Austrians in Hollywood - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2011 - 55 Euro Cent

"Every girl can be glamorous. You just have to stand still and look stupid. "- This quote from Hedy Lamarr conveys a highly distorted image of the famous Austrian, as she was not only a popular film actress in her day, but also a gifted inventor, whose intellectual heritage is today is still of daily importance. Hedy Lamarr (born 1914 in Vienna as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, died in Florida in 2000) already got her first starring role in her third film ("Man needs no money" with Hans Moser and Heinz Rühmann). However, a real scandal was caused by a Czechoslovak-Austrian production in 1933, which became very popular under the title "Ecstasy". It was not only a ten-minute nude scene that was responsible for this, but above all a sensational act of love that was very disreputable for the time at that time - but in which only her passionately excited face could be seen. After a changeful CV - Hedy Lamarr was married six times - she was eventually discovered by Louis B. Mayer, who signed her for the well-known American film company "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer". Not least because of her dazzling appearance, she quickly became a star and a fashion icon of the late 1930s. Almost every actress copied her elegant mid-crest hairstyle, and brunette was almost overnight as the only chic hair color. At the same time Lamarr was responsible for the Renaissance of the headgear as an accessory for actresses. In her heyday, she wore not only crazy hat creations, but also turbans, scarves, veils, and more on their heads. In the studio itself Hedy Lamarr was considered as little ambitious and sometimes extremely difficult. In addition to many good roles, she was mostly seen only as an attractive lady, this also applies to the film "Samson and Delilah", her biggest commercial success. In addition to her job as an actress Hedy Lamarr but also acted as an inventor. So she developed together with the composer George Antheil in the synchronization of a piece of music "by the way" a 1942 patented radio remote control for torpedoes, which was interference-free by automatically changing frequencies. While this invention has never been used for military purposes, the patent still finds its daily use in today's communications technology with Bluetooth connections and in GSM technology. In 1997, Hedy Lamarr was even awarded the "EFF Pioneer Award" by the "Electronic Frontier Foundation". It is also interesting that the so-called "Day of Inventors" is celebrated in her honor worldwide on November 9th, her birthday.