Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress and scientist. Though known primarily for her acting (she was a major MGM contract star), she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.
Lamarr was born as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, the daughter of Jewish parents Gertrud (née Lichtwitz), a pianist and Budapest native who came from the "Jewish haute bourgeoisie", and Lemberg-born Emil Kiesler, a successful bank director. She studied ballet and piano. When working with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, he called her the "most beautiful woman in Europe". Soon, the teenage girl played major roles in German movies, alongside stars like Heinz Rühmann and Hans Moser.
In early 1933, she starred in Gustav Machatý's notorious film Ecstasy, a Czechoslovak film made in Prague, in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in orgasm, and long shots of her running nude through the woods, gave the film notoriety.
On 10 August 1933 she married Friedrich Mandl, a Vienna-based arms manufacturer, 13 years her senior. In her autobiography Ecstacy and Me, Lamarr described Mandl as an extremely controlling man who sometimes tried to keep her shut up in their mansion. The Austrian fascist bought up as many copies of the film as he could possibly find, as he objected to her nudity and "the expression on her face". (Lamarr later claimed the looks of passion were the result of the director poking her in the bottom with a safety pin.)
Mandl prevented her from pursuing her acting career, and instead took her to meetings with technicians and business partners. In these meetings, the mathematically-talented Lamarr learned about military technology. Otherwise, she had to stay at castle Schwarzenau. She later related that even though Mandl was part Jewish, he was consorting with Nazi industrialists, which infuriated her. In Ecstacy and Me, Lamarr wrote that fascist dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler both attended Mandl's grand parties. In her autobiography, Lamarr related that in 1937, she disguised herself as one of her maids and fled to Paris, where she obtained a divorce, and then moved on to London. According to another version of the episode, she persuaded Mandl to allow her to attend a party wearing all her expensive jewelry, later drugged him with the help of her maid, and made her escape out of the country with the jewelry.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr
“Any girl can be glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid.”
“I would tell anyone who wants something from someone else to feign not wanting it. People are perverse. If you show great affection to them, they'll run the other way.”
“I've met the most interesting people while flying or on a boat. These methods of travel seem to attract the kind of people I want to be with.”
“Men are most virile and attractive between the ages of 35 and 55. Under 35 a man has too much to learn, and I don't have time to teach him.”
“I have never seen a wrestling match or prize fight, and I don't want to. When I find out a man is interested in these sports, I drop him.”
“I'd rather wear jewels in my hair than anywhere else. The face should have the advantage of this brilliance.”
“I'm a sworn enemy of convention. I despite the conventional in anything, even the arts. I paint canvasses on the floor and drove one art teacher out of his mind. But that's just the way I paint best.”
“Every girl would like to marry a rich husband. I did twice. But what divides girls into two groups is this question - do you first think of money and then love, or vice versa?”
“I'm fifty-one years old, but I'm not through yet. I have lived a full life, and intend packing in quite a lot more.”
“My mother always called me an ugly weed, so I never was aware of anything until I was older. Plain girls should have someone telling them they are beautiful. Sometimes this works miracles.”
“I am not ashamed to say that no man I ever met was my father's equal, and I never loved any other man as much.”
“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”
“Lawyers know how to take isolated complaints in a divorce case and build them into one big one.”
“Hope & curiosity about the future seemed better than guarantees. The unknown was always so attractive to me...and still is.”
“A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires.”
“I can excuse everything but boredom. Boring people don't have to stay that way. ”
“It's easy to look glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”