Hedy Larmarr, More than a Beautiful Face

Susan Page Davis here.

Hedy Lamarr in 1940

Public Domain photo

Hedy Lamarr is best known as an actress, but she had many other talents, too. In fact, she contributed to wireless communication technology that helped win World Wars and has been used in many other applications, including cell phones.

Hedy in Lady Without a Passport, 1950, public domain photo

Born in Austria in 1914, Hedy lived in Vienna during the time when Nazi Germany was on the rise. Her original name was Hedwig Kiesler, and she became an actress in the 1920s. She was taken to Berlin for training in theater, then returned to Vienna. She acted both on stage and in films.

In 1933, she married Friedrich Mandl, a wealthy Austrian arms dealer and munitions manufacturer. She was 18, and Mandl was fifteen years older. Hedy later described him as extremely controlling and said she was a prisoner in their luxurious home. Mandl took her to all his business meetings, and it was there that Hedy paid attention and learned about advanced weaponry.

Hedy grew to hate the Nazis. After four years of marriage, she escaped to London. There she met Louis B. Mayer, and he brought her to the United States and gave her a movie contract and a new name (Lamarr).

Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr in Comrade X, 1940

Public domain

After she came to the United States, Lamarr forged an illustrious career in Hollywood. Among other credits, she starred with Clark Gable in Boom Town and Comrade X, with Spencer Tracy in I Take This Woman and Tortilla Flat, opposite Bob Hope in My Favorite Spy, and Jimmy Stewart in Ziegfeld Girl and Come Live with Me. She appeared in about thirty films during her career.

She met American composer George Antheil, and with him devised a plan to help the war effort. They developed a communications system that could be used in radio-controlled torpedoes to help defeat the Nazis. This worked by manipulating radio frequencies at irregular intervals. This system could also prevent the enemy from intercepting messages. They received a patent in 1941.

Unfortunately, when Hedy offered her invention to the U.S. government, they rejected it.  They did not realize how important this invention could be. The pair donated their invention to the war effort. Hedy was encouraged to stick with her successful acting career. One of her many patriotic efforts was to sell war bonds, which she did very successfully.

Hedy in 1939 film Lady of the Tropics

Public domain photo

The communications idea wasn’t used until the navy implemented it on blockade ships during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. After that, its significance was acknowledged, and it was used in many military applications. However, it was first used three years after the Lamarr-Antheil patent expired, and they did not receive any compensation for their patent.

In addition to its usefulness to the armed forces, the technology was a big step forward in digital communications. Cell phones, fax machines, and other modern devices are possible in part because of this system.

In 1997, Lamarr and Anthiel were finally honored with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Award. The same year, Lamarr became the first female recipient of the BULBIE™ Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award, a lifetime accomplishment prize for inventors that is referred to as the Oscar of inventing.

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Susan Page Davis is the award-winning author of more than eighty novels and novellas in the historical, romance, mystery, and suspense genres. She’s always interested in unusual events of the past. A Maine native, she now lives in western Kentucky.

The Stage Door Canteen

By Marilyn Turk

In my next book, Shadow of the Curse, one of my characters plays in a band at The Stage Door Canteen. I thought you might like to know a little bit about the place ahead of time.

The first Stage Door Canteen opened on March 2, 1942, in the basement of the 44^th Street Theatre in the heart of New York‘s theater district. Started and directed by the American Theatre Wing, War Service, Inc., the canteen offered servicemen entertainment, refreshments, and dancing. The canteen provided civilians in the entertainment industry with a way to “do their part” for the war effort and repay servicemen for the sacrifice they were making.

Capacity for the Canteen was 500, but tickets were issued to servicemen for one hour each, so in one night, as many as 2000 servicemen might pass through the doors. On opening night, entertainers included a comedian, ballet dancers and several popular actors of the era. The canteen was so popular, servicemen, many who had left home for the first time, stood in long lines outside the building waiting for their turn to enter.

Bette Davis serving at the Stage Door Canteen

The G.I.’s were allotted one sandwich, one dessert, and one drink (tea, coffee or milk). No alcoholic beverages were allowed. The main draw was the entertainment, not only on the stage, but the servers were often stars from the theatre or movies. Only at the Canteen could a serviceman see someone like Red Skelton, Marlene Dietrich or Bette Davis in person for free.

Another attraction of the canteen was the young hostesses. These young women were selected to socialize and dance with the servicemen. They were identified by the red, white and blue aprons worn over their sensible dresses. 

Hostesses were not allowed to date any of the servicemen and were supposed to ration their time with each, not spending too much time with one man. They were also expected to be friendly and dance with any serviceman who asked, regardless of age, rank, or race, showing equal treatment to all.

The Stage Door Canteen received favorable publicity in newspapers and magazines across the United States as the place where stars of stage and screen did their humble best to support servicemen.

Stage Door Canteen, U.K.

Other Stage Door Canteens opened in Hollywood, Boston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Francisco and Newark. Before the war ended, Canteens also opened in London and Paris.

Stage Door Canteen Radio Showwith Shirley Temple

The Canteen was also the subject of a popular radio variety show, and a successful musical film in 1943, “Stage Door Canteen.”

The Canteens closed at the end of war, but the National WWII Museum in New Orleans has revived their tradition with a replica Stage Door Canteen, with food and entertainment of the era.

Have you ever heard of the Stage Door Canteen? Did you have any relatives who either went to them or worked at them? I'd love to hear your story.

Marilyn Turk loves to study history, especially that of lighthouses and the coast of the United States. She is the author of Rebel Light, a Civil War love story set on the coast of Florida, The Gilded Curse, a historical suspense novel set on Jekyll Island, Georgia, in 1942, and Lighthouse Devotions - 52 Inspiring Lighthouse Stories, based on her popular lighthouse blog. (@ http://pathwayheart.com) Shadow of the Curse, the sequel to The Gilded Curse, will be published in 2018.

MOVIE STARS OF THE 1920S

ANNE GREENE here.

Films blossomed in the 1920s. By the mid-20s, movies were big business. Throughout most of the decade, silent films were predominant.

The top box-office stars in the 1920s included Harold Lloyd, Gloria Swanson, Tom Mix, Norma Talmadge, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Colleen Moore, Norma Shearer, John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney, Sr., and Clara Bow.

Mary Pickford developed into one of the biggest silent movie stars of the era. America flocked to the movies. Mary had been a child star and worked as a bit actress in 1909, yet only ten years later became one of the most influential figures in Hollywood. In 1916, she was the first star to become a millionaire.

Mary married another great star, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Their wedding in late March, 1920 proved highly controversial since both of them divorced so they could marry each other. He presented her with a wedding gift, Pickfair, a twenty-two room mansion in Beverly Hills, setting the trend for stars’ lavish homes in the suburbs of W. Hollywood. Mary Pickford bobbed her long curly hair, one of moviedom's first fashion trends, in 1928. Pickford's Coquette (1929), her first all-talking film, won her an Academy Award, but she retired prematurely four years later.

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. became an American legend starring in a series of swashbuckler and adventure/fantasy films, starting with The Mark of Zorro (1920), soon followed with his adventure Robin Hood (1922). and Arabian nights tale, The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Fairbanks' The Black Pirate (1926) with early two-color Technicolor and the superstar's most famous stunt of riding down a ship's sail on the point of a knife added to his legend. Fairbanks scored again with The Iron Mask (1929). The only film that co-featured both stars was a talkie version of The Taming of the Shrew (1929). Other 1920s Box-Office Stars:

Haunting and divine, Greta Garbo's first American film was The Torrent (1926), followed by The Temptress (1926). Her first major starring vehicle was with John Gilbert in Flesh and the Devil (1926). MGM renamed Broadway actress Lucille Le Sueur and christened her Joan Crawford in 1925. And Louise Brooks made her debut film in mid-decade with Street of Forgotten Men (1925).

Clara Bow, a red-haired, lower-class Brooklyn girl won stardom after a major publicity campaign. In The Plastic Age (1925), she played a flirtatious flapper. Bow’s stardom grew after Dancing Mothers (1926) and again after her smash hit Mantrap (1926). Campaigns promoted her with It (1927). She became known as The It Girl in the high-living age of flappers. Bow starred in the epic WWI film Wings (1927), and became the highest paid movie star at $35,000/week. But by 1933, Bow retired due to the revelation of a heavy working-class Brooklyn accent in the talkies, and a burgeoning weight problem.

Janet Gaynor received the first Best Actress Academy Award for her work in Seventh Heaven (1927). Janet also won an Academy Award for her exquisite acting in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), considered the finest silent film ever made by a Hollywood studio.

Lon Chaney, Sr., the man of a thousand faces, starred in the The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), and in The Phantom of the Opera (1925) his signature role. The unveiling of the phantom's face, when Christine rips off his mask - was and still is a startling sequence.

Even the earliest films were organized into genres like swashbucklers, historical extravaganzas, melodramas, and even biblical epics. There were westerns like The Covered Wagon (1923)), horror films, gangster/crime films, war films, the first feature documentary, Nanook of the North (1922)), romances, mysteries, and comedies from the silent comic masters Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd.

America loved her movies from the 1920s until now.

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. Her second novel, a Scottish historical, Masquerade Marriage, won three prestigious book awards. The sequel Marriage By Arrangement released November, 2013.  A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to awesome new worlds and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. She loves to talk with her readers. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.Amazon.com. Talk with Anne on twitter at @TheAnneGreene. View Anne’s books, travel pictures and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com.

Learn more about Anne as well as get tips on writing award-winning books at http://www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com. Join her followers for a chance to win one of Anne's books. 

 

Read Anne's latest Scottish historical novel, MARRIAGE BY ARRANGEMENT. You can buy her book at any on-line bookstore. Or go to http://www.pelicanbookgroups.com.