More than just an actress: The story of Hedy Lamarr and the invention of WiFi

You may not have heard her name until now, but Hedy Lamarr (who was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) was a successful actress in Hollywood, was described as "the most beautiful woman in the world," and was also responsible for the technology on which Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS are based. She was born in Vienna in November 1914 (112 years ago) to Jewish parents, but her mother converted to Catholicism and raised her accordingly. From a young age, Hedwig showed curiosity and investigated various objects around her. She was supported by her father, who encouraged Hedy to think creatively and to be scientifically curious.

As she grew older, she became interested in acting. The first film in which she appeared was the Czech "Ecstasy," when she was under 18, in which she appeared topless. The film caused a stir as it was the first to feature female nudity, but Kiesler complained that the director had obtained the scene through deceit, having used especially close-up cameras.

At the age of 23, she fled to Paris after divorcing her abusive husband. There, she signed a contract with the production company MGM, changed her name to Hedy Lamarr, and began appearing in a series of films.

The brilliant mind behind the beautiful face

But Lamarr was not content with just an acting career. At the height of World War II, she wanted to join the war effort against the Nazis and also to reunite with her mother, who had escaped from occupied Austria to London—a journey that was very dangerous due to the missile threats from the German navy. Together with composer George Antheil, she developed a patent for broadcasting radio waves using the "frequency hopping" method.

This is how it worked: Lamarr discovered that a torpedo controlled by radio was highly susceptible to enemy interference. If the enemy found the right frequency, they could knock the torpedo off course. She and Antheil came up with a revolutionary idea: instead of transmitting on a single fixed frequency, the radio signal would "hop" between different frequencies very rapidly. The transmitter and receiver would be synchronized so they would know exactly when to switch to the next frequency. To an outside listener (the enemy), it would sound like random, unjammable noise. The inspiration: Antheil used the mechanism of a player piano (Pianola) to synchronize the frequency hops.

Years later, Antheil wrote in his book that Lamarr did not feel comfortable living in Hollywood and earning a lot of money while the world was in such a brutal war. She tried to join the National Inventors Council in Washington, D.C. in order to contribute to the war effort, but she was not taken seriously—and was told that she should use her fame and good looks to promote war bonds.

Even when Lamarr and Antheil approached the National Inventors Council to patent their invention, they were met with disdain. The United States Navy only used the invention in military communication systems after the patent expired in the 1950s, and Hedy did not receive any royalties for it.

This technology, which was eventually patented in 1942, sat on the shelf for decades. The U.S. military claimed it was "too cumbersome," but later it became the foundation on which Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS were built.

Serial inventor

Lamarr was a serial inventor. She not only invented frequency hopping, but also helped pilot Howard Hughes improve the aerodynamics of his airplanes (by studying the structure of bird wings and fish fins) which made them faster and even invented a tablet that turned water into a carbonated drink.

For a period, she was described as the most beautiful woman in the world, a description she disliked. She used to say, "My brain is more interesting than my face," which attests to the frustration she felt at society's disregard for her intelligence and inventive skills. Antheil wrote about her in his book: "All she wants is to stay home all day and invent things." But the media and the public preferred to focus on the sensational elements in the life of the beautiful film actress.

The dark years: addiction, arrests, and loneliness

When you delve into the depths of Hedy Lamarr’s story, you discover a classic Hollywood tragedy: a woman who was "too beautiful" for the world to take her mind seriously, and who lost herself in an attempt to stop time.

During the 1970s, she began to withdraw more and more, not out of irrelevance but as a conscious and bitter choice. She was offered roles in several films, including the lead role in "Casablanca," as well as television commercials and stage projects, but she turned them all down. Perhaps she had grown weary of Hollywood's cynicism.

She got into trouble with the law twice and was arrested in 1966 and 1991 for shoplifting. However, the charges were eventually dropped. Throughout her life, she also suffered from depression and a sense of unfulfillment and struggled with an addiction to prescription drugs.

However, perhaps the saddest chapter in her life was the battle with old age. Lamarr was one of the pioneers of plastic surgery in Hollywood, but at a time when the technology was still in its infancy. She underwent countless procedures on her face, eyes, and lips in a desperate attempt to preserve the look that had made her a starlett. The result: the surgeries became complicated and left her face distorted and frozen. This was the main reason for her extreme seclusion during the last three decades of her life—in which she hardly left her house and communicated with her family and friends mainly by phone. She died in 2000 at the age of 85 in her home in Florida, and her son scattered her ashes in the forests of Vienna, according to her last request.

The story of Hedy Lamarr is a sharp reminder of the price that fame sometimes exacts, but mainly of the missed opportunity of a society that refused to look beyond the surface. The woman who had to hide behind failed plastic surgeries and dazzling loneliness left behind a legacy of immeasurable value. Every time we connect to a Wi-Fi network, turn on Bluetooth, or navigate to our destination using GPS, we are using a piece of the vision of that "curious girl from Vienna." Lamarr may not have received the scientific recognition she deserved during her lifetime, but her brilliant mind, which she valued far more than her beautiful face, ultimately became the common language of the modern world.