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

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)

Interesting story but, got too technically dry

Hedy Lamar has an interesting life- in Hollywood and on the scientific scene. But, this rendition did get much more into the detailed descriptions of her inventions than I found of interest.

An unexpected treat

Any additional comments?

A fascinating glimpse of a brilliant and beautiful woman and the time she lived in. I recommend this whole-heatedly.

An unexpected treat

Any additional comments?

A fascinating glimpse of a brilliant and beautiful woman and the time she lived in. I recommend this whole-heatedly.

Interesting perspective into a Hollywood legend

A most enjoyable perspective of Hedy Lamar's brilliant mind, and the journey to explore and express it.

Fascinating!

One of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. What an accomplished woman she was!

Excellent

Very interesting. Something you wouldn’t expect from the most beautiful woman in the world . I enjoyed it

Her coinventor might be the star of the story.

I think the title is misleading. It should be called Hedys triumph. It’s a story about to fascinating people who, by their experiences and circumstances, and their native talents, were able to synthesize earlier developments from unrelated fields into the radio waves communication technologies technologies that support all of the tools we take for granted today, including the iPhone in my hand. It’s an entertaining Read and not clear where the stories headed until the end.

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.

I listened to this book with no breaks and I’ve never done that before.

Amazing story thank you for making sure it was told. I took a lot of notes.

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.