Rating: 4
Historical Fiction
I began reading this book in July when we were in Colorado. I made it about 3/4 of the way through and stopped. Not because the book wasn't good, but because my life just seemed to get crazy. I read other books as this one sat on my table reminding me that I needed to finish it.
Don is an old movie buff, so he knew who Hedy Lamarr was, but I did not. In case you have never heard of her, she was a famous Hollywood actress between 1938 and 1949, with her greatest success as Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah.
Hedy was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna. In 1933, she married Friedrich Mandl, an Austrian military arms merchant and munitions manufacturer who had ties with Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Lamarr sat in on many dinner conversations in which she became aware of the plans leading up to World War II.
After escaping her marriage and fleeing to London, Hedy met Louis B. Mayer of MGM who was there scouting European talent. She traveled to the United States with him in 1937.
I don't want to tell the whole story, but it really is fascinating. She was not only a talented and beautiful actress, but she was also a scientist. One of her inventions led to something we all use today: WiFi.
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