This book brought me back in the early 1930's and perceive how some things were different then. I got a deep and broad sense of what was historically happening in different parts of the world during that era.
Hedy Lamarr became famous for her acting career back home in Austria where she starred with the controversial film, Ecstasy. She married a powerful man, "Fritz Mandl," who owned the factory that makes ammunitions. Her father approved of the marriage because he thought that marrying him would save her from an antisemitic regime.
Hedy would have believed that the marriage would work until Fritz started to be abusive. She was confined to his tyranny and was constantly told as to what to wear, when to speak, how to act and when to make an appearance to be displayed as one of his possessions. She wasn't even allowed to go visit her father when he was ill. Ultimately, when her father passed, she escaped to London and then made it to America. She survived by using the money she saved, by selling the jewelry that she took with her and by finding a job as an actress. From being Hedwig Kiesler, she became Hedy Lamarr (her Hollywood screen name).
It might have been an ordeal while being married to Fritz, but she had learned a lot while they were holding dinners with political figures (like Mussolini) as Fritz worked on his business deals. Hedy was occupied listening and learning from the men as they talked about torpedoes, submarines, ammunitions and radio communication.
As Hedy survived and thrived in Hollywood, the state of Austria weighed heavy on her heart. And she came up with an idea of ways to better communicate via radio, how to prevent Germany from damaging Austrian ships. She worked with George Antheil to develop a secret communication system by using piano keys.
Both Hedy and George presented and patented the communication system to the U.S. Navy, but it wasn't put into use for what it was created for. But today, we could see the use of the idea with the first cell phone made by Motorola and it is also being applied to today's wireless communication, such as blue tooth, Wi-Fi and GPS.
Well, in the end, I felt like reading a textbook as it involves quite realistic parallels as to what is happening today. I probably did not see anything relatable with Hedy but perhaps just like everyone else, she just wanted to be seen as a human being.
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