I am sure by now you have seen the beautiful lady on your search engine, Google. So how important is she? Hedy Lamarr is described as the most beautiful lady in the world. Her beauty and incredible on screen presence made her the most beautiful and popular actress. Besides that, she laid the foundation for the widely used Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi.
Hedy Lamarr was born on 9 November 1914 in Vienna, Austria, she got her first leading role aged just 17, in a German film called Geld Auf Der Strase. Her acting prowess in a German film Exstase amazed many people and drew light on her. The movie brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers, and she soon signed a contract with MGM.
She landed her first Hollywood film, Algiers (1938), opposite Charles Boyer. She continued to land parts opposite the most popular and talented actors of the day, including Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart.
Some of her films include an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat (1942), White Cargo (1942), Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949) and The Female Animal (1957).
The lady had ideal skills in tech that complemented her talent, she patented an idea called the “Secret Communication System” in 1942, which later became pivotal to both military communications and mobile phone technology.
Hedy Lamarr had military experience in weapons. She had some background in military munitions, and when World War II broke out she was keen to help the Allied war effort. It’s rare to find a lady who is ready to join the military in battle and help them win. The lady wanted to solve the problem of enemies blocking signals from radio-controlled missiles.
Telegraph reports she worked with her friend George Antheil who was a composer. She developed the principles of how pianos worked to identify a way to prevent German submarines from jamming Ally radio signals. The technology helped most people in the field at the time. Ms Lamarr later patented the frequency hopping that laid the groundwork for widely-used technologies like Bluetooth, GPS and wifi that we rely upon today.
“We love highlighting the many good stories about women’s achievements in science and technology. When the story involves a 1940s Hollywood star-turned-inventor who developed technologies we all use with our smartphones today, well, we just have to share it with the world,” said Google doodler Jennifer Hom.
“Hedy Lamarr has kind of a mythical status at Google, and I was pretty excited at the chance to tell her story in Doodle form,” said Ms Hom.
“Sketching storyboards on a yellow notepad helped me figure out how to show Hedy Lamarr in very different scenarios – movie star by day, inventor by night – which we then animated.
