On the cover

A photo for American Masters: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
A photo for American Masters: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

The life and career of Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr is the focus of the new American Masters presentation "Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story." It airs at 8 p.m. Friday on AETN and will be available to stream the following day via pbs.org/americanmasters.

Her arresting appearance was the inspiration for the look of Disney's Snow White and Cat Woman of DC Comics' fame. But underneath her glamorous exterior was the mind of an inventor whose pioneering work helped revolutionize modern communication.

An Austrian Jewish emigrant who invented a covert communication system to help defeat the Nazis, Lamarr was ignored and told to sell kisses for war bonds instead. It was only toward the end of her life that tech pioneers discovered that it was her concept that is now used as the basis for secure WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth technologies.

In the special, viewers will be able to hear audio tapes that were found in 2016 in which she speaks on the record about her life. Family, friends and colleagues, including Mel Brooks and the late Robert Osborne who share their personal stories of Lamarr.

-- Rosemary Boggs

Style on 05/13/2018

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