. The Campaign with the Sailor, Eddie Rhodes. 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:41.240 She would appear on stage with him and she'd 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:43.240 flirt and ask the crowd if she should kiss him. 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:46.200 And the kiss would only happen after the audience 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:49.159 had bought a certain huge amount of war bonds. 00:15:49.340 --> 00:15:51.620 It's an unbelievable trade -off. She's literally 00:15:51.620 --> 00:15:54.259 using her sensual appeal, the very thing she 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:56.860 felt trapped by, to raise millions for the war 00:15:56.860 --> 00:15:58.960 while her breakthrough invention is just sitting 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.220 in a file cabinet somewhere. And she raised a 00:16:01.220 --> 00:16:03.750 staggering amount of money. The estimates are 00:16:03.750 --> 00:16:07.049 around $25 million in war bonds, all by playing 00:16:07.049 --> 00:16:09.070 the part of the glamorous doll they wanted her 00:16:09.070 --> 00:16:12.289 to be. So with the war ending and her invention 00:16:12.289 --> 00:16:15.309 basically forgotten, her Hollywood career enters 00:16:15.309 --> 00:16:18.190 this kind of twilight phase. Right. After her 00:16:18.190 --> 00:16:21.610 MGM contract ended in 1945, she really tried 00:16:21.610 --> 00:16:23.850 to take control of her own career. She started 00:16:23.850 --> 00:16:25.909 her own production company. Trying to find more 00:16:25.909 --> 00:16:29.059 challenging roles for herself. Exactly. She produced 00:16:29.059 --> 00:16:31.480 and starred in films like The Strange Woman and 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:34.179 Dishonored Lady. But unfortunately, they really 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:36.440 struggled. She didn't have the experience to 00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:38.539 manage these complex productions. They went over 00:16:38.539 --> 00:16:40.480 budget. They didn't do well at the box office. 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:42.860 But she had one last massive hit, didn't she? 00:16:42.899 --> 00:16:45.259 The one that really cemented her cinematic legacy. 00:16:45.620 --> 00:16:48.539 She did. And it was huge. Playing Delilah opposite 00:16:48.539 --> 00:16:51.320 Victor Mature's Samson in Cecil B. DeMille's 00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:54.379 biblical epic, Samson and Delilah. That was 1949. 00:16:54.700 --> 00:16:57.230 And it was a phenomenon. It was the highest grossing 00:16:57.230 --> 00:17:00.309 film of 1950. It proved she still had that incredible 00:17:00.309 --> 00:17:04.150 star power. But after that, the decline was pretty 00:17:04.150 --> 00:17:07.710 steep. Her final film was in 1958, a thriller 00:17:07.710 --> 00:17:10.529 called The Female Animal. And from the late 50s 00:17:10.529 --> 00:17:12.690 on, her life just becomes increasingly tangled 00:17:12.690 --> 00:17:15.089 up in legal troubles and this constant struggle 00:17:15.089 --> 00:17:17.690 to control her own story. Which really comes 00:17:17.690 --> 00:17:20.950 to a head with her autobiography in 1966, Ecstasy 00:17:20.950 --> 00:17:23.730 and Me. A total disaster. A complete disaster. 00:17:24.069 --> 00:17:26.150 She ended up suiting the publisher, claiming 00:17:26.150 --> 00:17:29.210 the ghostwriter had just fabricated tons of sensational, 00:17:29.650 --> 00:17:33.250 often vulgar details. She even went on TV to 00:17:33.250 --> 00:17:34.869 say, you know, this isn't my book, it's fiction. 00:17:35.150 --> 00:17:37.250 It was another attempt to tell her story that 00:17:37.250 --> 00:17:39.490 just backfired completely. And then there's the 00:17:39.490 --> 00:17:43.190 Mel Brooks lawsuit in 1974. Blazing saddles. 00:17:43.309 --> 00:17:46.650 The Hedley Lamar lawsuit. It's so bizarre. A 00:17:46.650 --> 00:17:49.309 villain in the movie is named Hedley Lamar. And 00:17:49.309 --> 00:17:51.289 the running joke is that everyone keeps mispronouncing 00:17:51.289 --> 00:17:54.089 it as Hedy Lamar. And she sued for $10 million. 00:17:54.430 --> 00:17:57.269 For infringement of privacy. The studio ended 00:17:57.269 --> 00:17:59.329 up settling with her for a small sum and an apology. 00:17:59.750 --> 00:18:01.710 Bill Brooks always said she just never got the 00:18:01.710 --> 00:18:04.579 joke. It shows how protective... Maybe overly 00:18:04.579 --> 00:18:06.440 so, she'd become about her name and her image. 00:18:06.619 --> 00:18:09.220 And beyond these celebrity lawsuits, her later 00:18:09.220 --> 00:18:12.099 life is just, it's marked by this deep isolation 00:18:12.099 --> 00:18:14.900 and some really sad minor legal troubles. She 00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:17.380 was arrested twice for shoplifting. Once in 66 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:20.339 and again in 1991. And that second one is just 00:18:20.339 --> 00:18:22.460 heartbreaking. She was caught stealing, what, 00:18:22.539 --> 00:18:25.599 $21 worth of laxatives and eye drops? Just over 00:18:25.599 --> 00:18:29.500 $20. And she pleaded no contest just to avoid 00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:32.329 having to appear in court. By the 70s, she was 00:18:32.329 --> 00:18:35.029 already becoming a recluse. And by the 80s, she 00:18:35.029 --> 00:18:37.049 had almost completely retreated from public life. 00:18:37.490 --> 00:18:40.029 Settling in Florida and communicating almost 00:18:40.029 --> 00:18:42.730 exclusively by telephone. That was her connection 00:18:42.730 --> 00:18:45.609 to the world. Her family life was just as turbulent. 00:18:45.809 --> 00:18:49.029 Six marriages, six divorces. And the story with 00:18:49.029 --> 00:18:51.750 her oldest son, James, is particularly complex 00:18:51.750 --> 00:18:54.250 and sad. She claimed he was adopted, but then 00:18:54.250 --> 00:18:56.630 their relationship just ended abruptly when he 00:18:56.630 --> 00:18:58.970 was a teenager. It did. She cut him out of her 00:18:58.970 --> 00:19:02.410 will. For years, there was this mystery. Documents 00:19:02.410 --> 00:19:04.509 surfaced suggesting he might have been her biological 00:19:04.509 --> 00:19:07.390 son with her third husband, John Loder. But we 00:19:07.390 --> 00:19:09.049 know the truth now because of a documentary. 00:19:09.309 --> 00:19:12.609 Right. The 2017 documentary Bombshell confirmed 00:19:12.609 --> 00:19:15.289 through a DNA test that he wasn't biologically 00:19:15.289 --> 00:19:17.569 related to either Hedy Lamarr or John Loder. 00:19:17.849 --> 00:19:20.670 So the full story is still murky, but the tragedy 00:19:20.670 --> 00:19:23.430 of their estrangement is very real. She died 00:19:23.430 --> 00:19:27.029 in 2000 in Florida at the age of 85. It's just 00:19:27.029 --> 00:19:29.109 this long history of scandal and instability 00:19:29.109 --> 00:19:32.529 that, for decades, completely overshadowed the 00:19:32.529 --> 00:19:34.369 incredible scientific achievement we've been 00:19:34.369 --> 00:19:37.230 talking about. But the story does have this spectacular, 00:19:37.569 --> 00:19:41.349 if very late, validation. The Navy may have dismissed 00:19:41.349 --> 00:19:43.829 the invention in the 40s. But the idea was too 00:19:43.829 --> 00:19:45.869 good to ignore forever. It couldn't be ignored. 00:19:46.089 --> 00:19:49.170 By 1962, military systems started using very 00:19:49.170 --> 00:19:51.990 similar spread spectrum technology based on the 00:19:51.990 --> 00:19:54.769 principles in her patent. And the timing is just... 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:58.759 It's cruel, isn't it? 1962 is three years after 00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:00.859 their patent expired. Three years. So she received 00:20:00.859 --> 00:20:04.079 no money, no credit, nothing. But the modern 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:06.759 legacy is just undeniable. Frequency hopping 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:09.539 is a foundational technology for all secure wireless 00:20:09.539 --> 00:20:12.059 networking. So when you connect your phone to 00:20:12.059 --> 00:20:14.220 your Bluetooth headphones, you're using technology 00:20:14.220 --> 00:20:17.390 based on her idea. Early versions of Wi -Fi also 00:20:17.390 --> 00:20:20.569 used it. This breakthrough, born out of her boredom 00:20:20.569 --> 00:20:23.309 and a desire to help the war effort, is now in 00:20:23.309 --> 00:20:25.309 the pockets and homes of billions of people. 00:20:25.430 --> 00:20:27.670 And the recognition did finally come. Yeah. Very 00:20:27.670 --> 00:20:31.250 late in her life. It did. In 1997, she and George 00:20:31.250 --> 00:20:33.269 Antheo were jointly honored with the Electronic 00:20:33.269 --> 00:20:35.809 Frontier Foundation's Pioneer Award. That was 00:20:35.809 --> 00:20:38.430 a huge moment of validation from the tech world 00:20:38.430 --> 00:20:40.990 itself. And that same year, she got an award 00:20:40.990 --> 00:20:43.710 they called the Oscars of Inventing. The B .L 00:20:43.710 --> 00:20:46.329 .B. Dean Nass Spirit of Achievement Award. She 00:20:46.329 --> 00:20:49.349 was the first woman to ever receive it. It's 00:20:49.349 --> 00:20:51.930 just a sad irony that she got her Oscar for science 00:20:51.930 --> 00:20:54.549 so late in life when Hollywood had celebrated 00:20:54.549 --> 00:20:57.509 her for her acting the very thing she found unfulfilling. 00:20:57.609 --> 00:21:01.089 And then... posthumously the big one, the National 00:21:01.089 --> 00:21:03.710 Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. Which finally 00:21:03.710 --> 00:21:05.990 solidifies her place as a serious figure in the 00:21:05.990 --> 00:21:08.109 history of technology. And the tributes keep 00:21:08.109 --> 00:21:10.150 coming. There's an asteroid named after her, 00:21:10.230 --> 00:21:14.369 32730 Lamar. And in a really fitting pop culture 00:21:14.369 --> 00:21:18.130 nod, a starship class in Star Trek. Prodigy is 00:21:18.130 --> 00:21:20.970 the Lamar class. It's the ultimate, if belated, 00:21:20.990 --> 00:21:22.990 acknowledgement for a woman whose genius was 00:21:22.990 --> 00:21:25.309 hidden in plain sight. For her entire life, really. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:27.900 So let's pull back and sum this all up. We've 00:21:27.900 --> 00:21:29.900 traced this journey from Hedwig Kiesler, the 00:21:29.900 --> 00:21:31.799 young actress trapped in this toxic marriage 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:34.160 that became her unintentional classroom. To Hedy 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:37.059 Lamarr, the Hollywood icon, whose brilliant mind 00:21:37.059 --> 00:21:40.119 found an escape from boredom by engineering a 00:21:40.119 --> 00:21:43.549 solution to a critical wartime problem. Her life 00:21:43.549 --> 00:21:46.109 is just this powerful testament to hidden potential. 00:21:46.369 --> 00:21:49.750 She navigated extreme political danger. She endured 00:21:49.750 --> 00:21:52.750 Hollywood's exploitation. And she suffered this 00:21:52.750 --> 00:21:55.490 profound intellectual dismissal from the military. 00:21:55.710 --> 00:21:58.410 They literally told her, your beauty is more 00:21:58.410 --> 00:22:00.809 valuable than your brain. But the real so what 00:22:00.809 --> 00:22:03.720 here? The big lesson. is the power of thinking 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:06.259 across different disciplines. You had Lamar's 00:22:06.259 --> 00:22:09.480 dark, specialized knowledge of military jamming. 00:22:09.539 --> 00:22:11.539 And Antheil's knowledge of synchronizing player 00:22:11.539 --> 00:22:14.079 pianos, which was a purely artistic problem. 00:22:14.299 --> 00:22:16.220 And the combination of the artist's mechanical 00:22:16.220 --> 00:22:19.079 concept and the actress's secret military insight 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:22.099 solved this huge technological challenge. It's 00:22:22.099 --> 00:22:24.559 a blend of art and science that became the blueprint 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:26.799 for the technology that we all use every single 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:28.759 day. And that leaves us with a final thought 00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:31.299 for you, the listener. We know Hedy Lamarr's 00:22:31.299 --> 00:22:33.599 invention was dismissed because the Navy couldn't 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:36.799 see past her glamorous persona. The image of 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:39.900 the world's most beautiful woman literally blinded 00:22:39.900 --> 00:22:44.279 them to her genius. So, in a world that is still 00:22:44.279 --> 00:22:47.059 so obsessed with celebrity, with image, with 00:22:47.059 --> 00:22:50.900 putting people into neat little boxes, How many 00:22:50.900 --> 00:22:53.640 other vital human contributions are we overlooking 00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:55.940 right now? What innovations are we missing today? 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.299 Simply because the genius behind them doesn't 00:22:58.299 --> 00:23:00.579 look like what we expect a scientist or an engineer 00:23:00.579 --> 00:23:03.460 to look like. It's a critical question. And it 00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:05.759 makes her story more than just history. It makes 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:08.279 it a lesson for today. Thank you for taking this 00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:09.940 deep dive with us. We'll see you next time.