Hedy's Folly - by Richard Rhodes (Paperback)

About the Book

What do Hedy Lamarr, avant-garde composer George Antheil, and a cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio: a revolutionary invention based on the switching of communications signals among different frequencies. Only a writer of Rhodes's caliber could do justice to this remarkable story.

Book Synopsis

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes delivers a remarkable story of science history: how a ravishing film star and an avant-garde composer invented spread-spectrum radio, the technology that made wireless phones, GPS systems, and many other devices possible.

Beginning at a Hollywood dinner table, Hedy's Folly tells a wild story of innovation that culminates in U.S. patent number 2,292,387 for a "secret communication system." Along the way Rhodes weaves together Hollywood's golden era, the history of Vienna, 1920s Paris, weapons design, music, a tutorial on patent law and a brief treatise on transmission technology. Narrated with the rigor and charisma we've come to expect of Rhodes, it is a remarkable narrative adventure about spread-spectrum radio's genesis and unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.

Review Quotes

Praise for Richard Rhodes's Hedy's Folly:

"Fascinating. . . . mixes thorough techno research with Hollywood glam. . . . Rhodes drops quite a bombshell."--USA Today

"A smart, strange and fascinating book."--Washington Post

"It's to Mr. Rhodes's credit that he gently makes this implausible story plausible."--New York Times

"Unveils the inquisitive brain behind the beauty.... [It] reads at turns like a romance novel, patent law primer, noir narrative and exercise in forensic psychology." --Los Angeles Times

"Rhodes's talent is making the scientifically complex accessible to the proverbial lay reader with clarity and without dumbing down the essentials of his topics."--The New York Times Book Review

"[A] charming and remarkably seamless book."--Salon

"Fascinating . . . shows Hedy Lamarr to have been a secret weapon in more ways than one."--Newsweek

"Richard Rhodes is the perfect historian to describe the abilities of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil as scientists and inventors."--Larry McMurtry, Harper's Magazine

"Richard Rhodes's book should be celebrated: he shows that even in the "information" age, there is a way to write about an American movie star that gives readers something new."--The New Republic

"Hedy Lamarr, glamorous Hollywood star. Hedy Lamarr, glamorous genius inventor.
That's the gist of Richard Rhodes' Hedy's Folly . . . although, of course, it's far more complicated than that. And far more fascinating."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Hedy's Folly is a reminder that neither time nor gravity can diminish the allure of a beautiful mind."--Bloomberg Business Week

"Rhodes, who has written about everything from atomic power to sex to John James Audubon, is apparently incapable of writing a bad book and most of what he does is absolutely superior."--The Daily Beast

"A riveting narrative, propelled by the ambition and idiosyncrasies of the inventors at its core."--Science News

"[A]n unusual and worthwhile read."--Washington Times

"[C]aptivating."--Boston Globe

"A focused glimpse into one actress' remarkable life, and the rare mix of war, patriotism and intellect that fomented her unlikely invention."--Dallas Morning News

"Rhodes...manages to capture the sheer improbability of these unlikely Edisons."--Entertainment Weekly

"Rhodes puts Lamarr's inventive spirit into coherent context.... [His] book gives us the whole Hedy -- a closet geek in peacock feathers -- and makes that mix believable."-- Nature

"Riveting. . . . There's enough technical and military history here to keep Rhodes's hard-core fan base satisfied. But the cultural history is just as interesting, and Rhodes tells both stories with a sure and supple hand."--The New York Observer

About the Author

RICHARD RHODES is most recently the author of The Twilight of the Bombs, the last volume in a quartet about nuclear history. The first, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, won the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a National Book Critics Circle Award.