So Howard Hughes is like, I'm trying to design
ah-the fastest jet wing.
And she is like, uh, yeah, okay, well you know what,
[mumbling] and I do and gonna go to the library
and I'm gonna checkout the fastest birds in a book
and the fastest fish in a book and I'm gonna combine them
like a weird [bleep] biological scientist.
So Hedy Lamarr essentially designs
the first modern airplane.
And he's like, wow, this is what I need from you, baby!
How cool you are as a girlfriend.
And she's like, kee-yeah, wow,
I guess I have inadvertently, through my love for you,
contributed to the development
of the world's most premier jet wing.
[laughing quietly]
You guys, the world is crazy!
She got a book of the fastest fish,
and she got a book of the fastest birds,
and she combined them.
[both laughing]
Okay...
so World War II is happening,
and Hedy and her friend, avant-garde composer
George Antheil, create this thing
that was based on a player piano.
And so the two of them together create this system
that was known as frequency hopping,
which means that when the Americans try to locate
a German U-boat, and the German U-boats
jam the radio signal
that the Americans could just hop on over
to a different frequency and hop, hop, hop, hop, hop
until we hone the [bleep] in on German U-boats
and then annihilate them.
Okay, so... okay, so--okay, so
they bring this to the Navy, and they're like,
we donate our patent of this mechanical invention
to thee, and the Navy is like,
wow, that was super formal of you and thank you so much,
but, also, it's just, like, too big to use.
We'll, like, tuck it away in like a nook,
and, like, thank you again. It's like super nice of you.
It's the thought that counts. So Hedy is like, all right.
No problem.
I worked really hard on this technological advancement
that succeeded, but they didn't accept it.
So that's okay.
But guess what, fast forward to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Have you heard of it?
The Americans--us--are having the same type of problem
with jammed radio signals, and they're like,
wait a second. [shudders] What?
And they're like-- [high-pitched crying]
And they were like-- [puffing rapidly]
Sh-sh-sh-sh! Sh-sh-sh.
'Cause it's so hard to blow off dust.
And they're like, somebody brought us
a patented instrument to solve this,
but now we can updrate it--mm, update it.
We'll make it electronical
and we're gonna [bleep] rescue our radio signals.
Thank you, Hedy.
What's truly insane is that Hedy's invention
is the basis for all wireless communication today:
GPS, our phones that we're spending
upwards of eight hours a day on.
- Bluetooth. I only talk to my mother on Bluetooth.
- Hedy [bleep] Lamarr is responsible for that.
History is [deep voice] crazy!