PBS: 'The Brilliant Mind of Hollywood Legend Hedy Lamarr' Actress, Inventor
Last edited Sun Jun 10, 2018, 11:36 AM - Edit history (1)
Austrian-born, American actress & inventor Hedy Lamarr was the most ravishingly beautiful actress of the 1930s & 40s. She was also an inventor & technology trailblazer whose early concepts of radio frequency hopping were the basis of modern cellphone, Wi-Fi & Bluetooth technology. The PBS American Masters new Hedy Lamar film, *'BOMBSHELL' aired May 18 & can also be viewed at PBS online & on Netflix. *THE FASCINATING STORY OF A REMARKABLE WOMAN!* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/bombshell-hedy-lamarr-story-interview-director-alexandra-dean/10148/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highly recommend.....
Last edited Sun Jun 10, 2018, 05:49 PM - Edit history (3)
H. wood attitudes, her experiences in Nazi Europe before fleeing to the US, and the Viennese star's internal struggles, from the perspective of "Bombshell" film producer Alexandra Dean are explored in Jewish Weekly's article.
JEWISH WEEKLY, "Real Bombshell, Hedy Lamar's Story," Feb. 27, 2018
https://www.jweekly.com/2018/02/27/identity-real-bombshell-hedy-lamarrs-story/
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*OTHER FILM REVIEWS:
VARIETY: 'Bombshell,' Nov. 2017
https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/bombshell-the-hedy-lamarr-story-review-1202621380/
VICE, 'Bombshell,' Review, "The Sad, All Too Timely Story of Mistreated Hollywood Bombshell Hedy Lamarr," Nov. 2017
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb3kk4/the-sad-all-too-timely-story-of-mistreated-hollywood-bombshell-hedy-lamarr
Good for PBS which is how I saw it last month. I haven't seen it listed again on PBS TV, but the *FILM can also be viewed online at pbs.org, and on NETFLIX.
based on the new book, of black women mathematicians & scientists working for NASA in the 1960s that was overlooked for years. Not that long ago most women were excluded from science & traditionally male fields as we know. The US Langley aeronautics program began employing white women mathematicians, "human computers" c. 1935 on the eve of World War II, as noted in this SI article. ~ Sexism, racism, bigotry, discrimination- what enormous error & waste.
> TRAILER, 'HIDDEN FIGURES" movie, 2016.
Smithsonian, *The True Story of “Hidden Figures,” the Forgotten Women Who Helped Win the Space Race,* 9/8/16.
A new book and movie document the accomplishments of NASA’s black “human computers” whose work was at the heart of the country’s greatest battles.
As America stood on the brink of a Second World War, the push for aeronautical advancement grew ever greater, spurring an insatiable demand for mathematicians. Women were the solution. Ushered into the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1935 to shoulder the burden of number crunching, they acted as human computers, freeing the engineers of hand calculations in the decades before the digital age. Sharp and successful, the female population at Langley skyrocketed.
Many of these “computers” are finally getting their due, but conspicuously missing from this story of female achievement are the efforts contributed by courageous, African-American women. Called the West Computers, after the area to which they were relegated, they helped blaze a trail for mathematicians and engineers of all races and genders to follow.
“These women were both ordinary and they were extraordinary,” says Margot Lee Shetterly. Her new book Hidden Figures shines light on the inner details of these women’s lives and accomplishments. The book’s film adaptation, starring Octavia Spencer and Taraji P. Henson, is now open in theaters.
“We’ve had astronauts, we’ve had engineers—John Glenn, Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft,” she says. “Those guys have all told their stories." Now it's the women's turn..Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/forgotten-black-women-mathematicians-who-helped-win-wars-and-send-astronauts-space-180960393/#P54HzoxvjRmlHX84.99
- Melba Roy led the group of human computers who tracked the Echo satellites in the 1960s. (NASA)
Pancho Barnes while I worked at NASA (the Aerodynamics part of the agency).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancho_Barnes
We named all of our Supercomputers after either famous aviators or mathematicians like Amelia Earhart and Claude-Louis Navier.
I nominated Pancho... and got a one of our supercomputers named after her.
She was instrumental in training fighter pilots for WWII and test pilots in the post war era. Those included "right stuff" pilots like Chuck Yeager and Buzz Aldrin.
Of course, anyone reading this who was at NASA in that time frame now knows exactly who lapfog is.
I should know of her & will look into the book and films. Good on you for the tribute & your work with NASA lapfog!
If and when I reach my cousin I'll ask her more about the space program, and Pancho Barnes. This post made me also remember another scientist relative who worked at Wallops Island, Md.
but they never covered it. But it turned out to be one little victory for her late in life while so many other aspects of her talent and genius got hosed.
