Communiqué
Hedy Lamarr | AMERICAN MASTERS | Friday, May 29 at 9 pm
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Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, May 29 on PBS
Features previously unheard audio tapes of Lamarr detailing her accomplishments as an inventor
Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr (Ziegfeld Girl, Samson and Delilah) was known as the world’s most beautiful woman – Snow White and Cat Woman were both based on her iconic look. However, her arresting appearance and glamorous life stood in the way of her being given the credit she deserved as an ingenious inventor whose pioneering work helped revolutionize modern communication.
An Austrian Jewish emigrant who invented a covert communication system to try to help defeat the Nazis, Lamarr was ignored and told to sell kisses for war bonds instead. It was only toward the very end of her life that tech pioneers discovered that it was her concept that is now used as the basis for secure WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth technologies.
Produced by Reframed Pictures in association with American Masters, the new documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story explores how Lamarr’s true legacy is that of a technological trailblazer. The film airs May 29, 2020, at 9 p.m. on WOUB.
Lamarr never publicly talked about her life as an inventor and so her family thought her story died when she did. However, in 2016, director Alexandra Dean and producer Adam Haggiag unearthed four never-before-heard audio tapes of Lamarr speaking on the record about her incredible life, finally giving her the chance to tell her own story. Family, friends and colleagues, including Mel Brooks and the late Robert Osborne, also share their personal memories of Lamarr, explaining the atmosphere that created the disconnect between her brilliance and her beauty. Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story world premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, earned multiple awards at film festivals and was named Best Documentary by the New York Film Critics Online.
American Masters – Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story is a production of Reframed Pictures in association with American Masters Pictures for WNET, Submarine Entertainment, and Artemis Rising. Alexandra Dean is director. Adam Haggiag, Katherine Drew and Alexandra Dean are producers. Susan Sarandon, Michael Kantor and Regina Scully are executive producers. Michael Kantor is American Masters series executive producer.
Major support for Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, additional support provided by Barrie Landry, Anne Ulnick, Richard and Lesley Stone Family Fund, Kelly Cutler and Sonja Perkins.
Major support for American Masters is provided by AARP. Additional support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Rosalind P. Walter, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Ellen and James S. Marcus, Vital Projects Fund, Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, The André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation, Michael & Helen Schaffer Foundation and public television viewers.