By Richard Rhodes
Doubleday, 2011. 261 pgs. Biography
Hollywood legend Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Keisler in Austria. While still a teenager, her beauty drew the attention of the fledgling motion picture industry. After some success she gave it up to marry a Nazi arms dealer. The marriage ended badly and Hedy fled war-torn Europe to find refuge in the United States. But even more fascinating than her social life and career in entertainment, Hedy emerges in this biography as an incredibly complex personality with a surprising passion for science and invention. She and composer George Antheil form an unlikely partnership to invent a patented jam-proof radio guidance system for torpedoes.
This is a seriously fascinating story and the author covers a great deal of information to navigate readers through the different facets involved. There’s the lives of key players, the technology used and developed, the relevant and complicated copyright laws, all set amid the backdrop of World War II. My only complaint is that the so much time and effort is spent setting the stage, that the actual conclusion seems a bit abridged and anticlimactic.
CZ
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