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You are here: Home / BOTD / Happy Heavenly Birthday to Hedy Lamarr!

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Hedy Lamarr!

November 9, 2022 By Joi

Hedy Lamarr, The Strange Woman
Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr was born on this date in  1914 in Vienna. The Austrian beauty is known by most for her brains as much as she is her beauty. She was a very, very bright woman.

How bright? She received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1997 for her pioneering work in spread-spectrum technology. THAT’S how bright!

 

Fast Facts About Hedy Lamarr:

  • Believed Delilah to be her best performance of her career, with Samson and Delilah being her favorite of her films.
  • She was married six times. Sometimes Mr. Right is impossible to find even when you look like a goddess!
  • Sued Mel Brooks for mocking her name in the film Blazing Saddles by naming a character “Hedley Lamarr.” They settled out of court. She absolutely had a point, in my opinion because the name “Hedley Lamarr” as followed her since.
  • She was introduced to one of her husbands by Bette Davis.

Hedy Lamarr led a fascinating life, filled with as much drama, mystery, and intrigue as any movie she appeared in. The highs of her life – including her children, brains, beauty, and films – are wonderful to celebrate. She’s a very inspiring lady to read about! The lows of her life show that absolutely anyone – no matter how bright or beautiful – can fall prey to desperation and hard luck. Everyone is capable of making mistakes in life. The really, really horrible thing is they often come one after another – one mistake leading to the next and to the next. When you’re up against it and nothing is going right, you get desperate and do things you normally wouldn’t even dream of.

As a fan of Hedy Lamarr’s I dearly wish she had had people around her to support her and help her when she needed it most. Like another lovely actress, Veronica Lake, her life didn’t end as beautifully as it should have and, maybe it’s because I’m a fan of these actresses, but I think a great deal of fault lies in the fact they didn’t have a strong support system. They were left to fend for themselves in a world that suddenly had turned cruel and unkind to them.

I can’t even imagine how jolting it had to have been to have been one of Hollywood’s most cherished princesses for a while – a beauty who had people flocking all around her, only to become all but abandoned in what must have felt like a very cold world.

I’m thankful we have Hedy Lamarr’s films and her photos to remember her by. A beautiful actress worth remembering and celebrating. I’ve read a great deal about this actress and I always come away with the same thought: “She was strong until she simply couldn’t be strong any longer.”

Hedy Lamarr, The Strange Woman

Filed Under: BOTD, Hedy Lamarr Tagged With: BOTD, Hedy Lamarr, Hedy Lamarr pictures



I try to keep my posts, book reviews, and classic movie reviews as short as possible. I want to share my thoughts and (more importantly) shine a spotlight on the stars that mean so much to us, however I don't want to take up too much of your precious time. My goal is to give you information, trivia, and photos that will put a smile on both your face and your day! ~ Thank you for being here, you honor me with your presence, Joi ("Joy")

Welcome to Hollywood Yesterday!

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Ann Sheridan
My name is Joi (“Joy”) and I created Hollywood Yesterday as my personal tribute to Old Hollywood. It’s my effort to help keep the stars from Old Hollywood, Classic Television, and Old Radio Shows alive and shining forever. Old Hollywood was positively magical and I see no reason for the magic to ever die.

Be warned, I am (by nature) overtly positive, I never take anything too seriously, I say extraordinary so often you’d think I invented the word, and I overuse exclamation points to distraction. I’m perpetually over-caffeinated.. we’ll blame that.

Read more about Hollywood Yesterday (and see my personal favorites) here!

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See the Old Hollywood Actors page for the index of Old Hollywood and Classic TV actors.

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I love reading old Hollywood biographies and memoirs as much as I love watching classic movies, and that’s truly saying something!

To see my Old Hollywood book reviews, please see the index listed here: Book Reviews.

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Priorities, y’all.

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Thank you so much for visiting Hollywood Yesterday! You truly HONOR me with your presence. ~ Joi (“Joy”)

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Also, please know that I try to keep my posts (except for book reviews) short and to the point, so you can enjoy the pictures, grab the information, and get back to your life. I don’t appreciate anything that’s overly wordy, so I don’t want to do that to others. For better or worse, I write as I talk, so if you ever feel like you’re reading the words of someone who’s a cross between Lucy Ricardo, Daisy Duck, and a Jerry Lewis character, that’s just because you are!

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Aside from pictures of books I review, I do not claim to have taken any of the pictures on this website, nor do I own the pictures – the ones of the stars or the affiliate (product) pictures.  Other, far more talented photographers than me have the credit for the beautiful photos you see. If you would like credit for a photograph or would like one removed, please e-mail me (joitsigers@gmail.com).

Movie posters and promotional photos are used in the belief that they qualify for the Fair Use law. Fair use is a doctrine in the law of the United States that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests of copyright holders with the public interest in the wider distribution and use of creative works by allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered infringement.

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