Alexandra Dean’s documentary, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, emphasizes the actress’ contribution to a world outside the shallows of Hollywood. The stunning brunette Hedy Lamarr defied the illogical adage: if a woman is beautiful surely she can’t have brains too. Then again, few people of any gender have the kind of brains Lamarr had; she was an inventor of a code, a communication system involving randomly operating frequencies, devised to help in the war effort. Who dares to think like that? In the context of our current discourse about sexual harassment, in her time the objectification of women was simply show business as usual. But whip smart, Lamarr managed, escaping a boring marriage in Vienna, finding her way out of Nazi occupied Europe to America aboard a ship on which movie mogul Louis B. Mayer was also a passenger, and making sure she got his attention. Her beauty took her far.
This week at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute, part of Hunter College where Franklin and Eleanor actually lived and where a Feminist Institute now thrives, Susan Sarandon, an actress well known as an activist, and one of the executive producers of Hedy Lamarr’s story spoke about her admiration for her legendary forebear. Sarandon recently played Bette Davis in Showtime’s Feud, a role that explored what it took to succeed in Hollywood.
Alexandra Dean asked the audience how they first heard of Hedy Lamarr. In her own case, it was as a parody in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. For me, she was a successful old school actress who got caught shoplifting. The film addresses this odd circumstance. Striking too in Hedy Lamarr’s compelling life story is how such a bright and brave woman could be snared in another kind of trap. In her later years, she refused to go out because of various botched plastic surgeries. The film makes clear: she never earned a dime from any of her inventions, the results of which endure. The beauty, however, did not last.
Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura
Why did you put Bette Davis' picture above an article about Hedy Lammar?
Posted by: Judy | November 25, 2017 at 10:03 AM