Hedy Lamarr
A stunning movie actress and an ingenious inventor. A woman praised for her sultry beauty but whose intelligence was consistently underestimated.
Featuring artwork & words by Dr. Eleonora Adami, Sci-Illustrate Stories. Set in motion by Dr. Radhika Patnala.
Early Life in Europe
Hedwig Maria Kiesler, later known with her art name Hedy Lamarr, was born into a jewish family in Vienna in 1914. In 1933, aged 18, Hedy took the main role in a movie (Ecstasy) that made her universally famous. The movie was regarded as an artistic work in Europe at large, but it was considered overly sexual and scandalous in other countries. Close-ups of Hedy’s nude scenes, which she didn’t agree to, and the simulation of an orgasm were at the heart of the controversial success of the film.
Her first husband Fritz Mandl strongly objected to her acting career and tried to buy all copies of the movie to destroy them. Mandl had business and social ties with the Italian fascist government and allegedly to Hitler, despite being of Jewish descent himself. He was a munitions manufacturer and it is probably at that time, feeling uneasy with Nazis at her dinner table, that Hedy started developing an…
