Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr Paperback – October 8, 2013

Biographies have the reputation of being dry: this isn't. It did a wonderful job of illuminating some of the mysteries of the woman who considered her beauty a curse.

I don't think anyone needs to write another Hedy Lamarr book unless something unusual comes to light. This one has everything. I've read Estacy and Me and I own a copy of The Films of Hedy Lamarr. So I am a fan but not an expert. Still there was a lot in this book I had no idea about, such as the numerous lawsuits she was involved in. The author gives a great sense of the times she moved in as the years passed.One thing I will question is the part that said Hedy dated Chaplin before he married Goddard. Most records show he married Goddard around 1936.Although it was an incredible accomplishment that eventually saw the light, I was personally thought the author spent too much text on her frequency hopping invention. If someone is interested, they can get that info on the internet.What this book did make me realize is that great beauty is wonderful until you get older. People always expect you to look the same when you are a big star. This book gave me the feeling that Hedy didn't really like being a movie star, it was just a way to make money, but that she did like for MGM to take care of things for her.So this book is a good deal for the money, many pages of information.Finally, Hedy, along with Elizabeth Taylor, Viven Leigh, etc are what I define as "great beauty" because God made their faces, not plastic surgery. The perfect oval of her face, the jet black hair... as Lana Turner said in her autobiography, concerning an appearance Hedy made at a Hollywood nightclub, standing at the top of the stairs, everyone looking at her, the room totally hushed. Hedy had on a cloak, and she wore a diamond solitare placed on her forehead just at her widow's peak (thin black wires woven into her hair to hold it up). Only her face was visible, and as Lana said, "she was enough to make strong men faint!"

Very little, if any effort went into reviewing this book. The writing is atrocious. If you can read around the very obvious mistakes, particularly regarding dates there are interesting stories conveyed. Let me just say, no one fought in Napoleon's army in 1931. It makes it quite difficult to read or believe what this author says. Editing matters, just not to this particular author.

Hedy Lamarr was an extraordinary human being, extremely beautiful and also uncannily smart and intelligent. How many other inventors can boast creating a product which became the basis for wireless technology and cellphone industry? Her invention is on a par with Edison's light bulb, and historically might be even more important. Hedy Lamarr's tragedy was that people couldn't possibly see beyond her fabulous beauty and give her the benefit of doubt for her very high intelligence. To this day so many still mistakenly think that she was a friend of Hitler's, when just the opposite was true - Hedy Lamarr (who was of Jewish extraction) escaped from her Nazi-connected husband and helped the American war effort by donating her patent for torpedo fighting missiles, and by even selling war bonds (raising millions for the cause). She remained sharp-minded until the end of her life, amassing a fortune of 3.3 million dollars on the stock market. That she was also one of the most beautiful women that ever lived, is another extraordinary circumstance which makes this remarkable woman even more epic! This book is well-researched and highly recommended. A must for Hedy Lamarr fans!

.....Whose the fairest of them all? In Disney's Classic it was Snow White. If the question had been asked in Hollywood in the Forties, it would have been Hedy Lamarr......When Snow White became the fairest in the land her life became one of turmoil and strife but in the end she was rescued by Prince Charming and lived happily ever after. Unfortuneately there was no Prince Charming to rescue Hedy as she careened recklessly through six husbands after very brief courtships. She seemed to take more care in selecting her wardrobe than she did in choosing a mate. Consequently her marriages were brief affairs, the longest being to oil millionare Howard Lee, 1953 - 1960, who finally got tired of Hedy using him as an ATM machine and was the only one of her husbands to initiate the divorce. He then married Gene Tierney who inherited his estate and lived out the remainder of her life as a socialite in Houston. That was the second time Hedy crossed paths with Tierney, the first being when she turned down Otto Preminger's offer to play Laura in the movie that became a film noir classic. Tierney took the role and it became her signature movie. It was poor judgement like this, combined with gross mismangement by MGM and Louie Mayer that cost Hedy several key roles, (For Whom the Bell Tolls, Casablanca, Gaslight, Saratoga Trunk etc.) all taken by Ingrid Bergman and any one of which would have establishd Lamarr as a serious actress. It wasn't until she got the part in Sampson and Delilah at the age of 36 that she was given the type of role that she was born for but at that stage in her career it was too late......How did this beautiful woman who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and was handed the world on a silver platter end up at one time living on Social Security disability checks and a small SAG pension? This book chronicles the journey......One wonders what might have become of Hedy if she had signed with Paramount early in her career instead of opting to tie her self to MGM and Louie Mayer? Mayer had no idea what to do with Hedy. Mayer prided himself on turning out wholesome family movies, his favorites were the Andy Hardy series and MGM's forte was lavish musicals. Hedy didn't sing or dance and definetly was not family movie material......Between 1938 and 1949 Hedy made three movies that were significant in her career. None of them were made by MGM. She made Algiers in 1938 for United Artists and became an International Star overnight, Experiment Perilous in 1944 for RKO in which the critics praised her acting ability and Sampson and Delilah in 1949 for Paramount. In between these highlights were eight years of very forgetable movies turned out by MGM. One of these clunkers was "White Cargo" and almost ended Hedy's career. In this movie she uttered the immortal line, " I am Tondelayo, I stay". This phrase became an industry joke for bad acting and the actress became Hedy Lamarr. When the Hedy/Anthiel patent for a torpedo guideance system made the news, Mayer instructed his PR people to squelch it, He was selling a glamor girl and he didn't want Hedy's fans to see her as an Egg Head. But it is not fair to blame all Hedy's woes on Mayer, Hedy was always headstrong and not easy to work with. In many way she was her own worst enemy, a modern day Sybll with a many faceted personality. She was promiscuous and very generous with her favors but seemed to go out of her way to antagonize friends. She began to equate money with security but spent it as if it was burning a hole in her purse. She knew from an early age her power over men and how to manipulate her beauty. It almost destroyed her......To quote from the book her former costar John Fraser said it best, "She had been fawned upon, indulged and exploited ever since she had reached the age of puberty. Her extrodinary intelligence did not encompass wisdom. How could she have learnt about the values that matter, about kindness and acceptance and laughter, in the Dream Factory that is Hollywood? She had been thrust into the limelight at a pitilessy early age, been devoured by rapacious lovers and producers who saw her ravishing beauty as a ticket to success and who looked elsewhere when she began to grow older. Beauty and money in moderation are undoubtedly a blessing. In excess, they surley are a curse" She was a real life Norma Desmond but without the money......To be fair to Hedy, she never got into drugs or alchohol or used the casting couch to get parts. She doted on her children and they loved and stood by her to the end. I am glad that she got recognition for her invention of spread spectrum before she died. Her invention was as significant as was Edison's light bulb in its impact on the World......I finished the book with some sadness. She had so much potential. So much that could have been that never was. I hope she found peace in her beloved Vienna Woods.

La biografía de Stephen Michael Shearer es bastante completa y confiable. Desde luego más que la «Autobiografía» que con el título «Éxtasis y yo» (véase) publicó Hedy en 1967, y que, como aclara Shearer, fue en realidad escrita por dos «negros»: Leo Guild y Cy Rice. Cy Rice recogía en cintas las grabaciones hechas a Hedy sobre su vida y Leo Guild escribía la historia a la vez que la recreaba, añadiéndole de su cosecha salsa picante que atrajera a los curiosos y facilitara las ventas del libro. La salsa picante consistía en lances folletinescos y, sobre todo, en episodios fabulados de contenido sexual. Hedy negó que ella escribiera ese libro hasta el final de sus días, pero el caso es que firmó el contrato en que figuraba como autora del mismo. Parece claro que Hedy consintió en esas truculencias para hacer dinero, aunque luego farisaicamente lo negara.Shearer hace también un completo repaso a su filmografía, empezando por «Éxtasis», más famosa por el escándalo que promovió que por sus valores artísticos (que también tiene). A pesar de que se ha dicho muchas veces, es muchas veces falso: «Éxtasis» no fue la primera película en que se mostrara un desnudo femenino. Pero sí fue la primera película en que aparecía filmada una relación sexual con orgasmo incluido (y fingido).Llama la atención la dureza, por no decir codicia, con que Hedy negociaba a brazo partido sus contratos para el cine, en especial con Louis B. Mayer, el magnate de MGM. También llama la atención, al menos para alguien como yo, que no conoce las entretelas de la producción cinematográfica, la cantidad de largometrajes que quedan en proyectos y muñones, y por un motivo u otro nunca acaban de cuajar en películas terminadas y listas para la exhibición. Hedy no escapó a esta especie de maleficio en su carrera como actriz, y muchos de sus planes de intervenir en películas se disiparon en la nada.Al llegar a la cuarentena, Hedy se había convertido en una diva caprichosa, que despilfarraba dinero y maridos por igual. En apariencia, llegó a creer que todo le estaba permitido, y cuando fue sorprendida realizando pequeños hurtos en unos almacenes –tenía algo de cleptómana- se defendió alegando que en otros comercios se lo dejaban hacer.Hedy era, además, una persona querulante, dada a emprender litigios; en especial contra los que previamente la habían denunciado a ella ante los tribunales, como en el caso del robo en los grandes almacenes.Hedy empezó a sufrir los achaques de la edad a comienzos de la década de 1970. Perdía vista por un proceso de degeneración macular de la retina. Y en otoño de 1976 se sometió a la primera operación de cirugía estética, a las que siguieron muchas otras.La biografía de Shearer también aborda la faceta científica de Hedy. Hedy conoció al músico George Antheil en 1940, cuando ella estaba interesada en incrementar el volumen de sus pechos. Hablando un poco al azar de la posible entrada de Estados Unidos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, ambos, Hedy y George, empezaron a fantasear con un sistema de encriptación de señales con posibles usos bélicos, que fue patentado por ambos en junio de 1941.En los últimos años de su vida se reavivó todo este asunto, que llevaba décadas echándose la siesta. La patente expiraba en 1959 y ni Hedy ni Antheil hicieron nada por renovarla. Y fue por entonces cuando el ejército de Estados Unidos empezó a interesarse por el invento a raíz de la crisis de los misiles con Cuba en 1962, en que se dio por fin empleo a algunas de las ideas del invento de Hedy y Antheil, algo mejoradas (los ingenieros, una vez vencida la patente, podían trastear con las ideas subyacentes). Hedy seguramente ignoraba estos nuevos usos de su viejo invento, en parte porque el gobierno de Estados Unidos no la advirtió de los mismos (cosa a la que no estaba obligado pues la patente había expirado). A partir de 1981 se encontraron nuevos usos civiles del invento de Hedy y Antheil en las telecomunicaciones.Por fin, en 1990, gracias a una entrevista telefónica concedida a la revista «Forbes», Hedy tomó plena consciencia de que sus ideas habían sido utilizadas por largo tiempo sin que nadie se las reconociera ni pagara. El reconocimiento oficial del mérito intelectual de la contribución de Hedy y Antheil llegó por fin en 1997 cuando se les concedió a ambos el 6º premio anual a los Pioneros de la Fundación de la Frontera de la Electrónica en la ciudad de Burlingame, cerca de San Francisco. Antheil había muerto en 1959, justo cuando expiraba la patente original. Hedy tampoco pudo acudir por problemas de salud, pero en su nombre recibió la estatuilla de bronce su hijo Anthony. A partir de ese momento, se sucedieron los premios y reconocimientos a lo largo de toda la década. Hedy murió el 19 de enero de 2000.Interesante biografía de una interesante mujer, que reunió en su persona la insólita combinación de actriz glamurosa de la época dorada de Hollywood e inventora científica.

The beautiful Hedy Lamaar was a technical genius - who knew? Once considered the most beautiful woman on earth, Hedy was one member of a two-person team that invented a form of technology still in use today. Her movie career in America brought her fame but not the accolades she may have wished for, and later years seem to have made for a sad and lonely woman. This is a detailed and well researched account of a life that is both fascinating and tragic...good stories of 'old' Hollywood mixed in with accounts of success and failures...a very good read.

Fascinating life. The book is not as well written as I would have liked and leaves lots of seemingly unnecessary gaps in the story of her life.

I loved this book from the moment it arrived. BEAUTIFUL is exactly the title you should give to a book about Hedy Lamarr. However there are three words missing from the title and that is AND EXTREMELY INTELLIGENT. She was also a Scientist and was the inventor of a technology that is now an essential part of many things, from military weapons to mobile phones today. If you are interested in biographies, especially about the "iconic stars" of yesteryear, then this is certainly one to add to your collection.

On est emporté par ce livre, son anglais raffiné, l'époque qu'il décrit très bien, et surtout par cette femme plutôt méconnue.