Hedy's Folly

Title	Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
Author	Richard Rhodes
Call Number	PN 2287 .L24 R54 2011
Location	2nd Floor Humanities
Rating	Somewhat Recommended
Book Review	Despite the title, this is really a split biography of Hedy Lamarr, the Austrian-American movie star, and George Antheil, the composer.  During Lamarr's first marriage to Fritz Mandl, an Austrian arms merchant, she listened to his discussions of new weapons and later applied that knowledge to her hobby of inventing.  Together with Antheil, she developed a frequency-hopping radio system that was meant to be installed into torpedoes, and though it was not used in World War II, it eventually became the basis of spread spectrum technology that enabled the development of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, GPS, and many other systems.  The book mostly covers up to this period of her life, with little emphasis on her later years.
Submitted By	Kristin Laughtin-Dunker
Department or Major	Leatherby Libraries
Status	Staff