How Hedy Lamarr and the Metoo movement collide.
Hedy Lamarr was almost the most important inventor time forgot. Let’s remember a time, not so long ago when Hollywood and the world, i.e. men, didn’t give credit to women for being smart, or for anything for that matter.
Coming to America
In 1937 Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler came to America from Vienna, Austria, her birthplace. She had starred in a few films, one being the scandalous “Extase (Ecstasy)” when she was just 18 years old. Hedy was born in 1914 and was married and divorced before leaving her homeland for the lights of tinseltown.
The Glamor
By the 1930’s Hollywood’s glamor machine was in full swing. The ‘Studio system’ was churning out hundreds of movies every month and if you wanted to be a star, you played by their rules. The studio was not only where you worked but it was your life. They told you how to look, where to go to be seen and with whom. You were expected to appear in as many films per year as possible. You would have a seven year contract to which the studio owned you as their property and if they made you into a star, they would go to any length to keep you a star. This often meant being seen on arranged dates or they would give the stars strict diets to adhere to.
Hollywood was not for the faint at heart. You had to follow the studios every directive and that included the casting couch. Directors, producers and those in charge would make women sleep with them or give special favors in order to get a part. This practice remained a well known fact and was allowed to happen until very recently.
More Stars than there are in Heaven
MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) was one of the biggest and most successful of all the movie studios in Hollywood. It was a successful merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Studios and Louis B. Mayer studios. At its head in the early years were Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg as head of production. LB would proclaim to be the biggest studio and have the most stars. It was home to some of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest. In the 30’s it was where Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Mickey Rooney, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy and Judy Garland gained fame. It was here, at MGM that Hedwig became Hedy Lamarr.
The Beauty that Changed the World
She was billed as the most beautiful woman in the world. The world didn’t know it yet, but this woman was much more than that. With an IQ of 150+, she regularly invented items and took things apart to find out what made them work.
It was during WWII, at a party one evening with an equally intelligent composer, George Antheil, she set out to form a way to jam frequencies so that torpedo locations could not be found by the enemies. They invented frequency hopping communication and had a patent placed on the invention. This later formed the bases for wireless technology used today in bluetooth and WiFi. She grew tired of the Hollywood scene, playing the exotic femme fatale and having everyone think she was window dressing. She would say anyone can stand and look pretty, even stupid people.
not for her intellect.
No one believed she was the inventor of such magnitude. Some claimed she stole the idea. Some said she was too pretty to be smart. Still others said she was a spy.
Hollywood isn’t the only industry that uses or takes advantage of women or thinks a woman can’t think for herself. So many stories of how women are treated when they walk into an auto part store. Or when a woman owns a show car and enters it into shows, most of the guys ask her where her husband or boyfriend is so they can talk to him about it. Or when a customer asks for the manager and they are talking to her, a young lady. My Aunt was told she couldn’t be hired because she was of the age where she would be starting a family!
Me Too
Take Kim, she was in the only female student enrolled in a fire academy. One of the recruits pinned her on the ground and tried to kiss her as the others watched. She was able to knee him and get away, earning the respect of the other students. I have to say that should never happen. Ever. Being the only woman in a male dominated work environment, like Amber and Jamie and Tory. The girls were told to only do certain jobs and leave the hard or heavy work to the men. Talked about behind your back because you are a woman. Double standards.
My own story was as an 18 year old working at my first radio station and working closely with an older man who was showing me the ropes. He kissed me without provocation or wanting from my part.
Hedy Lamarr was paid less then her male counterparts. She wasn’t given the proper credit for her invention until decades later, and she died at 85, in 2000, without much money. It was only recently that people and Hollywood are taking notice of the beauty with the high IQ. Hedy Lamarr was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame posthumously in 2014.
Your turn
What are some of the ways you have experienced or seen a situation that you were treated different because of your sex or you were taken advantage of and told you need to do or act or wear something in order to get a job or keep one? Tell your story in the comments.