The “most beautiful woman in the world” declined to be the lead actress in ‘Casablanca’ and invented Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

In this life almost all of us have many Achilles heels, but there are a few exceptional people, touched by the finger of the gods, who seem to be perfect. Hedy Lamarr was one of them.

That a person should star in the first full nude in the history of cinema and that Inventor’s Day in Austria should be celebrated on November 9 in her honor seems somewhat puzzling, but the fact is that the life of Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna in 1914, is full of incredible stories and genius.

The nude scandal

It was discovered early on that she was gifted, and she began studying engineering, but she wanted to be an actress. After a few minor roles, she starred in ‘Ecstasy’, by Czech director Gustav Machatý, in which she appeared completely naked and faking an orgasm. The scandal was huge all over the world. Her parents forced her to leave the cinema and marry Fritz Mandl, an arms entrepreneur of Jewish origin who nevertheless worked for Hitler and Mussolini. After her marriage she decided to resume her engineering studies. Her husband, an unhealthily jealous man, would not leave her alone and she took the opportunity to collect all the information she could about Nazi weapons inventions.

Fed up with her marriage, she ran away from home in Vienna and after a chase across Europe worthy of one of her films, she managed to embark in London on the Normandie liner bound for the USA. During the trip, the producer Louis B. Mayer offered him a contract and before he landed he had already signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

As soon as she arrived, she became the beauty icon par excellence of the time. The platinum blonde that dominated the Hollywood universe mutated into her jet black. All the actresses tried to look like her. Even Walt Disney was inspired by her beauty to draw Snow White in the first feature film of his factory. She was considered the most beautiful woman in the world and starred in many of the best films of the late 30′s and 40′s. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but as nobody is perfect at all, she turned down the leading roles in Casablanca and Gaslight and at the last minute lost the role of Scarlet O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind’.

A brilliant inventor

Lamaar, who said “any girl can be glamorous. You just have to stand still and look stupid,” offered her services to the U.S. Government after the outbreak of World War II. Her knowledge of German weapons development was decisive. He worked with Howard Hughes and composer George Antheil on the development of a frequency system to make remote-controlled torpedoes undetectable that was revolutionary for the time. Her inventions were used to intercept Soviet communications during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. She was the forerunner of WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS, perfected airplane design, and fled Hollywood parties to pass along in writing the latest genius idea she had come up with.

Hedy Lamarr was recognized in Hollywood’s golden age for her beauty. A century later she is considered one of the most brilliant inventors in history. A perfect woman, touched by the finger of the gods.

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