Hedy Lamarr: An Incredible Life
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- USD 12.99
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- USD 12.99
Descripción editorial
“Hollywood icon by day, unsung science genius by night.”
PUBLICATION IN 1 VOLUME - COMPLETED WORK
From her native Austria to the limelight of Hollywood, Hedy Lamarr was constantly bombarded with societal limitations and personal obstacles—including her own beauty. Only through courage, ambition, and intellect would she rise to become both a cultural icon and an unparalleled inventor whose creations would alter the course of history.
Creators William Roy and Sylvain Dorange use the graphic novel medium to recount the biography of a genius inventor who happened to be “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World”.
THE BOOK
Hollywood icon by day, unsung science genius by night, the biography of "the Most Beautiful Woman in the World."
From a childhood filled with curiosity and ambition despite the stereotypes imposed on her, to an abusive marriage that she ingeniously escaped from, to finding her way to stardom in the City of Angels in the face of rampant sexism and harassment, Hedy Lamarr would not only become a glamorous star of the Golden Age of Hollywood, alongside icons like Judy Garland and Clark Gable, but also an unparalleled inventor. She would fashion designs to revolutionize the planes built by Howard Hughes, and come up with a secret communication system that helped the Allies against the Nazis, a technology that would become the blueprint for what we know today as "Wi-Fi." A visionary that never feared going after her goals and defied convention at every turn, Hedy Lamarr was a true woman of wonder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actress Hedy Lamarr was known as "the most beautiful girl in the world," according to Roy and Dorange, but they reveal in this amiably meandering biography that there was much more to her than beauty. Lamarr was also an amateur inventor whose patent for frequency-shifting technology was later a cornerstone for Wi-Fi. Roy repeatedly hammers home Lamarr's struggles with sexism and the ways in which she was dismissed both for her gender and her beauty. He also emphasizes the double standard Lamarr dealt with regarding sexuality, as she was lauded for her glamour but condemned for her sexually charged earlier films and the number of sexual partners she had. Dorange's playful and colorful art evokes Hollywood glitz but also sensitively documents emotionally intimate moments, such as Lamarr's father encouraging her curiosity or her son informing her that she's being honored for her inventions. The book's climax occurs when the U.S. military turns down Lamarr's technology for torpedoes, urging her instead to help her adopted country by going on savings bond drives. That experience leads her away from discussing her inventions publicly, and she depends on her looks for the rest of her life despite aspiring to be a producer. The book is entertaining but focuses too much on the sexist forces Lamarr dealt with, never fully establishing her as a personality in her own right.
