Friday Kanopy Movie Pick: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

You can watch movies via Kanopy at any time. To watch the documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story now, click here, then sign into your account.

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Although the library is closed, you can still enjoy our Friday afternoon movie matinee from home at any time via Kanopy. In honor of Women`s History Month in March, the main branch had scheduled a showing of Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.

This documentary chronicles the life of actress and inventor, Hedy Lamarr, who fled an oppressive marriage to create a name for herself as one of Hollywood's leading ladies in the 1940s. Behind the glamour was a talented and inquisitive inventor who created a radio system that is now considered the basis of Bluetooth technology.

About Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9, 1914 in Vienna, Austria. In 1933, at the age of 18, she starred in the Czechoslovakian film Ecstasy, about a neglected young wife of an older man. The film gained her international fame despite it being banned in the United States and Germany due to its sexual content. Viennese arms dealer and munitions manufacturer, Friedrich Mandl, became enamored with Lamarr and they married in August of 1933. Lamarr`s parents, both of Jewish descent, objected to the marriage because Mandl had ties to Italian fascist leaders Benito Mussolini. He would later be connected to Adolf Hitler.

In her autobiography Ecstasy and Me, Lamarr described her husband as controlling and eager to end her acting career. Lamarr frequently accompanied him to business meetings where she learned about military technology. Lamarr later fled to Paris to escape the marriage and resume her acting career. She was then discovered in 1937 in London by MGM president, Louis B. Mayer. After signing a contract with MGM and moving to the U.S., Lamarr landed a role in the film Algiers. She went on to star in several films with MGM, until her contract ended in 1945. Her greatest success was as Delilah in Cecil B. Demille`s Samson and Delilah, which won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design, and was the highest grossing film of 1950.

During WWII, when she tried to join the National Inventors Council, Lamarr was told to use her celebrity status to help sell war bonds. She sold $25 million in ten days. When Lamarr learned that enemy ships could jam torpedo guidance signals, she created a design for a device that would create a frequency-hopping signal that could not be jammed. Composer and pianist, George Antheil, made the device by synchronizing a miniaturized player-piano mechanism with radio signals. Lamarr and Antheil offered the design to the U.S. Navy who rejected it because it was too cumbersome.

It wasn`t used until the mid 1950s when the U.S. Navy shared this concept with a contractor who was developing a sonobuoy. Antheil and Lamarr never received compensation for their work, even though it was copyrighted through 1959. Today, this technology is considered the basis for Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPS. In 1997, Lamarr was honored with the Pioneer Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She died on January 19, 2000 at the age of 85 in Casselberry, Florida.

How to use Kanopy

Kanopy is a streaming service that is free to use with your WPL card. Your account has 4 watch credits per month. If you do not use your credits, they do not roll over to the next month. You will see a "play credit tracker" at the top right of your library's Kanopy platform to alert you of how many play credits you have remaining for the month.

To use a play credit, you must press play on a video and have the video play for at least 5 seconds. Once a play credit is logged, you will have a full 3 days (72 hours) to watch the video as many times as you would like without using another play credit, even if a new month starts and your credits reset. Your Viewing History will show any video that is still available to view in your 3 day window. After the 3 day window has expired, another play credit will be used if you press play on the video again.

Kanopy is currently offering credit-free viewing for select films. If you watch any of the movies on this list, you will not be using your credits. Once you log into your account, click the “credit free viewing" link on the top.