‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ – U.S. Broadcast Premiere on the American Masters Series on PBS

Tribeca Film Festival 2017 in in New York City. Splash Magazines had an Exclusive interview Splash with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes

Hedy Lamarr in "Ziegfeld Girl" 1941. Photo courtesy of the Everett Collection. Courtesy of Tribeca 2017
Spread the love

The Feature documentary ‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ directed by Alexandra Dean had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2017, SVA Theatre on April 23, 2017, in New York City. It will later have its U.S. broadcast premiere on the American Masters series on PBS.

Susan Sarandon attends the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival – ‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ screening at SVA Theater, Manhattan. Photo Splash Magazines.

The documentary was directed by Alexandra Dean, produced by Katherine Drew, Adam Haggiag, and executive produced by Susan Sarandon and Michael Kantor with David Koh and Dan Braun of Submarine as co-producers.

Hedy Lamarr 1938. Photo courtesy of the Everett Collection. Courtesy of Tribeca 2017

The debut of the feature documentary of Hedy Lamarr who was known as “the most beautiful girl in the world” was a very remarkable and stimulating film shown at the Tribeca Film Festival 2017 as Lamarr not only was an actress but also an ingenious scientist and inventor.  During World War II Hedy submitted a patent for a “secret communication system” known as “Frequency Hopping.” It was intended to guide US torpedos. The patent, which she created with avant-garde composer George Antheil, would go on to pave the way for the creation of wireless phones, Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi.

Hedy Lamarr in “Ziegfeld Girl” 1941. Photo courtesy of the Everett Collection. Courtesy of Tribeca 2017

One of Hedy Lamarr’s greatest achievement was the patent in wireless technology which she created with avant-garde composer George Antheil, that is the basis of modern wireless phones, Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi. It is even used by the U.S. Air Force in the multi-billion-dollar military defense satellite system used today, but lamentably few people took her seriously because she was one of the most beautiful women of her time. Can you imagine being so beautiful that no one would let you be smart? Unluckily Hedy Lamarr died in 2000 without making a cent from her revolutionary patent.

She had a shocking nude appearance in the 1933 Czech film” Ecstasy” that made her a disgrace at the age of 17.  She also married a prominent Austrian businessman who became a weapons dealer to the Nazis. Lamarr, who was born Jewish, ran away from her husband in the middle of the night, boarding a boat for America with just a single designer gown. On board, she captivated MGM boss Louis B. Mayer and convinced him to offer her one of the best contracts in Hollywood. From then on she was considered by many to be “the most beautiful woman in the world,”  and even songs were written about her beauty. The recognizable look of “Snow White” was modeled on her semblance. In addition, when she ran into problems working within the Hollywood system, Lamarr produced her own films, which women weren’t exactly doing at that time.  Critically, the industry started phasing Lamarr out after she turned 40. Lamarr had a reckless life with six marriages on her back, two kids, drug problems, and later on, she had trouble with money as she became obsessed with plastic surgery for several years. She became reclusive and never received the recognition she deserved with regard to her inventions.  That’s the sad story of Hedy Lamarr, the subject of Alexandra Dean‘s debut feature documentary, Bombshell.

Director Alexandra Dean attends the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival – ‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ screening at SVA Theater, Manhattan. Photo: Splash Magazines

Yenis Monterrey from Splash Magazines had an Exclusive interview Splash with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes sets out to rewrite America’s memory of Lamarr. ‘Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

Yenis Monterrey.- The life of Hedy Lamarr was so intense, extraordinary, and powerful, but at the same time rough and bitter. How can you summarize her in a few words as a writer of the book based on her life?

Richard Rhodes.- The documentary ‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’  is based on the book I wrote about Hedy Lamarr and her remarkable science career as she invented the radio communication system to aid in destroying German submarines back in 1941-1942. She invented a method to communicate from a plane to a torpedo because most of the torpedoes at that time didn’t have guidance to the target. She also understood that the communication could be jammed by the enemies radios, so she invented what is

Richard Rhodes.-Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ 2017 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Photo: Splash Magazines

called “Frequency Hopping” as a way of preventing signal jamming which later was taken during the 50’s by US military and recently became what is called Bluetooth, cell phone communication systems, and communication with GPS satellites. Her invention became one of the major fundamentals of communications technology. By the end of her life when she was 82-83 she was finally recognized for it.

She was a very unhappy woman because she was known was as a beautiful woman and never as an intelligent one. She said “I can tell you how to be a glamorous star, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid,” so it bothered her that she wasn’t recognized as an intelligent human being.

Courtesy of Tribeca 2017

Follow LA Splash Magazine Twitter @SplashMagWW Instagram @Splashmags

Follow Yenis Monterrey (Writer) Twitter @Foxactress Instagram @YenisMonterrey

17 Comments

  1. Very good article. I definitely love this site. Keep it up!

  2. I’ve been surfing online more than 2 hours today,
    yet I never found any interesting article
    like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my view,
    if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the
    net will be much more useful than ever before.

  3. I am in fact grateful to the owner of this web site who has hared this
    wonderful post at at ths place.

  4. It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to
    this superb blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your
    RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to
    fresh updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group.
    Chat soon!

  5. I read this paragraph completely concerning the resemblance
    of hottest and earlier technologies, it’s remarkable
    article.

  6. Hurrah! Finally I got a web site from where I know how to really obtain helpful data regarding my study and knowledge.

  7. An outstanding share! I have just forwarded
    this onto a co-worker who had been conducting a little homework on this.
    And he in fact ordered me lunch simply because I found it for him…

    lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanx for spending time to talk about this subject here on your internet site.

  8. I think this is among the most vital info for me.
    And i’m glad reading your article. But want
    to remark on some general things, The website style is wonderful,
    the articles is really excellent : D. Good job, cheers

  9. It’s hard to find experienced people in this particular topic,
    but you sound like you know what you’re talking about!
    Thanks

  10. After study several of the blog posts on your website now, and I truly
    like your way of operating a blog. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Pls check out my web site
    as well and let me know what you think.

  11. You’re so cool! I don’t suppose I’ve discovered anything like this before.
    So nice to find any person with some authentic ideas on this subject.

    really thank you for opening this up. this website
    is a thing that’s wanted online, someone with a little bit creativity.
    useful job for bringing something new to the internet!

  12. Hi I am so grateful I found your site, I really found you
    by error, while I was searching on Yahoo for something
    else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a marvelous post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design),
    I don’t have time to look over it all at the moment but I have saved
    it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I
    have time I will be back to read a great deal more, Please
    do keep up the excellent work.

  13. I’ve been surfing online morre than 4 hours today, yyet I never found any interesting aarticle
    like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me.
    In my view, if all site owners andd bloggers made good content as you
    did, tthe internet will be a lot more usful han ever before.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Sloan VP Programs Doron Weber at the ‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ – Tribeca 2017 – Splash Magazines

Leave a Reply to wordpress template ecommerce Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.


*