Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr [Hardcover]

about the life of Hedy Lamarr. . .For all her fans, and there are still many of us. . .(just look up her name on the internet), this is the book we have been waiting for. When we were kids, and teenagers, and even grown men (and envious women!), how we would patiently wait for her to appear. Who could ever forget her dramatic entrance in WHITE CARGO, purring, "I am Tondelayo!" . . .and her emphatic declaration in SAMSON AND DELILAH, "No man leaves Delilah. . ." as though anyone would want to!!!! or her dramatic entrance in ZIEGFIELD GIRL. No one doubted for a moment who Tony Martin was crooning to when he sang, "You Stepped out of a Dream." No one really cared whether she could act or not. . .I think she could! and no one really cared what the plot of the movie was. . .if Hedy was starring, we went in droves... and we were not disappointed.

Stephen Michael Shearer relates all the familiar details of Miss Lamarr's life, but also reveals tidbits of a more personal nature after she left Hollywood and retired, first to New York and then to Florida. One cannot help but feel sad to witness her later years. . . as she tumbled from the heights of stardom to being so unknown that even her neighbors did not know her real identity. Yes,indeed, she was surely right, "Once one has tasted stardom, everything else is poverty!" Fortunately, she had friends who loved her anyway for the real person she was, despite her faults and failings. . .

If you are a Hedy Fan, read this book and you will not be disappointed, and if you are not, you will become one! You will immmediately run out, find all her movies available on DVD, view them once again, and be forever convinced that indeed, she really was "the fairest of them all," during the Golden Years of Hollywood of course. . .but indeed, she is still able to turn men's heads today, and make women wonder. . .
view all her movies once again

A fascinating book, extremely well written in detailed relative to historical events of 30's and 40's when Hedy was growing up. Hedy Lamar, in addition to her acting, she never got the recognition that she deserved as far as what she did scientifically for SPREAD SPECTRUM technology which now communication technology is based on. I just could not put this book down. Great job.

.....Whose the fairest of them all? In Disney's Classic it was Snow White. If the question had been asked in Hollywood in the Forties, it would have been Hedy Lamarr.

.....When Snow White became the fairest in the land her life became one of turmoil and strife but in the end she was rescued by Prince Charming and lived happily ever after. Unfortuneately there was no Prince Charming to rescue Hedy as she careened recklessly through six husbands after very brief courtships. She seemed to take more care in selecting her wardrobe than she did in choosing a mate. Consequently her marriages were brief affairs, the longest being to oil millionare Howard Lee, 1953 - 1960, who finally got tired of Hedy using him as an ATM machine and was the only one of her husbands to initiate the divorce. He then married Gene Tierney who inherited his estate and lived out the remainder of her life as a socialite in Houston. That was the second time Hedy crossed paths with Tierney, the first being when she turned down Otto Preminger's offer to play Laura in the movie that became a film noir classic. Tierney took the role and it became her signature movie. It was poor judgement like this, combined with gross mismangement by MGM and Louie Mayer that cost Hedy several key roles, (For Whom the Bell Tolls, Casablanca, Gaslight, Saratoga Trunk etc.) all taken by Ingrid Bergman and any one of which would have establishd Lamarr as a serious actress. It wasn't until she got the part in Sampson and Delilah at the age of 36 that she was given the type of role that she was born for but at that stage in her career it was too late.

.....How did this beautiful woman who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and was handed the world on a silver platter end up at one time living on Social Security disability checks and a small SAG pension? This book chronicles the journey.

.....One wonders what might have become of Hedy if she had signed with Paramount early in her career instead of opting to tie her self to MGM and Louie Mayer? Mayer had no idea what to do with Hedy. Mayer prided himself on turning out wholesome family movies, his favorites were the Andy Hardy series and MGM's forte was lavish musicals. Hedy didn't sing or dance and definetly was not family movie material.

.....Between 1938 and 1949 Hedy made three movies that were significant in her career. None of them were made by MGM. She made Algiers in 1938 for United Artists and became an International Star overnight, Experiment Perilous in 1944 for RKO in which the critics praised her acting ability and Sampson and Delilah in 1949 for Paramount. In between these highlights were eight years of very forgetable movies turned out by MGM. One of these clunkers was "White Cargo" and almost ended Hedy's career. In this movie she uttered the immortal line, " I am Tondelayo, I stay". This phrase became an industry joke for bad acting and the actress became Hedy Lamarr. When the Hedy/Anthiel patent for a torpedo guideance system made the news, Mayer instructed his PR people to squelch it, He was selling a glamor girl and he didn't want Hedy's fans to see her as an Egg Head. But it is not fair to blame all Hedy's woes on Mayer, Hedy was always headstrong and not easy to work with. In many way she was her own worst enemy, a modern day Sybll with a many faceted personality. She was promiscuous and very generous with her favors but seemed to go out of her way to antagonize friends. She began to equate money with security but spent it as if it was burning a hole in her purse. She knew from an early age her power over men and how to manipulate her beauty. It almost destroyed her.

.....To quote from the book her former costar John Fraser said it best, "She had been fawned upon, indulged and exploited ever since she had reached the age of puberty. Her extrodinary intelligence did not encompass wisdom. How could she have learnt about the values that matter, about kindness and acceptance and laughter, in the Dream Factory that is Hollywood? She had been thrust into the limelight at a pitilessy early age, been devoured by rapacious lovers and producers who saw her ravishing beauty as a ticket to success and who looked elsewhere when she began to grow older. Beauty and money in moderation are undoubtedly a blessing. In excess, they surley are a curse" She was a real life Norma Desmond but without the money.

.....To be fair to Hedy, she never got into drugs or alchohol or used the casting couch to get parts. She doted on her children and they loved and stood by her to the end. I am glad that she got recognition for her invention of spread spectrum before she died. Her invention was as significant as was Edison's light bulb in its impact on the World.

.....I finished the book with some sadness. She had so much potential. So much that could have been that never was. I hope she found peace in her beloved Vienna Woods.

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