Famous Actress

Wayne · #1 (**permalink**) September 10th, 2001, 07:14 PM

There was a famous actress during WWII that helped invent something to do with radar. Does anyone remember her name?

C.Evans · #2 (**permalink**) September 12th, 2001, 12:54 AM

Dear Wayne and glad to see you here. I know who you are talking about but cant think of her name off hand, I will try to find it and let you know--take care.

Freda · #3 (**permalink**) September 21st, 2001, 09:27 PM

I think it was Rita Hayworth. Somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind I seem to remember something about this.

macker33 · #4 (**permalink**) June 19th, 2009, 08:21 PM

Thats weird,i was only reading about her 2 days ago,,Hedy Lamarr

macrusk · #5 (**permalink**) June 19th, 2009, 09:12 PM

A Tribute to Hedy Lamarr

From a the above website:

Inventor of Spread-Spectrum Communications

Who invented the spread-spectrum (formerly called “frequency-hopping”) concept?
None other than Hedy Lamarr, made famous by her starring role in Ecstasy, a very x-rated movie, filmed in Czechoslovakia in 1933.

Hedy Lamarr invented in 1940 and patented in 1941, under her married name of “H. K. Markey”, US Patent number 2292387, granted in Aug. 1, 1942, “Secret Communication System”, filed June 10, 1941. She signed it “Hedy Kiesler Markey.” Kiesler is her maiden name. Gene Markey was her second Husband’s name. Lamarr is her stage name. Her full name is Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. She unwittingly disguised herself by not employing her stage name. It is only this year (1997) that the connection has been pointed out by Dave Hughes.

At present, Hedy Lamarr lives in retirement in Florida.

Each of the two aforementioned applications of the spread-spectrum communications concept was shrouded in military secrecy, at the time. We just knew the concept; but the identity of its originator was not disclosed to us, under the restriction of “need to know”. The US Government was the assignee of the Patent; thus, legally, it was the owner of the concept. It had no reason to disclose to us, and we had no “need to know”, the originator of the Patent.

Currently, the spread-spectrum radio transmission is employed extensively in both civilian and military communications: Radio links with many satellites, portable telephones which operate in the 900 MHz region, wireless network connections, high-density cellular-telephones, ….

Belatedly, Hedy Lamarr deserves credit for her stroke of pure genius in inventing the spread-spectrum concept in one evening, out of thin air! She deserves to be admitted to Mensa, as an honorary member.

LRusso216 · #6 (**permalink**) June 20th, 2009, 03:15 AM

The amount of knowledge on this forum never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for the link, Michelle.

formerjughead · #7 (**permalink**) June 20th, 2009, 03:17 AM

I thought it was Hedley Lamar

macrusk · #8 (**permalink**) June 20th, 2009, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by formerjughead

I thought it was Hedley Lamar

YouTube - Pledge to Hedley Lamarr Here's Hedley.....

Hedy Lamarr - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and here's Hedy

greglewis · #9 (**permalink**) November 4th, 2009, 12:24 PM

Amazing story.

Saw this press release from 11 March 1997

Movie Legend Hedy Lamarr to be Given Special Award at EFF's Sixth Annual Pioneer Awards

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

Burlingame, CA - March 12, 1997 - In what the organization's spokesman describes as "a unique event both for EFF and for the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will honor former movie actress Hedy Lamarr with a special award this evening for her co-invention of spread-spectrum broadcast communications technologies. Lamarr will be honored along with Johan Helsingius of Finland, and Marc Rotenberg of Washington, D.C., whose work for civil liberties on the Net has earned them each a 1997 Pioneer Award.
EFF Staff Counsel Mike Godwin, who serves on the Pioneer Awards' panel of judges and who has coordinated the Awards event for four of its six years, said his organization regards both Lamarr's contribution and the general public's "nearly absolute ignorance about it" to merit special recognition for Lamarr as well as for late George Antheil, who, working with Lamarr more than half a century ago, developed and patented what is now known as spread-spectrum broadcasting. Communications experts say that one of the chief benefits of spread-spectrum broadcasting is the access to the airwaves it will give ordinary people with ordinary resources. Only recently has the promise of spread-spectrum technologies begun to be affordable -- this is due to the recent development of inexpensive computers, Godwin said, adding that the amount of mathematical calculation one had to do in the pre-microcomputer era to implement spread-spectrum broadcasting made such broadcasting "a practical impossibility most of the time."
The presentation of the Sixth Annual Pioneer Awards will take place in a ceremony this evening at the seventh annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference. The conference is being held Tuesday through Friday of this week at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency hotel in Burlingame, California.
The Pioneer Awards were started in 1991 in order to recognize individuals who have made significant and influential contributions to the development of computer-based communications or to the empowerment of individuals in using computers. Two individuals were named recipients of this year's Pioneer award; they are Johan ("Julf") Helsingius, for his pioneering work in exploring the socially constructive uses of anonymous communications on the Internet, and Marc Rotenberg, now the head of Electronic Privacy Information Center, for his many years of work in educating both the general public and the Washington policy community about the privacy and civil-liberties concerns raised by computer communications.
"Both Rotenberg and Helsingius have set standards of education and consciousness-raising about social issues on the Net that any of us could be proud of," Godwin said. Both winners of this year's Pioneer Awards, he said, "have taken a lot of heat for their principles, but have shown an exemplary willingness to stand their ground in the hope of teaching us something about the importance of sticking to such principles where the Net is concerned."
"The special award for Lamarr and Antheil is remarkable for other reasons besides its recognition of a woman whose contributions were thought to be solely in the field of entertainment," Godwin said. Partly this is because Lamarr and Antheil had hoped that the military applications of their invention would play a role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. "Ironically," Godwin said, "this tool they developed to defend democracy half a century ago promises to extend democracy in the 21st century."
Godwin also noted that the chief architect behind the public campaign to honor Lamarr and Antheil was Dave Hughes, an online community activist based in Colorado. Hughes won a Pioneer Award himself some years ago for his online activism, Godwin said, "and his effective use of the Net to tell the story of Ms. Lamarr's and Mr. Antheil's contributions just goes to show that we picked the right guy back then." Will the special award for Lamarr and Antheil eclipse the awards to Rotenberg and Helsingius? "We expect the awards to complement each other," he responded. "People who come to see Ms. Lamarr and Mr. Antheil being honored will learn about the great work Marc and Julf have done, and vice versa."
Brief Profiles of the Honorees:

Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil are being honored by the EFF this year with a special award for their trail-blazing development of a technology that has become a key component of wireless data systems. In 1942 Lamarr, once named the "most beautiful woman in the world" and Antheil, dubbed "the bad boy of music" patented the concept of "frequency-hopping" that is now the basis for the spread spectrum radio systems used in the products of over 40 companies manufacturing items ranging from cell phones to wireless networking systems.