A True Story of Hollywood Glamour and Scientific Genius

Written and Performed by Heather Massie

Benefitting Intrepid Museum’s GOALS for Girls

This Award-Winning Solo Play has toured the country with resounding critical acclaim, and returns to PCTF where it began!
“Heather Massie is no less than captivating” – Jed Ryan, The Huffington Post
Hedy Lamarr, glamorous siren of the silver screen, was more than the most beautiful woman in the world. She invented Frequency Hopping and Spread Spectrum Technology that make the world of wireless communication tick. From Austria to Hollywood, WWII, torpedoes, ecstasy and intrigue, to the very cell phone in your pocket, she was there!

Austrian-born screen star Hedy Lamarr (originally Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) was often touted as the world’s most beautiful woman. In the monodrama Hedy! The Life & Inventions of Hedy Lamarr (presented as part of the Planet Connections Theatre Festival), Lamarr (Heather Massie) claims that beauty has been both a blessing and a curse. That, of course, is what extremely prepossessing people tend to say—while the rest of us shake our heads and mutter, “Yes, a curse. What a pity you’re not plainer.” As depicted by Massie (who also wrote the show’s script), Lamarr at times takes great delight in her own physical splendor. She uses it—enhanced by a winsome manner—to get what she wants, be it favorable terms for a contract at MGM or the sale of war bonds during World War II. It does say something about the quest for womanly perfection, though, to consider that even the most beautiful woman of all had to hear men carp about the smallness of her breasts. Anyone creating a one-person show about a deceased figure is faced with choosing from a limited range of options for telling the story. Some writers select a key time in the person’s life (usually during his or her twilight years), for t …Read more