The claims made under the heading "Inventor" are largely without any authoritative sources, and contradicted by a wealth of evidence. For example, the article claims "Among the few who knew of Lamarr's inventiveness was aviation tycoon Howard Hughes. She suggested he change the rather square design of his aeroplanes (which she thought looked too slow) to a more streamlined shape, based on pictures of the fastest birds and fish she could find." (emphasis added) The source cited for this claim is an article in Vanity Fair -- a periodical that is hardly a reliable source for facts regarding the history of science. And the author of that article -- a 27(-ish) year-old entertainment writer -- provided no sources for her claims (other than an old interview with Lamarr), nor did the writer have any relevant expertise. But Lamarr's claims (repeated in Vanity Fair) are easily shown to be groundless hearsay. Hughes and Lamarr first met in 1938. Three years earlier, Hughes' aircraft design the "H-1" had already established itself as the fastest airplane on earth, and it was as streamlined as any aircraft would be for at least the next 5 years. No one could accurately describe it as un-aerodynamic or "rather square". Furthermore, Hughes' aircraft designs appear to have evolved from the H-1 without any significant deviations brought about by Lamarr's "advice". These fly in the face of Lamarr's later claims that she "showed it to Howard Hughes and he said, 'You're a genius'." (from that Vanity Fair article) Furthermore, every aircraft designer since Leonardo da Vinci, through Otto Lilienthal and the Wright Brothers, up to Hughes himself, had already studied the shapes of birds to draw inspiration for aircraft design. Claiming that Lamarr was in any way original in her suggestion to Hughes (if indeed she ever made such a suggestion -- we are expected to take her word for it) displays an abject ignorance of the history of heavier-than-air craft. Again, the piece in Vanity Fair cannot be considered a reliable source when it comes to the history of scientific invention. Do any credible sources in that domain make any such claim? Not that I have been able to find.
The Vanity Fair article claims "Do you like Wi-Fi? You can thank Lamarr for that" -- a claim so laughably ahistoric that it ought to discredit anything else the author writes. There is a reason why neither the WP article on Wi-Fi, nor the one on IEEE 802.11 make any mention whatsoever of Lamarr, and that reason is that she had nothing to do with them. She and George Antheil (who was at least familiar with player piano technology) co-filed a patent on using player piano rolls to skip frequencies on radio-guided torpedoes. Antheil does not seem to have left any documentation as to why he and Lamarr are listed on the patent as co-authors (perhaps he was charmed by her; perhaps he thought her profile would help him commercialize the technology), but the point is moot, since the technology the patent describes was never implemented. This is hardly surprising since electromechanical devices were quickly becoming obsolete in 1942.
The final sentence in the "Inventions" section states "In 2014, Lamarr and Antheil were posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame". At the relevant page on the NIHF website it states that Lamarr "had at one time been married to a munitions manufacturer, giving her the foundation for her knowledge of weapons systems, including torpedo control systems. Again, this is nonsense. Lamarr was indeed (briefly) Married to Friedrich Mandl who inherited the Otto Eberhardt Patronenfabrik from his father. But that company never produced "torpedo control systems"; in fact, the Kriegsmarine never even used radio-controlled torpedoes in WWII; they were all either acoustically-guided, or simply straight-running. So Lamarr could not have had any relevant knowledge from which to draw "expertise" about "torpedo control systems". Bricology (talk) 08:14, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
- Well, it's been 7 months since I wrote the above, and no one has tried to defend the claims made in the article, so I can only infer that no such defense is forthcoming. I am going to prune out some of the more ridiculous claims from that section. Bricology (talk) 23:37, 15 July 2022 (UTC)
- Your concerns are reasonable, but you fall into the same trap of making bold statements with little to back them up (eg. "Antheil does not seem to have left any documentation as to why he and Lamarr are listed on the patent as co-authors (perhaps he was charmed by her; perhaps he thought her profile would help him commercialize the technology), but the point is moot, since the technology the patent describes was never implemented."). If you'd done a smidgen more research, you'd understand that it's most likely Lamarr took the idea to Antheil. I'd consider reading: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/random-paths-to-frequency-hopping
- Quote: "Claims and counterclaims have been made as to whether Lamarr originated the frequency-hopping scheme or learned of it in meetings at Fritz Mandl’s firm, the Hirtenberger Patronenfabrik. In Bad Boy, George affirms that she got her education at those meetings, and although he is not exactly the world’s most reliable memoirist, he could hardly have received the information from anyone but Hedy. Robert Price, an engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory and a pioneer of spread-spectrum technology, interviewed Lamarr. He told me that he came away convinced that she had heard the idea in her husband’s boardroom, and with tongue somewhat planted in cheek, Price called her “the Mata Hari of World War II.” Still, one must be mindful of historical gender roles—of how Lamarr might have presented herself as well as how her statements might have been received."
- 2.101.247.221 (talk) 12:19, 8 May 2023 (UTC)
- Can we confirm whether either of these are in doubt:
- Lamarr and Antheils device is the first documented viable implementation of a frequency hopping device
- Lamarr and Antheil are recognised as the inventors in the patent of the device
- If there is no tangible proof against either 1 or 2 above then until further information is forthcoming it seems Lamarr and Antheil are to be recognized as the original inventors of frequency hopping devices? — Preceding unsigned comment added by GaryFBonds (talk • contribs) 11:23, 26 May 2023 (UTC)
- No, it is the other way around. You cannot prove Lamarr invented anything which is what you MUST do. She did not even know Antheil. Stop this delusion. What the hell is the motive behind this hoax? 62.195.100.51 (talk) 15:34, 5 August 2025 (UTC)
- I've posted up some Wikipediable primary sourced material which explains this in far more detail. It's time this utter myth was put to bed.
- It's clear that she knew Antheil, he was interested in the size of women's breasts at the time and that's how they got talking. She was a skilled pianist I believe however and that likely drew them together.
- I'm in little doubt that she pinched (or cryptomenesiatically, is that even a word) heard it over dinner with the Nazis and then told Antheil. But it was Antheil and McKeown who deserved the credit, both died many years before Lamarr so it's not like we can ask them.
- I think this material should put this argument to bed once and for all.
- Her very clear and self-indulgent claim that Blyth raped her at gunpoint should also be inclued because Blyth sued Lamarr and won. Something that seems conveniently brushed under the rug. 2A04:4A43:917F:F118:F1A4:68:9939:2017 (talk) 18:16, 30 October 2025 (UTC)
- Read this: The Seventh Claim
- and from there make sure to follow the link to what I think is the definitive article on the topic: Analysis of Hedy Lamarr's Contribution to Spread-Spectrum Communication Snowball Lamarr (talk) 00:34, 3 March 2026 (UTC)
- Absolutely nothing she claimed is true. She didn't invent anything, she didn't even know the guy who did invent it. Wikipedia is a disgrace for copy-pasting these lies. 62.195.100.51 (talk) 15:32, 5 August 2025 (UTC)
According to PBS:
"Discover the role of women in World War II in this video from the American Masters film Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. Hedy Lamarr invented frequency hopping—a technology that could have provided a significant advantage to the United States military in the war—but the Navy shelved her idea and told her to sell war bonds instead. By selling war bonds, she engaged in something deemed more appropriate for a woman, especially a glamorous actress."
Although you are probably correct that she did not invent frequency hopping, at least she did contribute something to the war effort 🙂 Abricru (talk) 19:30, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
- I cut it from the lede. It's clearly not her notability, and the LA Times article cited to support that claim had a tongue-in-cheek headline. That source also stated that the technique she patented "had gone through many permutations with input from various sources" by the time it was incorporated in bluetooth, etc. technology. I'm not qualified to address the extent to which her patent was groundbreaking, but I noticed that the relevant section in this page is called Inventor, not Inventions -- the latter would have been used if she had more than one notable innovation, thus meriting the label "inventor" as a persistent activity. Martindo (talk) 11:33, 18 September 2023 (UTC)
- The accuracy of these claims is disputed by people who have read into the history.
- The popular culture has been repeated so frequently (no pun intended) that major news organisations cannot be relied upon as we might otherwise do. Tony Rothman has also discussed this in his book "Everything's Relative" which was my starting point. But then I fell into a huge black hole of competing claims, during which time a third "man" appeared as alluded to by Lamarr in Stars and Stripes interview.
- I don't see any reference to her claim of rape against Donald Blyth which the man denied and was later awarded some $100,000 (adjusted for 2023) in punitive damages many years later. There's a clipping here but I expect the story was repeated elsewhere - but it's not in "clear text" on the web so it's hard to find. The same applies with that Stars and Stripes interview. I found out who she was referring to, a professor at the local University who never received a lick of credit for his extensive work - WITH ANTHEIL, not Lamarr. This whole mess is due to poor quality (rushed) patent searches conducted a time the world was at war.
- We really need a volunteer who isn't under the "it can't be true" spell to nip down to the respective court and find the full paperwork. I think it's New York somewhere, but it will be in the archive. This is highly unpleasant but it goes to show that Lamarr's version of "truth" is variable at best.
- This needs extensive correction. For some reason I'm unable to post the line but this should be available via Google, etc.
- AN INTERNATIONAL TIMELINE OF FALSE RAPE ALLEGATIONS 1674-2015: HEDY LAMARR (falserapetimeline.org) 92.40.5.83 (talk) 14:36, 14 October 2023 (UTC)
- PBS is known for spreading propaganda. 62.195.100.51 (talk) 15:34, 5 August 2025 (UTC)
level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
