Hedy's Folly

The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

By: Richard Rhodes

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

What do Hedy Lamarr, avant-garde composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio: a revolutionary inven­tion based on the rapid switching of communications sig­nals among a spread of different frequencies. Without this technology, we would not have the digital comforts that we take for granted today.

Only a writer of Richard Rhodes’s caliber could do justice to this remarkable story. Unhappily married to a Nazi arms dealer, Lamarr fled to America at the start of World War II; she brought with her not only her theatrical talent but also a gift for technical innovation. An introduction to Antheil at a Hollywood dinner table culminated in a U.S. patent for a jam- proof radio guidance system for torpedoes - the unlikely duo’s gift to the U.S. war effort.

What other book brings together 1920s Paris, player pianos, Nazi weaponry, and digital wireless into one satisfying whole? In its juxtaposition of Hollywood glamour with the reality of a brutal war, Hedy’s Folly is a riveting book about unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.

©2011 Richard Rhodes (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

"Literary luminary Rhodes is not the first to write about movie star Hedy Lamarr’s second life as an inventor, but his enlightening and exciting chronicle is unique in its illumination of why and how she conceived of an epoch-shaping technology now known as frequency hopping spread spectrum. As intelligent and independent as she was beautiful, Jewish Austrian Lamarr quit school to become an actor, then disastrously married a munitions manufacturer who got cozy with the Nazis. Lamarr coolly gatheredweapons information, then fled the country for Hollywood. As she triumphed on the silver screen, she also worked diligently on a secret form of radio communication that she hoped would boost the U.S. war effort, but which ultimately became the basis for cell phones, Wi-Fi, GPS, and bar-code readers. Lamarr’s technical partner was George Antheil, a brilliant and intrepid pianist and avant-garde composer whose adventures are so fascinating, he nearly steals the show. In symphonic control of a great wealth of fresh and stimulating material, and profoundly attuned to the complex ramifications of Lamarr’s and Antheil’s struggles and achievements (Lamarr finally received recognition as an electronic pioneer late in life), Rhodes incisively, wittily, and dramatically brings to light a singular convergence of two beyond-category artists who overtly and covertly changed the world." (Donna Seaman, Booklist)

"The author of The Twilight of the Bomb (2010) returns with the surprising story of a pivotal invention produced during World War II by a pair of most unlikely inventors - an avant-garde composer and the world’s most glamorous movie star.... A faded blossom of a story, artfully restored to bright bloom." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"If the subtitle of this book The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World - doesn’t make you want to read, nothing we say is likely to change your mind. But we will add this much: Rhodes, who has written about everything from atomic power to sex to John James Audubon, is apparently incapable of writing a bad book and most of what he does is absolutely superior, including this tale that has Nazi weapons, Hollywood stars, 20th century classical music, and the earliest versions of digital wireless." ( The Daily Beast)

Like a 1930s People Magazine

Would you try another book from Richard Rhodes and/or Bernadette Dunne?

Meh

What do you think your next listen will be?

The Tao of Willie

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Bernadette Dunne?

She was okay, it was the material.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

Want gossip about the marriages and divorces of 1930s and 40s screen stars? A DETAILED bio of George Antheil? This may be your book. With ONE exception, Hedy Lamar's inventions remain a secret until they're quickly listed in an Afterword. I had thought the whole point of the book was her "Breakthrough Inventions." Rambling, gossipy string of precise but irrelevant dates and details about OTHERS. I can't believe I sat through the whole thing.

fascinating short bio

I enjoyed this. the narrator was fine, finally. I've had a bad streak of lackluster readers.

But this story is good and there is a good bit of bio on George Antheil as well (helps to understand what he brings to the device) leading up to his and Hedy's meeting and work on the torpedo problem. (you can sample his Ballet Mechanique in itunes to see what he was up to musically, quite different).

but i think the important thing that came across to me was again how short sighted, perhaps in this case misogynistic, men in power were and can be. anyone with the guts and the intelligence to realize what Hedy and Antheil devised could have appreciable shortened WW2. Not to mention kickstarted our electronic age 40 years earlier. It made me think of the Tesla bio Wizard and what a different world we could be living in right now. You don't get a sense of that aspect until the wrap up and that's not what this bio is about except tangentially. But the ideas are presented in a manner that makes them accessible to the layman. the first half is very much the bio aspects of the 2, but the whole thing moves quickly and is short as well so i can recommend it.

and to think that her/their ideas, if they had retained the patent, could have made them billions.

An Idea Must be Reduced to Practice

I can remember hearing about Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000) and George Antheil (1900-1959) in the early 1980’s, when I was in the Army and learning radio theory. Frequency hopping was key to security, and even in the digital age, it wasn’t an easy concept. She was right up there with Nikola Tesla for me, who I knew for wave theory, ship-to-shore communications and long distance radio receivers. I didn’t know for years that Tesla was also an electrical engineer- just as I didn’t know Ms. Lamarr was also a movie star. Pre-internet, we couldn’t just look things up, and in the age of 5 TV channels that didn’t even broadcast from midnight until 5 am and no VCR’s (predecessors to DVR’s) old movies were hard to come by.

“Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World” (2011) has a really great explanation of the science of radio waves and frequency hopping. I know the technology, and this book is as spot on as possible without actually trying it out with radios. Richard Rhodes also has a good discussion of patents, patent law, and how Ms. Lamarr applied for and received her patent, and how she adapted the invention to show it worked. There is very little about other inventors and scientists who were active at the time to put the work and her advancements in context, and that wound have been nice to know.

Rhodes discussion of Ms. Lamarr’s relationship with her co-inventor George Antheil was so detailed that I could see them in my mind, working together. The legal complexities associated with the patent were fascinating. I actually do wonder if the military discounted her work because she was movie star - or if maybe they wanted to use it secretly, without paying royalties or giving credit. The technology she developed is widely used in Bluetooth technology, but long before that, it was used in missile guidance systems.

I was disappointed that the book didn’t have more about Ms. Lamarr’s acting career. Rhodes has a detailed discussion of Ekstase (1933), her first film. That movie showed her having an orgasm, a first for a non-pornographic film. It was quaint by today’s standards, but that post-coital cigarette would raise eyebrows today. After her escape from a stultifying marriage to a wealthy man, she moved to Hollywood - and, well, this book gives her acting career short shrift. I’m not sure what movies she was in, who her costars were, or how she got along with her directors. She was married 6 times, and very little is mentioned about any of her husbands except her first husband Fritz Mandl (1900-1977), an Austrian industrialist and fascist. In short, as fascinating as the book is, it left off half of her life. I wish Rhodes had written a far more detailed book about her life.

There’s a new very highly rated documentary by Alexandra Dean called “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” (2017) that I plan to watch to find out more.

The title of the review is a quote from the first chapter of the book, discussing patents.

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Pretty good

There is a lot of time spent on the biography of her co-inventor Henteil, to the point that I actually checked to make sure I had downloaded the correct biography. Otherwise it's a good book, especially well-performed.

Dull, painfully dreadfully dull. Richard !?!

Would you try another book from Richard Rhodes and/or Bernadette Dunne?

I didn't think until now, Richard Rhodes was capable of such bland work. I am a huge fan, I'll give him another shot. Bernadette Dunne was just okay I wouldn't look for her as a narrator.

What was most disappointing about Richard Rhodes’s story?

This book was unfocused, covering too many topics leaving nothing of depth. Considering the scrupulous research that comprised "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" I can only assume there was not enough reliable information to make her story into a book.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I'm neutral about the narrator, she was serviceable, but she didn't add to the story.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Hedy's Folly?

It's easier to say what I would have left in; Hedy's invention, more facts and anecdotes regarding the reaction to it, her feelings about it being dismissed, less supposition about what *may* have transpired.

Any additional comments?

I was very disappointed.

Engaging history

Practically everything in this book was a revelation to me. Rhode's presentation of Hedy's life and personality was wonderful. The book is about equally a biography of Hedy and George Antheil. Learned later about the recent revival of his music which is very interesting. Bernadette's reading is also very good.

Book about whom?

I don't think you can call this book about Hedy Lamarr when about 35-40% of it is about George Antheil! Hedy barely is mentioned in Chapters 3-6. And often when she is mentioned, you feel like the author is writing this book from Antheil's perspective with Hedy as just an after thought.

Should Have Been Better

Would you try another book from Richard Rhodes and/or Bernadette Dunne?

No. It took everything to get through this book.

Would you ever listen to anything by Richard Rhodes again?

No.

Would you be willing to try another one of Bernadette Dunne’s performances?

Maybe.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No.

Any additional comments?

There was so much promise with this book, but the author punted it away. I would love someone else to try this subject.

A good player

Features longstanding could have been developed more fully. Stability has improved and that is much appreciated.

Boring.

What would have made Hedy's Folly better?

Thought I was going to read a bio of Hedy, but there was so much about other characters, I found it utterly boring. This is the only book that I can recall not finishing.