Creative Visions
To produce an American Masters' documentary for PBS on the remarkable life and scientific achievements of Hollywood actress, Hedy Lamarr
The grant funds a collaboration between PBS's American Masters series and Reframed Pictures, a new production company founded by actress Susan Sarandon, to produce a 90-minute documentary about Hedy Lamarr. The show, with Richard Rhodes as the primary technology advisor and Rhodes's Sloan-supported book Hedy's Folly as the primary text, will focus on Lamarr's pioneering invention of frequency hopping—the basis for cell phones, GPS, and Wi-Fi technology—as well as Lamarr's colorful life and her renown as a glamorous Hollywood actress whose fame and beauty obscured her landmark contributions as an inventor.