THE BOOK CORNER

Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
By Richard Rhodes

The title of Richard Rhodes' "Hedy's Folly" compounds the injustice against George Antheil. It was Hedy Lamarr who came up with the idea of spread-spectrum radio, the basis for wireless telephones and GPS devices, but it was antheil who devised a way for it to work practically. Just as Hedy's caused people not to take her seriously while she was alive, so her glamor and stardom blinded people today to the contributions of her collaborator, one onetime "Bad Boy of Music."

In any case, Rhodes' book is a swift, entertaining read about how these two unlikely inventors discovered one other the most important technological advances in history.  I didn't understand the pages filled with technological information, but I accepted them as necessary to pinpointing the importance of what lamarr and Antheil did. My one complaint against the book is that there is much more to be told here--not only about spread-spectrum radio, but about Lamarr and Antheil, fascinating characters who both deserve full- length biographies in the own right. But there is enough in Rhnodes' book, at least, to get started.
Review by Miles D. Moore