About this event
You read that right. The next time you use your cell phone, give a tip of the hat to silver screen legend Hedy Lamarr. Famous for her beauty, as well as for baring all in the film "Ecstasy," Hedy was so much more than a pretty face. And now, thanks to a brilliant new biography, Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World, her story can at last be told. The Hollywood party scene held no appeal for the exotic Austrian who came to America to escape an unhappy marriage to a Nazi arms dealer. It seems that Hedy did much more than just sit at the dinner table and look pretty – she listened and learned a great deal about munitions technology. When she arrived in Hollywood, she made the acquaintance of avant-garde composer George Antheil. Their collaborations on the piano experimenting with frequencies eventually led to the invention of spread spectrum technology - the same technology that cell phones, GPS, and many other modern-day gadgets are based on. During World War II, Hedy’s invention contributed to the U.S. war effort in the form of a joint patent for a jam-proof radio guidance system for torpedoes.