Chapter 239 The French Doomsday (9)

"Is this okay?" Anna looked at the U-47 sailors who were holding their prepared beautiful dance partners, spinning wildly with the music, and laughing heartily. "Are they too indulgent?"

Wilhelm smiled and said, "That's what they deserve. They are the best soldiers in the world!" He looked around. Besides military and political officials, there were also many social celebrities present. He pointed to a distant woman with impeccable looks and figure. "Go and invite Miss Hedy over."

Some say that a woman's intelligence is inversely proportional to her beauty.

Beautiful women generally pay great attention to their appearance, wasting a lot of time every day studying their faces and clothing. Coupled with the assistance of men whenever they encounter minor difficulties, they tend to stop delving into problems or thinking after a while. This is why powerful female stars in Europe and America are generally not too beautiful, while eye-catching beauties are often less intellectually inclined!

Miss Hedy, however, was the perfect combination of beauty and talent.

"Smarter than me and more beautiful than me.", though not said by Miss Hedy herself, describes her life. People who like European and American female stars almost all know Hedy Lamarr. She has an almost perfect face, the dream lover of all men, and the envy of all women. Even Vivien Leigh was proud of her for looking somewhat similar.

Miss Hedy, originally named Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was born in 1914 in Vienna, Austria, into a typical "rich second-generation" family.

Her father was a Jewish banker, and her mother was an elegant and beautiful pianist.

Hedy undoubtedly embarked on her life path following the "rich upbringing for daughters" model: attending a women's school in Sweden, excelling in all subjects (learning three languages), and being talented in music and painting. She could dance ballet and play the piano at the age of seven.

As Hedy grew up, she blossomed into a beautiful and charming woman. When she entered a room, everyone quieted down, stunned by her beauty. Some even called her a "terrible child".

Beauty also influenced Hedy's choices. At the age of 16, she became interested in acting and decided to give up her communication major to study acting in Berlin under the famous theater director Max Reinhardt. At the age of 18, a Czechoslovakian film company invited her to play the female lead in "Ecstasy" and promised to promote the film internationally. The only condition was that she had to appear nude throughout the film.

In that era, even the later iconic figure Marilyn Monroe would have second thoughts about such a proposition, let alone other actresses. However, Hedy happened to be the one who made a sensational and bold decision; she agreed without hesitation.

Thus, Hedy Lamarr starred in the world's first full-frontal nude film, which was not suitable for minors.

Although she had a beautiful face and a charming figure, in terms of morality, societal influence, and the formation of social customs, she had many negative effects. It even alarmed the Pope; Pope Pius XII publicly condemned the film, accusing her of creating the "largest scandal in European history". As a result, the film was banned, and Hedy Lamarr became famous.

She became famous not because she acted well in films or received praise for her acting skills, instead, people gave her labels such as "fickle and promiscuous", becoming famous for these negative reasons.

However, Hedy Lamarr remained calm. She said, "If you use your imagination, you can see any actress's nude body."

In other words, if you think about dirty things in your mind, you can still have X-ray vision even if an actress is wearing clothes.

She acted in many films throughout her life, but almost none of them became classics. One reason was indeed her mediocre acting skills, similar to some later internet celebrities. Most people did not go to see her movies for her acting skills; everyone tacitly went to see her face.

Another reason might be her extraordinary beauty. Film companies wanted to position her as a vase, and as for acting skills, there were others to hone and study them. After all, it wasn't her. It was similar to Marilyn Monroe's desire to transition to more serious roles but being rejected by film companies. The companies considered box office and economic benefits, not the actor's personal growth.

Because of this, she missed many opportunities to improve her acting skills. On the other hand, beauty added to her performance. Once she became the center of attention, it lowered the ceiling for her performing career.

Austrian arms tycoon Mandl fell head over heels for Hedy because of "Ecstasy" and launched a crazy pursuit. At the age of 19, Hedy was captivated by his wealth and sweet words, choosing to enter into marriage. Hedy's parents strongly supported the union because they were already afraid that their daughter would become an undesirable woman due to starring in that film. In short, Hedy and Mandl got married after knowing each other for three months.

Mandl was a possessive person. To prevent his wife from being admired by others, he spared no expense, desperately collecting copies of "Ecstasy". Moreover, he prohibited his wife from entering the film industry again and from going out casually, causing great distress to Hedy.

If all this could be tolerated, there was one thing that Hedy could not tolerate – Mandl's association with the Nazis.

Although Mandl, like Hedy, was an Austrian Jew, he supported the Nazis and had a close relationship with Mussolini. Hedy staunchly opposed the Nazis, creating an irreconcilable conflict.

However, Mandl insisted on taking Hedy to gatherings with high-ranking Nazis, not only because Hedy could satisfy Mandl's vanity but also because her beauty could bring Mandl more arms orders. Mandl had been discussing radio-controlled torpedoes and wireless communication interference techniques with the Nazis. Although wireless communication technology was considered military secrets at that time, when Mandl discussed related technology with Nazi weapons experts, Hedy was allowed to be present, even permitted to take notes.

As a result, intelligent as she was, Hedy acquired considerable knowledge of military technology and wireless signal-controlled weapons.

In 1937, four years after their marriage, Hedy could no longer bear it. During a banquet with her husband, she drugged her personal maid in the washroom, jumped out of the window, and hastily boarded a train bound for Paris.

In the original timeline, Hedy traveled from Paris to London and then to Hollywood, USA. However, this time, she arrived in Berlin, Germany, because there was no Nazi regime in this spacetime, and thanks to Wilhelm's influence, the German film industry had already stabilized and suppressed the emerging Hollywood.

With the dream of art still in her heart, Hedy naturally came to Berlin.

Introduced by a friend, she met the owner of a film company, and this owner happened to be Louis, Wilhelm's bosom buddy. When Louis saw Hedy Lamarr's unparalleled beauty, he couldn't help but be amazed and hurriedly went to find Wilhelm.

Wilhelm was also initially stunned but was surprised to find out Hedy Lamarr's name and background. Wasn't this the person who invented "spread spectrum communication technology"? He immediately decided to keep her, and, by the way, talked to her about frequency hopping technology.

In World War II, radio was widely used by the warring countries, entering into various military fields such as communication, navigation, guidance, radar, and more.

However, radio signals were easily interfered with.

In 1941, German U-boats almost never sank because they could easily evade "outdated British torpedoes". These torpedoes were guided by a specific frequency radio signal, allowing enemy ships to intercept the signal and stop the torpedoes. Hedy did the opposite, solving the problem by using a series of rapidly changing frequency signals. The listening enemy ship could only intercept a random radio signal frequency but was powerless against the entire signal series. This simple but creative "hacking" method formed the basis of Hedy's "frequency hopping" secret communication system. She and her friend George Antheil developed this design. They came up with a method that allowed the transmitter on the ship and the receiver on the torpedo to synchronize and change frequencies.

Their solution was to use a motor-driven self-playing piano punch roll, installed separately on the ship and the torpedo, so that both ends could synchronously switch between a staggering 88 different frequencies. An electrical engineer also provided some assistance, and later, the two submitted their system in 1941 and obtained a patent a year later (Patent No. 2292387).

Then they provided this system to the US Navy. Unfortunately, the Navy thought the piano punch roll method was not secure enough and did not adopt this design. Moreover, due to the potential military use of this technology, the patent was marked "top secret" and was shelved for the remainder of the war.

Wilhelm assured her that as long as she completed the research on frequency hopping technology, he would personally write a script and make a movie for her. Considering her figure and appearance, he thought it would be a waste not to make a film about Cleopatra.