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Hedy Lamarr: 'Invention' and inventor on Turner Classic Movies (photo: Hedy Lamarr publicity shot ca. early '40s) Two Hedy Lamarr movies released during her heyday in the early '40s — Victor Fleming's Tortilla Flat (1942), co-starring Spencer Tracy and John Garfield, and King Vidor's H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), co-starring Robert Young and Ruth Hussey — will be broadcast on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Pt, respectively. Best known as a glamorous Hollywood star (Ziegfeld Girl, White Cargo, Samson and Delilah), the Viennese-born Lamarr (née Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), who would have turned 100 on November 9, was also an inventor: she co-developed and patented with composer George Antheil the concept of frequency hopping, currently known as spread-spectrum communications (or "spread-spectrum broadcasting"), which ultimately led to the evolution of wireless technology. (More on the George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invention further below.) Somewhat ironically,...

William Powell, Myrna Loy Myrna Loy Q&A Pt.1: Typecasting, Favorite Movies Myrna Loy claims that before Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland took Warner Bros. to court, she fought her own studio — in Loy's case MGM. What was that about? And did Loy's stance impact her film career in any way? Loy went on strike against MGM in 1935, partly because she had been miscast in a film called Escapade [Loy was replaced by newcomer Luise Rainer], and partly because she wanted more vacation time and more money after hitting pay dirt as Nora Charles. She did win more money and more time off, but MGM continued to under-utilize her talents and to stick with safe bets in casting her. Myrna Loy the Activist. How was she an activist? How did she become involved in social/political activism? And how did that affect her film career? World War II was a turning point for her. She...