# "Richard Crenna Invented Tartar Sauce." **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2000, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984 "2000-11-20T17:15:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/1 "2000-11-20T17:15:42Z")
I saw this on a bumper sticker. Is it just some kind of inspired looniness or is it “strange but true?” like Mike Nesmith of the Monkees mother inventing Liquid Paper? Seems to me tartar sauce has been around longer than Richard Crenna, but I haven’t, so I’m taking my elders’ word for it. ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/2 "2000-11-20T19:32:58Z")
You’ve been had by Jim Abrahams, the guy that helped the Zucker brothers make the Airplane! movies. To find the source of the bumper sticker you saw, rent Hot Shots! Part Deux and sit ALL the way through the credits, all of them, every last word; and read them, while you’re at it. It’s worth the price of the rental for the sight gags the late Lloyd Bridges pulls off in the movie (Is there ANYTHING in there?) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/3 "2000-11-20T21:07:49Z")
Well, Hedy Lamarr invented the cell phone—it doesn’t get much Stranger but Truer than THAT! ---
**Author:** ![Ivar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ivar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivar)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/4 "2000-11-20T22:41:38Z")
Mike Nesmith’s MOTHER invented Liquid Paper. For real. She was a secretary living in Dallas, raising her children on her own and came up with the idea. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2000, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/5 "2000-11-20T22:49:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Well, Hedy Lamarr invented the cell phone—it doesn’t get much Stranger but Truer than THAT! \*\* that’s HEDLEY!!! (sorry. Couldn’t resist. :D) ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/6 "2000-11-21T00:00:24Z")
This claim is just a little too much stretching – Hedy Lamarr did not invent the cell phone.(neither did Hedley!) What she did invent (with a little bit of help from George Antheil) was a method of communicating in an essentially encrypted way that is probably also a more efficient use of bandwidth. It’s known as ‘spread-spectrum’ due to the way it works, and yes it is being used for mobile phones these days. Her work was never put to use, though, since the seemingly awkward implementation (and the person presenting it) were not taken seriously; the brilliant idea was ignored. It was developed independently by the US Navy around 1958 (Lamarr & Antheil’s patent dates to WWII, 1943 or '44 I believe), and used for secure communication in various positions. I don’t know when the rest of the world got a hold of it. So she didn’t make the cell phone, she made the cell phone _better_. (Well, she might have, anyway, if she hadn’t been ignored.) ---
**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:** [November 21, 2000, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/7 "2000-11-21T02:30:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panamajack \* > **(with a little bit of help from George Antheil)** Thanks for giving credit where it’s due, **panamajack.** Everyone always credits Lamarr, and no one remembers the poor Bad Boy of music, member of Les Six, and composer of the score to Jean Cocteau’s _Le Sang d’un Poete._ I often ruminate over the unfairness of this, and find myself screaming out “LAMARR DIDN’T DO IT ALONE! GEORGES ANTHEIL _HELPED_ HER INVENT THE CELL PHONE!!!” And the people on the subway edge away from me. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/8 "2000-11-21T04:25:23Z")
Here’s a web page about the invention of spread spectrum: [http://www.ncafe.com/chris/pat2/](http://www.ncafe.com/chris/pat2/) It was written by Anthiel’s son Chris. ---
**Author:** ![spazo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spazo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spazo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/9 "2000-11-21T06:50:48Z")
I thought Al Gore invented tarter sauce and the cell phone:) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-crenna-invented-tartar-sauce/41984/10 "2000-11-21T14:09:04Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought Al Gore invented tarter sauce and the cell phone No, he didn’t invent them. But he was the first person to combine them in a single entree.