On August 11th, 1942, Hedy Lemarr was awarded a patent for the guidance of torpedos. Her first marriage (of an eventual total of six) was with an Austrian arms merchant. He made her stop acting in Europe, and instead, she hosted her husband’s parties. These parties included Hitler and Mussolini. She also was included in his business meetings. She learned a lot about German military technology, including the vulnerability of radio controlled weapons to jamming.
Lamar disguised herself as one of her maids, and snuck out of Germany to Paris in 1937. She then divorced her husband. She met Louis B Meyer in London, he signed her. Hedy Lamar moved to California as the most beautiful face in Hollywood.
She had thought of a way to frequency hop transmissions. Her neighbor was a musician and composer-George Antheil. He had done a concert using sixteen player pianos. They discussed ideas in 1940, and with Lamar’s mathematical skills with frequency hopping, and Antheil’s expertise with music to project it, they developed a plan, and submitted for patent in 1941. It was approved the next year.
All of this and more, is in the book “Hedy’s Folly” by Richard Rhodes. The subtitle “The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamar-the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.
August 11th is National Presidential Joke Day, to recognise the humor of the highest office of the land, usually blunders and mistakes. Sometimes it can be hateful and mean. This humor is not exclusive to today, when there used to be only newspapers to get news, art could get down right brutal.
In the Lincoln museum in Springfield, Illinois, there is a hallway exhibit with over 30 feet of newspaper illustrations that show how cruel, and sometimes funny, the artwork could be. It was certainly skewed either good or bad. To accent that skewedness, all of the pictures are framed in awkwardly shaped frames.
I found this next book when I was texted by a good friend to look into an auction of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s library. I did get to the website, but the bidding turned out to be much more expensive than I could keep up with. I did review every book that was for sale, and I found several of the same books elsewhere at a much cheaper price. This was one of those books that Ruth Bader Ginsburg read, an amazing book of political mud-slinging.
“The Ungentlemanly Art: A History of American Political Cartoons” by Stephen Hess and Milton Kaplan, published 1968.
This book is quite interesting to read, and see the visual pictures with their intent. Everyone has seen recent cartoons in the internet. The history and intent when newspapers were the source of information is special. I just visited Lincoln’s home in Springfield. They said he subscribed to five daily newspapers. That was to understand the various slants of news.
The first picture is of William Marcy Tweed, boss of Tammany Hall (Democratic corruption in New York). The illustrator was Thomas Nast, from Harper’s Weekly. He was offered $500,000 to quit and move to Europe, because Tweed said “my constituents can’t read. But damn it, they can see pictures.” Nast declined, and this picture got Tweed arrested.
This illustration was from a cartoonist-congressman, John M. Baer in 1918. One house criticizing the other.
This illustration was drawn and printed in London after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. It shows King George (Washington) and his cabinet killing the goose that laid the golden egg. No going back now.
This was illustration on saving the federal bank from Jackson. Uncle Sam (first time in striped pants and top hat) and General Harrison trapping Jackson and Van Buren.
This illustration is by Al Capp. He said his job was to attack lunacy…wherever it is. This was against the Vietnam peace marchers, calling them S.W.I.N.E. Capp said “I attacked the Right for thirty years, and lunacy changed from Right to Left so I changed my aim.”
Who knows where the lunacy will end with this next presidential election. Our vocal Hollywood folks aren’t at the caliber of Hedy Lamarr. And what of the quality of left and right political sides? At least we have political satire (which by definition rings of truth).
I heard Republicans and Democrats came together in Congress to allow medicinal marijuana for the purpose of relieving arthritis pain. So, there is joint support for joints for joint support.
We might as well smile, otherwise we may cry.
Librarytomes 