Usually when I travel I use the time to catch up on email, and think about how I’m making progress on my priorities. But on a recent trip, because of the lack of WiFi on my flight, I happened to see a documentary produced by Susan Sarandon about the 1940s screen icon, Hedy Lamarr.
Her story was remarkable for many different reasons. As an Austrian Jew, she managed to escape the country just prior to the occupation by the Nazis. Fleeing to London, she happened to meet the famous Hollywood producer, Louis B. Mayer, of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Deciding to travel on the same ship as Mayer back to the US, she managed to convince him to sign her to the MGM cohort of stars, which included Katharine Hepburn and Lucille Ball at the time.
Lamarr went on to become one of the most recognisable actresses of the time, with Disney basing the classic character of Snow White on her image. If this was all she achieved, then Lamarr would have had led a remarkable life. But, what few people knew was that she was also a prolific inventor outside of career as an actress.
Deciding that she wanted to help the US war effort in the early 1940s, Lamarr devised a means of controlling torpedoes using radio frequencies. In solving the problem of how to prevent these communications from being jammed by the enemy, she invented the concept of frequency hopping. The patent she filed with the US patent office was never “officially” used by the US Defence Department, and so Lamarr received no monies for her invention.
However, the patent was provided to a US Defence contractor, some say before the patent had expired, and eventually became a critical technology in the invention of wireless and Bluetooth years later. The value of the patent in present day terms is estimated to be around $30B.
The reason that this story had such an impact on me, and I’m sure on many others as well, is because there is so much more to people than meets the eye. That’s why I’m so passionate about people being able to bring their whole selves to work.
All of us have our hidden talents that make us unique and valuable. But if people don’t feel comfortable to share these talents in the workplace, then companies miss out on harnessing everything that we have to offer. And that means corporations and public institutions are all the poorer.
That’s what makes Hedy Lamarr’s story all the more remarkable. As a woman in the 1940s, many of her talents and contributions were overlooked, or actively suppressed. That she succeeded anyway shows what a truly incredible woman she must have been.
Next time that I’m fortunate enough to be able to use WiFi while traveling, I’m going to think about Hedy Lamarr and the amazing contribution that she made to the world, which went beyond the beautiful films in which she starred.