Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born in 1914 in Vienna. At the age of 18, she achieved international fame by starring in a successful Czechoslovakian film and a year later was married to Friedrich Mandl, one of the wealthiest men in Austria. Mandl was a munitions manufacturer who did business with Hitler and Mussolini, even entertaining them in his home with his young wife at his side. Hedwig also traveled with Mandl to attend scientific conferences and through these became interested in the field of applied science.
Unhappy with her husband’s control, Hedwig fled to Paris and then the US, where she ended up in Hollywood starring in the film Algiers in 1938. She went on to make many more movies and starred in such films as Delilah, Ziegfeld Girl, and White Cargo.
On August 11, 1942, a patent was issued to George Anthiel and Hedwig for a frequency-hopping technology adaptable to military use. Their technology would enable radio- controlled torpedoes to avoid interference from the enemy. The patent was later bought from Hedwig and became the basis for spread-spectrum communication technology which is used today in bluetooth and wi-fi. Anthiel and Hedwig were inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2014.
In the early days of the movie industry, film studios often had actresses change their names and Hedwig was no exception. She chose the name of Lamarr, modified her first name, and has been known ever since as Hedy Lamarr, considered to be one of the most gifted and beautiful actresses in film history.
Hedy Lamarr had it all–fame, beauty, scientific accomplishment, and money. She wrote in her autobiography that she had made and spent over $30 million in a time when that was real money and yet she had little of it left in her final years. She was married and divorced six times, and finally became isolated from others and fearful. Obsessed with the loss of her beauty, she endured numerous plastic surgeries in a futile effort to maintain her youthful appearance. She became a recluse and in the closing years of her life, would only talk to people on the phone, including her children. In spite of all she had achieved, she ended her life unhappy and alone.
Hedy Lamarr’s life was extremely fascinating and unique, yet like all those who live their lives pursuing the world rather than God, it is the story of a life that ends in emptiness. The things of the world are attractive and draw us toward their suffocating embrace, but they do not satisfy or fulfill the soul. As Jesus clearly put it,“What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul” (Matthew 16:26)?
What, indeed? Yet many, like Hedy Lamarr, seek the world and ignore the warning of the Apostle James that “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). They give their souls for what in the end is nothing but a wisp of smoke.
What is it that you are living for? To grasp the smoky vapors of this passing world, or to gain that eternal city whose builder and maker is God?
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