Episode 26: Beauty and Brains
The Hedy Lamarr Story
In 1937, a young Austrian-Jewish actor named Hedwig Kiesler left Europe to pursue her dream in America. Within months, she became one of the biggest stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood: Hedy Lamarr. Known as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Hedy’s unforgettable face and mysterious allure would take her far in the film industry – but that wasn’t her only success story. In fact, her greatest achievement was an invention that transformed the technology that powers our world.
LBI Collections include rich materials on German-speaking Jewish immigrants and refugees in the Hollywood film industry, from Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle to director Ernst Lubitsch to film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold to actors like Peter Lorre and Hedy Lamarr.
Learn more at lbi.org/hollywood
Exile is a production of the Leo Baeck Institute, New York and Antica Productions. It’s narrated by Joshua Malina.
This episode was written by Emily Morantz.
Our executive producers are Laura Regehr and Stuart Coxe.
Our producer is Emily Morantz.
Research and translation by Isabella Kempf.
Voice acting by Cyrus Lane and Athena Karkanis.
Sound design and audio mix by Gaëtan Harris, with additional mixing by Philip Wilson.
Theme music by Oliver Wickham.
This episode of Exile is made possible in part by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future.
