Google Doodle Pays Tribute To Actress Hedy Lamarr; Actress Scandalized Audience With 'Ecstacy'
Google Doodle honored actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr this Monday, celebrating her life and what would be her one hundred first birthday, reports the Independent.
"She's just so cool," said Google's Jennifer Hom, who researched Lamarr's life to create the animated doodle. "She was very complicated and very accomplished at the same time," cites CNN.
Lamarr's real name is Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. She was born to a banker and a pianist in Vienna, Austria in 1914. Hedy was of Jewish descent.
Hedy began her career in 1930 in German and Czech films. Her Czech and fifth film in 1932, "Ecstacy" catapulted her to worldwide fame. The film's nude scenes scandalized audiences all over the globe.
Hedy Lamarr was the first woman to act the female orgasm in a non-pornographic film. The movie was banned in many places, including many parts of the United States.
Just before world war two broke out, Lamarr left Austria to flee from her abusive husband Friedrich Mandl, A rich Austrian ammunitions manufacturer.
He was jealous, controlling and hated the movie "Ecstacy" so much, that he bought as many copies of the movie as he could. Mandl wanted to prevent the movie from being screened in public, reveals news.com.au.
Bored by her femme fatale roles and Hollywood, Lamarr tried her hand at inventing. Hedy met composer George Antheil at a dinner party and together developed the "Secret Communication System" which was patented in 1942.
The duo wanted to help in the war. Enemies would block signals from radio-controlled missiles, a problem Antheil and Lamarr wanted to solve; so George and Hedy invented "Frequency hopping."
"Hedy's idea was if you could make both the transmitter and the receiver simultaneously jump from frequency to frequency, then someone trying to jam the signal wouldn't know where it was," said Richard Rhodes, author of "Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World."
The patent expired in 1988. Lamar and Antheil were credited for their invention and wireless developer Wi-LAN Inc, for an undisclosed amount, acquired a 49 per cent claim to the patent.
Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil won many awards for their invention and were inducted into the 2014 National Inventors Hall of Fame.
