What makes someone a “true legend”? Untold Legends gives legendary status to those who deserve it – and tells their story.
NEW season: You may well have heard of the Austrian-born US actress Hedy Lamarr - a Jewish refugee who escaped the Nazis to become a Hollywood star. However, for most of her life, she didn’t receive proper recognition for her role as an inventor. She was known for starring in dozens of films, including Algiers, Samson and Delilah, Ecstasy, Boom Town and My Favourite Spy. But few people knew Hedy was also a gifted inventor. One of the technologies she co-invented laid a key foundation for future communication systems, including GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. Presented by inventor and model Andini, and featuring special guest, Hollywood actor, AnnaSophia Robb, Untold Legends: Hedy Lamarr, explores the life of a woman whose intellect was often overshadowed by her image.
Previously, from Untold Legends: Ora Washington was the champion the world ignored. You might know this tennis and basketball star, were it not for the colour of her skin. Former US basketball star and vice president of Atlanta Dream, Renee Montgomery, investigates Ora’s story. Ora dominated black women’s tennis, which was segregated in the 1920s and 1930s.
Untold Legends is from the BBC World Service, Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.
What makes someone a “true legend”? Untold Legends gives legendary status to those who deserve it – and tells their story.
NEW season: You may well have heard of the Austrian-born US actress Hedy Lamarr - a Jewish refugee who escaped the Nazis to become a Hollywood star. However, for most of her life, she didn’t receive proper recognition for her role as an inventor. She was known for starring in dozens of films, including Algiers, Samson and Delilah, Ecstasy, Boom Town and My Favourite Spy. But few people knew Hedy was also a gifted inventor. One of the technologies she co-invented laid a key foundation for future communication systems, including GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. Presented by inventor and model Andini, and featuring special guest, Hollywood actor, AnnaSophia Robb, Untold Legends: Hedy Lamarr, explores the life of a woman whose intellect was often overshadowed by her image.
Previously, from Untold Legends: Ora Washington was the champion the world ignored. You might know this tennis and basketball star, were it not for the colour of her skin. Former US basketball star and vice president of Atlanta Dream, Renee Montgomery, investigates Ora’s story. Ora dominated black women’s tennis, which was segregated in the 1920s and 1930s.
Untold Legends is from the BBC World Service, Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds.
Hedy’s new life in Hollywood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The party lifestyle isn’t for her and she struggles to make her MGM debut. Eventually though, the film offers start rolling in, starting with Algiers - Hedy’s big Hollywood break. But while Hedy’s living the Hollywood highlife, across the Atlantic, Europe is descending into World War II. Hedy’s Jewish mother manages to leave Austria, now under Nazi control. Hedy’s also starting to feel unchallenged by the film roles she’s being cast in, so turns her creative mind to inventing. She meets one of America's richest and most eccentric men, Howard Hughes. Hughes’s interest in Hedy is initially romantic, but he soon realises her innovative mind is even more impressive than her beauty. She has plenty of ideas and the technical expertise to make them work. Then eventually, a chance meeting with a kindred spirit - the composer George Antheil - sets in motion a path for Hedy, far beyond Hollywood. Content warning: This episode contains racist language. What makes someone a “true legend”? Untold Legends gives legendary status to those who deserve it – and tells their story. Untold Legends is from the BBC World Service, Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds .
