Talk:Hedy Lamarr

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Contents 1 name 2 Gay Icon Project 3 Born in 1914? 4 Add a reference to HalfLife 2? 5 Really! 6 Book by Hedy 7 Patent 'recently' little-known

[edit] name

Changed "Hedy Keisler Markey" to "Hedy Kiesler Markey". I did a google search and the latter wins by a score of 125-31. I suppose it's possible she changed the spelling of her maiden name when she married Markey, but it seems unlikely. Does anyone know something about the issue that I don't? Bill 10:59 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

In any case her name was "Kiesler" -- Otto Normalverbraucher 17:30, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gay Icon Project

In my effort to merge the now-deleted list from the article Gay icon to the Gay icons category, I have added this page to the category. I engaged in this effort as a "human script", adding everyone from the list to the category, bypassing the fact-checking stage. That is what I am relying on you to do. Please check the article Gay icon and make a judgment as to whether this person or group fits the category. By distributing this task from the regular editors of one article to the regular editors of several articles, I believe that the task of fact-checking this information can be expedited. Thank you very much. Philwelch 21:36, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Born in 1914?

Sources usually do support 1913 as her year of birth, but in the 2004 documentary "Calling Hedy Lamarr" her son says she was born in 1914. Is he wrong? I've come across cases of children getting their parents dates of birth incorrect before. Crisso 15:51, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Since we are not sure, and since 1914 would have made her disturbingly young to have appeared in her first movie in 1930, let's leave it at 1913 until definitive proof appears either way. Rms125a@hotmail.com

[edit] Add a reference to HalfLife 2?

In the popular video game Half-Life_2, a NPC character Dr. Kleiner has a pet Headcrab called "Hedy Lamarr". Pranab Salian 18:25, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Really!

I find above reference to be completely silly. If one should add a little quality to an entry of this kind, I would have preferred referencing the Mel Brooks film, "Blazing Saddles", in which the chief villain's name is Hedley Lamarr, and (to his great annoyance) the crowd of semi-villains constantly calls him Hedy Lamarr. Henning Blem Nielsen, 1 may 2006.

[edit] Book by Hedy

"Ecstacy and Me" was a book written by Hedy, shouldn't we have something here about it? --Yancyfry jr 17:58, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Patent 'recently' little-known

The patent was little-known until recently because Lamarr applied for it under her then-married name of Hedy Kiesler Markey.

What does "recently" mean? The '80s? The '90s? The 21st century? Familiar frame references are sort of useless in an updating encyclopedia. --64.24.181.62 04:37, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

completely agreed. So I researched and changed some stuff while providing references. I believe there was a misunderstanding. While she didn't apply for it as 'Hedy Lamarr', I believe it was known she was responsible. So I changed the name explanation (while preserving the fact itself). However, it wasn't *widely* known, apparently because it wasn't really used for 20 years and the original patent had more or less faded from public consciousness. So I substituted that as rationale. I believe what the original author was referring to as 'recently' was the 1997 EFF award, where a claim for 'the general public's "nearly absolute ignorance about it"' is made. So I'd define 'recently' as '1997'. Whether the EFF's claim is true or whether the EFF award popularized it, I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's when it started getting sprayed all over the net and many references to Lamarr now refer to this patent, as well. It's certainly not unknown now. And that's what I suspect the original author had in mind. Anyway - more research might be beneficial, cleaning up the somewhat patchy text might be, and I may have done the 'references' wrong, stylistically, but it's something. 68.221.0.68 19:50, 22 November 2006 (UTC)