Hedy Lamarr: life of the week

Haddy Lamar starred in dozens of movies, but her life may have been more dramatic than any of them. She was the teenage actor who portrayed the first character to have an on screen orgasm. The Austrian Jew whose husband sold arms to the fascists. The refugee from Nazism, who became a Hollywood megastar. and the pioneering inventor whose work anticipated Wi Fi and Bluetooth. Sharing Hedy's remarkable life with us in this episode of the History Extra podcast is Professor Ruth Barton, fellow emeritus in film studies at Trinity College Dublin, and author of a twenty ten biography of the actor. She was speaking to Rob At our

In nineteen thirty three, the teenage Hedi Lamar, as she would go on to be called, starred in a film called Ecstasy, for which she gained international fame and notoriety. Could you please explain to us why this was such a significant moment in her life story? So As you say, she was a teenager at this stage. She'd had virtually no film career. She'd been in a couple of minor films in Vienna where she was born. And she'd also been on stage. But this was the big one, and and I think one of the things to remember about this film was it's a European art film. So The bits that she's remembered for are the nude bits and the orgasm. So it it's a very basic story. She's a young woman, she's married unhappily. she falls in love with a handsome stranger. They actually have no names, they're called Adam and Eve. So the first sh shocking sequence is she runs naked into a lake.

She drops her clothes, runs naked into the lake, and swims nude. And then the second equally shocking, if not more shocking sequence is they're in bed, they're making love and she has an orgasm, which, controversially or not was faked or not, you know, who knows. But these two sequences are the sequences that the film is most remembered for, not for its very beautiful arthouse photography, or the fact that it was made by a significant European director, but but the fact that Hedy Lemarish, as you say, she was going to become Hedi Kiesler. Performs these two sequences. And that notoriety it really accompanied her for the rest of her life. And we'll come to this later. She you know, she goes to Hollywood, she has a career and so on. But she's always the woman who ran naked in films. And it's a funny thing because I'm writing a book at the moment about Maureen O Sullivan who had a a nude sequence as Jane in the Tarzan movies.

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