# Hedy Lamar **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 1999, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482 "1999-03-26T21:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 1999, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/1 "1999-03-26T21:36:00Z")
I work in the two way radio industry, and for the last few years I have heard people within the industry discuss actress Hedy Lamar as a matter of trivia. Depending on who tells the story, Lamar was an engineer and an inventor who helped to lay the foundation for modern wireless communications systems. I’ve heard several different versions of the story, from folks saying that she was the inventor of trunked radio systems, to the inventor of digital spread spectrum, to the inventor of digital voice encryption. Is there any truth to any of this? I’ve looked at some biographical information and fan websites for Hedy Lamar, but can find no mention of her inventing any of these technologies. Anyone know the straight dope? Jack ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 1999, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/2 "1999-03-26T22:07:00Z")
During WWII Hedwig Kiesler Markey, AKA Hedy Lamar, and a collegue invented a classified communications system for use by American submarines. The patent is in her real name rather than he stage name. She was anxious not to let her sex symbol status be compromised by any hint of intelligence. Apparently smarts was a real turn off for men back then. * * * Aon Dia. Aon Tir. Aon Ite. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 1999, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/3 "1999-03-26T22:10:00Z")
She was a co-inventor of a spread spectrum system, patented in 1942. See: [Actress Hedy Lamarr hailed for key commtech invention](http://www2.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/info/030997/info21_20093.html) for a good review which appeared in [Nando.net](http://Nando.net) in 1997. (I found this article using the new [Google](http://www.google.com) search engine, which I think is the best-est search engine out there.) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 1999, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/4 "1999-03-26T23:10:00Z")
Another good site is at [http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/hedy\_lamarr/lamarr.html](http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/hedy_lamarr/lamarr.html) . ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 1999, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/5 "1999-03-27T04:49:00Z")
I thought that was the character that Harvey Korman played in “Blazing Sadles”. * * * _“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”_ Benjamin Disraeli ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 1999, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/6 "1999-03-27T05:19:00Z")
that’s Hedley… HEDLEY!!! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 1999, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/7 "1999-03-27T09:37:00Z")
It should be noted, because of the use of the past tense in referring to Ms. Lamarr in some of the posts, that she is still alive and kicking. She has been arrested twice in the last 30 years for shoplifting (most recently: 1991 -probation) She is 85 and is featured in this month’s “Proust Questionnaire” column of Vanity Fair. Some of her answers: What is your idea of perfect happiness? “Living a very private life” What is your greatest fear? “Being stuck in a crowd” When and where were you happiest? “Between marriages” What living person do you most admire? “Michael Tilson Thomas, the conductor” Who are your favorite authors? “Kahlil Gibran and Tennessee Williams” Who are your heroes in real life? “Franklin Rossevelt and Winston Churchill” Who is your favorite hero of fiction? “Bart Simpson” How would you like to die? “Preferably after sex” What is your motto? “Do not take things too seriously” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 1999, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/8 "1999-03-27T23:01:00Z")
Why am I thinking that Hedy Lamarr had a gossip column that competed with Hedda Hopper’s? * * * lissa ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 1999, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/9 "1999-03-28T04:33:00Z")
\>\>Why am I thinking that Hedy Lamarr had a gossip column that competed with Hedda Hopper’s?\>\> Because you are confusing Hedy Lamarr, the actress, with Louella Parsons, the gossip columnist. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 1999, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/10 "1999-03-28T21:31:00Z")
Thanks, Bermuda. * * * lissa ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 1999, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/11 "1999-03-29T09:00:00Z")
Back to the Hedy Lamarr/spread spectrum encoding question. Scientific American ran a short article about this as part of a longer piece on wireless communication in the April 1998 issue. Since it was the April issue, I was never quite sure that it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke. * * * History major. Heed at your own risk. ---
**Author:** ![NickyLarson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/12 "2000-02-11T04:25:00Z")
RIP ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/13 "2000-02-11T05:17:00Z")
Hedy Lamarr died last month. Here’s one reference: [http://cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/19/obit.lamarr.02/index.html](http://cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/19/obit.lamarr.02/index.html) They even mention her spread spectrum patent 🙂 Arjuna34 ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/14 "2000-02-11T05:59:00Z")
Yup. QUite a few articles did. A few dopers did too, [here](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/004204.html). * * * **Marge** : Your father is… resting. **Bart** : “Resting” hung over? “Resting” got fired? Help me out here. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/15 "2000-02-11T15:31:00Z")
The REALLY sad thing is that Frances Drake died on the same day, and got no newspaper coverage at all. The papers only have room for one dead old actress at a time, and Hedy trumped her. – Uke, harboring fond memories of the great 1935 Grand Guignol-style thriller MAD LOVE, in which Drake co-starred with Peter Lorre and Colin (FRANKENSTEIN) Clive, and how GREAT she looked in that diaphanous white dress while Lorre was trying to strangle her. ---
**Author:** ![NickyLarson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/16 "2000-02-11T23:15:00Z")
A. Huxley (I am not going to attempt a spelling of his first name)died on Nov. 22, 1963, the same day as whatsisname… ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/17 "2000-02-12T22:47:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Ukulele Ike: > **– , harboring fond memories of the great 1935 Grand Guignol-style thriller MAD LOVE, in which Drake co-starred with Peter Lorre and Colin (FRANKENSTEIN) Clive, and how GREAT she looked in that diaphanous white dress while Lorre was trying to strangle her.** ``` Uke, here's $ 5.00. "Diaphanous" is just one of THOSE words ....sigh.... Now, I want to go and find that movie and rent it and watch the scene compulsively until I find a way to build a small ritualistic sexual experience out of it. Then, obsess over every shadow and glint of flesh until I literally live the scene. Thank god I shoot mostly color movies. I'd never get a lick of work done around here. :) ``` Cartooniverse * * * If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2000, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/18 "2000-02-14T15:01:00Z")
Cart: That’s pretty much what Dr. Gogol (the Peter Lorre character) did. He was infatuated with the Drake character, an actress who played luscious victim chicks in a Grand-Guignol-type Parisian theater. When he found she was married, he purchased her wax likeness and made a sex shrine out of it. Then, of course, her pianist hasband had his hands crushed in a train wreck, and out of love for her Gogol grafts on the hands of a freshly-guillotined knife-throwing murderer, and there are new and mysterious knife-throwing murders, and then a spooky figure with artificial hands shows up to bedevil the pianist…“Yes…they chopped off my head…but Doctor Gogol PUT IT BACK ON!!!” Golly Moses, I love this film! Oh, and as a moviemaker, you’ll find enjoyment galore, beyond the wigged-out plot and half-crazed characters. Karl Freund directed, and it looks it! – Ukulele (German Expressionism Forever!) Ike ---
**Author:** ![Babar714](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Babar714](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babar714)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2000, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/19 "2000-02-14T22:48:00Z")
That’s HEADLY! ---
**Author:** ![jwg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@jwg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jwg)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2000, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482/20 "2000-02-14T23:42:00Z")
There was an article about her and her invention about a year ago in the magazine Invention and Technology. It all started when she got involved in a conversation about whatever it was with a scientist who also happened to be an expert on glands - she was really interested in making her boobs larger. At least that’s what I remember about the article. You remember what you want, I’ll remember what I want. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hedy-lamar/7482.md?page=2)