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Passion For Inventing
“Improving things comes naturally to me.”
-Hedy Lamarr, Time Magazine, 1974
"When I was a little girl, just four years old, I remember my father had a gold watch. And I asked why does this in front go around, how does this work?"
-Hedy Lamarr, Associated Press, 1997
Lamarr was a self taught inventor, quitting high school in 1930 to pursue acting. The closest Lamarr came to a formal education was through dinner parties she attended with her first husband, a wealthy Austrian munitions manufacturer. At these events, there were scientists and high ranking leaders exposing her to wartime technology. Although she achieved international fame as a Hollywood movie star, Lamarr loved science and experimented in her trailer between takes and at home. Wealthy inventor and producer, Howard Hughes gave her a set of tools and access to his scientists. In return, Lamarr helped Hughes with his aeroplane research.
Hedy Lamarr and Howard Hughes' Relationship, American Masters PBS, April 17, 2018
“She was such a creative person, I mean, nonstop solution-finding. If you talked about a problem, she had a solution.”
-Anthony Lorder, son of Hedy Lamarr, interview with biographer Richard Rhodes
In 1940, Nazi U-boat sank a cruise ship trying to evacuate British school children to Canada, drowning 89 in the Atlantic Ocean. Lamarr was horrified and her mother still lived in Nazi-occupied Austria. Therefore, Lamarr tried to invent a new radio guidance system for anti-submarine torpedoes. She wanted to contribute her ideas to the National Inventors Council in Washington D.C. and worked diligently with her neighbor George Antheil, an accomplished musician and concert pianist.
“All creative people want to do the unexpected.”
-Hedy Lamarr, 1966, Hedy Lamarr's Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor