Cool News
Father Geek says good-bye to Tondelayo and HEDY LAMARR
Well Geeks, one of the last of the great classic 30’s and 40’s female leads has died. Father
Geek first noticed the stunning exotic beauty HEDY LAMARR in the 1959 re-release of Paramount’s highly
successful epic SAMSON AND DELILAH. Just 14 years old at the time I was unaware
that I was watching a motion picture made when I was only three or four. The concept of re-issue
films was not one I was all that familar with at the time. Hedy’s “Delilah” was the most earthy and
sensual woman I had encountered in a movie theater at that age and I fell head over heals for her. She simply oozed glamor.
A few weeks later I noticed that the Kelly Drive-In was showing THE FEMALE
ANIMAL, starring Hedy Lamarr. So, that Saturday night I hopped on my trusty Cushman
Eagle and took off to renew my latest screen love affair under the summer stars. Bummer, it wasn’t the same
woman at all, she was so much older, harder, and the film was... well a sad waste of Hedy Lamarr.
Her name slipped from my mind, until...
It was around 1962 and an older more aware Father Geek was bopping around West
Houston street in downtown San Antonio. This was a area populated with bars, tatoo
parlors, hock shops, sleazy magazine stands, and sleazier still little shotgun theaters. One
of these, The Prince, had offered me and my gang our first glimpses of Russ Meyer films a
few months before. This was still the era of extensive theater front promotional displays using many
different size movie posters as well as 11x14 lobby cards and 8x10 stills. The Prince may
have been low class, but they put up alot of paper about the flick inside. We knew this, so
it was always on our list of places to go "window shopping". This day a banner above the entrance proclaimed,
“THE MOST WHISPERED ABOUT PICTURE IN THE WORLD! BANNED FOR 25
YEARS! THE STARK NAKED TRUTH OF A WOMAN’S DESIRE FOR LOVE!”. The
frames around the theater's outer lobby proved that the banner was no mere hype. They
included shots of a beautiful young nude girl swimming on her back, and nude running
thru the forest, and nude peering playfully around a tree, and these were TOTALLY NUDE shots,
not just booby shots. Then I noticed the name on one of the 1-sheet posters... HEDY LAMARR... my
god, here she was, at what must have been my age, a teenager. We immediately went around the corner to the
alley exit to sneak in. (You had to be 21 to see movies at The Prince) My love for Hedy Lamarr had been reborn. This time it would not
fade.
Later, in my college years in the mid to late 60's at The University of Texas I would become familiar with her
work at MGM. I would view ALGIERS, BOOMTOWN, ZIEGFELD GIRL,
HEAVENLY BODY, and DISHONORED LADY among others at the 5 different theaters on campus and Hedy Lamarr was
right up there among my favorite femme fatales; Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, Susan Hayward, Jean
Harlow, and Joan Crawford. In film school I learned more about this elegant and cool
adventuress. I found out she was part of the same acting school/studio as Marlene Dietrich (another of Father Geek's crushes)
in Germany, that her 1st film was done there in 1930, MONEY ON THE STREET. I
found out she filmed ECSTASY at the age of 18, that its swimming scene was censored in
Germany back in 32, That US Customs Officials seized the prints when it came to
America in 1935 and burned them, that in 1936 to try and appease the Hayes Office the film
inserted the German version of the bathing scene to no avail, that they then cut the shots
of horses mating to no avail, that they then re-edited the film to give Hedy a divorce so
she would not be having an adulterous affair to no avail, and that they tacked on shots of
Lamarr with a baby (from another film) to imply a happy married life, but in the end there
was no Production Code Office Seal of Approval for ECSTASY and no wide spread US
release until the 1960’s.
But Hedy Lamarr was here to stay, churning out hit after hit for the biggest Hollywood studios. Father Geek
will never forget her “Theodora” from COMRADE X, or her fasinating and exotic turn as
“Sweets Ramirez” in TORTILLA FLAT and who could ever forget Hedy Lamarr after
hearing her utter the sultry line, “I am... Tondelayo.” in the wonderful WHITE CARGO. You know, Ms. Lamarr would have been a true iconic superstar in everyones minds if not for the fact she heeded an agent's BAD advice. She was offered two roles before anybody else was which she turned down. They were the leads in GASLIGHT and CASABLANCA. Life can be very strange at times... even cruel.
Still years later when Father Geek ran a collectibles store called N. E. Mercantile Co. on
Manor Rd. in East Austin he would score a huge load of vintage movie posters that had been stored at the
old Longhorn Drive-in on the far northern most edge of town (Burnet Rd and 183). There
would be many beautiful shots of HEDY LAMARR in the 7000 lobby cards included in
the find, closeups from White Cargo, Dishonored Lady, Samson and Delilah among them.
BUUUUUT, the ones... the pieces that thrilled Father Geek the most were the 5 sets of
11”X14” glossy photos from that 60’s re-issue of ECSTASY that I had snuck into back
when I was 17 1/2. To add to the thrill of holding these images of 18 year old Hedy in my
hands, one of the sets of B & W glossies had been painsakingly hand re-touched in
beautiful color oils. Hedy’s Nazi munitions manufacturing German industrialist husband of
the 30’s may have tried to buy up all the prints of Ecstasy in the late 30’s but thank god he
failed. By the way I understand that those great tight close-ups of young Hedy in the throes
of deep sexual passion were achieved by the Director poking her derriere several times
with a sewing needle borrowed from the costume department.
So long HEDY, we love you and we’ll miss you greatly.
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Anyway, now that I've got the first thing out of my system, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy Father Geek's presence on this web site. There are a million movie sites out there, but very few can present the perspective of an older movie fan who can remember seeing movies like he can and share his memories with us. I'll be frank - I'm 25 and have never seen a Hedy Lamar movie - as I'm sure is the case with many of you guys - and that's why it's so cool to read Father Geek's remembrances of the old school, even though it's sad when one of them passes away.
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And miles sexier than any leading woman working today. Whenever I see her, my eyes bug out, I beat myself about the head with my own feet, and scream, "Yowsa! What a woman!!!"
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Passing of Casablanca might not have been the smartest thing to do but she definitely wasn't dumb. Not only was she gorgeous, she she was also an inventor. She is one of the two people who hold the patent for the technology that would eventually become spread specturm radio. (A trasmission scheme that makes jamming and interception of messages more difficult) Not only is it used for military communication, many new cellphones and other wireless devices use this today. Rest in peace.
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Kudos, Father Geek, on an excellent tribute. Well done!
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Little Blazing Saddles humor to lighten a somber mood.
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I've been watching a lot of old movies lately, and have since come to the conclusion that women as beautiful as Hedy Lamarr, Betty Grable, and Myrna Loy simply don't exist anymore... at least, not on-screen. Damn it all. Yeah, I know; I need to get outside more often.
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There's a lot of people who come to this site who really haven't taken the time to look back and the movies and actors that have been embedded as a part of our history and our culture for all time. Older, as well as younger, fans here at AICN seem to ignore the lucious and grand history of film. It is fascninating to see people like this woman who have inspired our current favorite actors, directors and movies. I encourage everyone on this site to take a look at some older films and expose themselves to these forever "fresh" faces.
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I've never seen Father Geek so excited on a pair of cans....calm down dude.
Seriously, great bit about her, and I agree with other's here, the actresses of today really can't stand up to the ones of the golden era. The older ones were beautiful, busty, and could act. In addition they had that grace, or mojo going on. The ones of today are too busy talking about spotted owls or some bullshit alar scare.
Like anybody can take that seriously.
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Father Geek here. I just received this information by E-mail and thought I'd share it with all of you... "I had a bit of anecdotal knowledge (known in the common vulgar as
"trivia") about Hedy Lamar to share.
You've heard of the OSS, right? It was the U.S. spy agency during World
War II, later it became the CIA. During the war the OSS boys came up with
a *lot* of cool James Bond-style weapons and gimmicks for use by Allied
spies and other agents. One of them was a very small, almost entirely
steel-manufactured pistol that they called the "Hedy", after Hedy Lamarr.
This particular gun got its name, it is said, because the noise it made
sounded like a young man's lust going off :-)
Thought y'all might like to hear about that, in light of this sad bit of
news. Miss Hedy Lamarr, part of the World War II generation, no doubt
entertaining so many brave G.I.s this evening in the biggest USO event of
all eternity. May she always be remembered for who she was and the times
that she graced."
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!
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"Miss Hedy Lamarr, part of the World War II generation, no doubt entertaining so many brave G.I.s this evening in the biggest USO event of all eternity. May she always be remembered for who she was and the times that she graced." Wow. I couldn't think of a better tribute to Miss Lamarr (though that stuff about the gun comes pretty close). Kudos to the author - and God bless you, Hedy.
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Not many people know that Hedy Lamarr had a talent for science and engineering as well. She helped her German weapons-manufacturer husband on several occasions and during WWII invented the technology that would later become "frequency hopping." Hell of a woman. There's a great comic book out there called DIGNIFYING SCIENCE (www.gt-labs.com) about women scientists, and it has a big section on Lamarr's life. Now why can't I meet a girl like that?
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Y'know,such great people leaving this great planet reminds me of how thankful I am to be part of this AICN family.Just to be posting with the likes of fellow family members like SSZero,Alexandra,All Thumbs,El Duderino,Bob the Goon,eddie munster,Mole,Darth,and of course,lovable Todd...it just brings a tear to my eye.I love you guys.I mean that.I'm so happy to be a part of all this...-sob-...you guys are the greatest.
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has really tickled my interest so ol' Father Geek began doing some research and this is what I've found... "The strangest tale is the true story of the German film star Hedy
Lamarr, who fled from the clutches of her husband, an arms
manufacturer in league with Hitler and Mussolini. Lamarr arrived in
Hollywood, where she ended up patenting a device that could control
torpedoes without enemy signals jamming the system. The device was
based on the idea that secret messages can be coded as a series of
random musical notes. Although the device could not be built with the
technology of the 1940s, her idea of "frequency hopping" is widely
used today to enable secure communication between mobile phones.
The story has been included because Lamarr -
..... I betchya Sharon Stone couldn't even jumpstart a car. Thanks for the info, Father Geek!
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