I get along with young people very well, in fact. Especially the kids in their early twenties, as they seem to be more related to the “20’s,” more in rapport with it. In a way they are trying to do pretty much what our generation was trying to do. The after-war generation wanted to deny the existing order, disillusioned and disgusted with the bourgeois generation responsible for the 1st world war and all its middle-class values. We really wanted to start the world from scratch … and believe me, when you are very young, this seems to be a very real possibility.
Boski Antheil died in 1978, Peter Antheil in 2010.
Fritz Mandl successfully escaped Austria after the Anschluss and immigrated to Argentina, where he became an Argentine citizen and manufactured munitions and light aircraft for the dictator Juan Perón. (He also invested in a minor Hollywood film company, Gloria Pictures, although he does not seem to have attempted to cast his former wife in a film.) During World War II the British Foreign Office, concerned that U.S. business interests might collude with Mandl to monopolize the postwar South American arms trade, set out to smear the Austrian parvenu as a Nazi sympathizer.
“To neutralize Mandl,” writes a Canadian historian, “British diplomats adroitly manipulated the FBI and the anti-Mandl faction of the [U.S.] State Department; these Americans in turn manipulated public and official opinion in the United States. The campaign was successful: by mid-1945, Mandl had been swept from the board.” After a 1955 treaty between the Western powers and the Soviet Union restored Austria to sovereignty, he returned to his native country and reclaimed his Hirtenberg empire, supplying the Austrian army and, later, such clients as Bolivia, Guatemala, Uruguay, and the United Arab Emirates. He died in 1977, roundly despised but seemingly possessed of a golden passport.
Hedy continued to receive honors after the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award. The Austrian Association of Patent Holders and Inventors awarded her its Viktor Kaplan Medal in 1998. An exhibition, Hommage à Hedy Lamarr, toured Austria in 1999.
“Hedy’s fondness for invention remained with her until the end,” writes her biographer Ruth Barton. “She had a proposal for a new kind of traffic stoplight and some modifications to the design of the Concorde [the Anglo-French supersonic passenger airliner that flew from 1976 to 2003]. There were plans for a device to aid movement-impaired people to get in and out of the bath, a fluorescent dog collar, and a skin-tautening technique based on the principle of the accordion. To the end of her days, she could perform devastatingly complex card tricks.”
Her last residence was a three-bedroom house in Casselberry, Florida, north of Orlando. She moved there in October 1999. That same month, in Vanity Fair, she answered a “Proust questionnaire”—an old European parlor game that the magazine had revived. Her idea of perfect happiness, she answered, was “living a very private life,” her real-life heroes Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. She was happiest “between marriages.” Her favorite fictional hero was the scofflaw child Bart Simpson of the television cartoon series The Simpsons, and like Bart her motto was, “Do not take things too seriously.”
Hedy’s final goal in life was to live into the new millennium. As with movie stardom, wartime fund-raising, and pioneering invention, she persevered and achieved what she set out to do; she died alone at home in Florida, in her sleep, on the night of 19 January 2000. She was eighty-five years old. She left her children an estate valued at $3 million, most of it won in court settlements against corporations that tried to exploit her name and image and through shrewd stock investments. Her son Anthony carried her cremated remains back to Austria, as she had requested, and scattered them in the Vienna Woods on the slope of a hill overlooking her native city. There she rests today, high above the wide Danube valley where Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations, one with the trees and the grasses.
Acknowledgments
This book emerged from discussions at meetings of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation book committee and with Sloan programs vice president Doron Weber. A grant from the foundation supported the work of research.
Hedy Lamarr’s daughter, Denise Loder-DeLuca, was generous with her time and enthusiasm. Sheila Weller introduced us. Hedy’s son, Anthony Loder, scanned vital documents for me and reviewed them with me at a time of grave illness. I value their confidence and hope that the result warrants it.
Nino Amarena, inventor, electrical engineer, and man for all seasons, tutored me in hydrogen peroxide technology, radio control, frequency hopping, the pleasures and frustrations of invention, and much more. His knowledge and guidance have been invaluable.
Dave Hughes gave me a day and evening to explore his nomination of Hedy for an Electronic Frontier Foundation award and his own electronic pioneering. Susi Maurer not only guided me around Vienna but also located and drove me to one of Fritz Mandl’s hunting lodges, where we peered in windows and interviewed locals who remembered stories their parents told them of Hedy’s isolation and loneliness there. Stanford University librarian Mike Keller and his staff at the university libraries were unfailingly helpful. Tara C. Craig of Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library located an important letter for me. My daughter, Katherine, drove me to Los Angeles to interview Anthony Loder.
At the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Washington, curator Ron W. Roehmholdt briefed me and my grandson Isaac on torpedoes. Director Bill Galvani not only drove us to the ferry slip after our visit but also arranged to provide me with a copy of the Mark 14 torpedo manual. Meredith Peterson of the Congressional Research Service located a Washington-based researcher for me, Andrew Marchesseault, who skillfully assembled a large file of George and Boski Antheil writings and correspondence at the Library of Congress. John Adams was kind enough to answer several musical questions. Gerd Zillner at the Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation in Vienna confirmed Frederick Kiesler’s distant relationship to Hedy. Claudette Allison organized permissions with her usual skill.
Gerry Howard has been my supportive and collegial editor at Doubleday, his assistant, Hannah Wood, a patient, thorough hunter of photographs, rights, and permissions.
Ginger Rhodes read every word, more than once.
Notes
ONE: A CHARMING AUSTRIAN GIRL
1 spring of 1931: The Weaker Sex opened under Reinhardt’s direction on 8 May 1931 at the Theater in der Josefstadt, Vienna.
2 “Are you here too” … “I took this as a mandate”: Weller (1939), 69.
3 “Hedy had only the vaguest” … “Watch me look”: Ibid.
4 “I had a little stage” … “from printing presses”: Quoted in Shearer (2010), 12.
5 “She has always had”: Quoted in ibid., 10.
6 “I underemphasized”: Quoted in Barton (2010), 13.
7 son and daughter only learned: Anthony Loder and Denise Loder-Deluca, personal communications.
8 Freud’s daughters: Barton (2010), 12.
9 twenty-one districts: As of 1910. The number today is twenty-three.
10 “a city of a thousand”: Zweig (1943), 39.
11 “Precisely because the monarchy”: Ibid., 21.
12 “The whole city”: Ibid., 25.
13 “It was not the military”: Ibid., 22–23.
14 “I acted all the time”: Hall (1938), 24.
15 “in keeping with the Viennese” … “audience”: Zweig (1943), 51.
16 “He made me” … “He had encouraged”: Hall (1938), 21, 72.
17 “I knew that the studio”: Ibid., 72.
18 Geld auf der Strasse: Lamarr misremembered which film in several later interviews, but Geld was released in November 1930 and is the only film that fits the chronology. I’ve corrected related facts such as her role and the director’s name. For a complete filmography, see Shearer (2010), 360–90.
19 “Well, it was not too bad”: Hall (1938), 72.
20 “were much more difficult”: Lamarr (1966), 17. 14 “Reinhardt made me read”: Ibid., 18.
21 “When you dance with
her”: Weller (1939), 69.
22 “It was at the rehearsal”: Ibid.
23 “Almost before we knew it”: Ibid., 70.
24 “who simply recoiled”: Ibid.
25 “I’ve never been satisfied”: Hall (1938), 72.
26 “decided for herself”: Weller (1939), 70.
27 Alexis Granowsky: Barton (2010), 22.
28 “Excellent work”: Quoted in Shearer (2010), 26.
29 “When I had this opportunity”: Hall (1938), 73.
30 “I could not go”: Ibid.
31 “I went to Prague”: Quoted in Shearer (2010), 27.
32 “The world began”: Zweig (1943), 152–53.
33 “This health and self-confidence”: Ibid., 153.
34 “I don’t want to become”: Quoted in Horak (2001), 34. The source of this statement as Horak lists it is contemporary: the journal Mein Film 356 (1932), 10.
35 Vienna premiere: Barton (2010), 35.
36 “artistic” … “I wanted to run”: Lamarr (1966), 30, 31.
37 “My mother and father suffered”: Hall (1938), 73.
38 “the courtship of the young”: “Sissy in Vienna,” Time, 2 Jan. 1933.
39 “At first I felt”: Hall (1938), 73.
40 “She looks wonderful”: Quoted in Barton (2010), 46.
41 “From the first night”: Hall (1938), 73.
42 ammunition factory in Hirtenberg: See Mötz (2010).
43 “he had negotiated”: Newton (1986), 545.
44 “He introduced himself”: Hall (1938), 73.
45 “a young viveur”: “Latin America: Double Cross?” Time, 16 April 1945.
46 “He was so powerful”: Hall (1938), 73–74.
47 “He asked me to go”: Ibid., 74.
48 “I began to feel attracted”: Ibid.
49 “small and quiet”: Ibid.
50 “Almost at once”: Ibid.
51 “Democracy is a luxury”: “Latin America: Double Cross?”
52 “try to track down”: Hall (1938), 74.
53 “nearly $300,000”: “Cinema: The New Pictures,” Time, 25 July 1938.
54 “it became one of the”: Hall (1938), 74.
55 “I knew very soon”: Ibid.
56 “prison of gold”: Ibid.
TWO: BAD BOY OF MUSIC
1 to Europe in 1922: “In early 1922 I became a concert pianist, and traveled with my impresario, M. H. Hanson, to Europe where I was an immediate success.” “Autobiographical Notes,” box 14, folder 5, Antheil Collection, Library of Congress.
2 “a cello-sized man”: “Music: Antheil’s Fourth,” Time, 28 Feb. 1944.
3 “He did nothing but write”: Hecht (1964), 158.
4 “When I first went”: Quoted in Antheil (1945), 2.
5 “Curiously enough”: “The American Composer’s Heritage,” 1–2, box 14, folder 1, Antheil Collection.
6 “I myself was present”: Ibid.
7 “When I was 17”: “Why ‘Bad Boy of Music’?” box 14, folder 7, Antheil Collection.
8 “I told him I was broke”: Antheil (1945), 19.
9 “one of the richest”: Quoted in Ford (1987), 8–9.
10 “on the basis”: Bok to Antheil, 28 Sept. 1934, George Antheil Correspondence files, Library of Congress.
11 “In this way”: Antheil (1945), 10.
12 “the exact duplicate”: Antheil to Van H. Cartmell, 30 Sept. 1944, Correspondence files, Antheil Collection.
13 two tours: Ford (1987), 12.
14 “to either Italy”: Antheil (1945), 9.
15 “the day she had disappeared”: Ibid., 11.
16 “first, I wanted to learn”: Untitled essay beginning “In 1922, as a young American composer,” box 14, folder 14, Antheil Collection.
17 “the girls and wives”: Antheil (1945), 26–27.
18 “There were just too many”: Ibid., 27.
19 “George was a tremendously”: Boski Antheil memoir, 10–11, box 17, folders 1–3, Antheil Collection.
20 “Thereafter, for two straight months”: Antheil (1945), 33.
21 “about mechanistic”: George Antheil, “MAMA!” datelined Paris, April 1, 1925, box 14, folder 8, Antheil Collection.
22 “You play my music”: Antheil (1945), 40.
23 “an enormous fur coat”: Ibid., 46.
24 “I happened to be born”: Boski Antheil memoir, 9.
25 “dark, had high cheekbones”: Antheil (1945), 49.
26 “related to various”: Ibid., 50.
27 Jean Wiener: Stravinsky (1936), 110.
28 “She represented much”: Antheil (1945), 86.
29 “everybody was terribly poor”: Boski Antheil memoir, 10.
30 “When I later”: Antheil (1945), 90.
31 “We arrived in Paris”: Boski Antheil memoir, 8.
32 “which I gave up” … “none of which”: Stravinsky (1936), 104–5.
33 “In contrast to her brother”: Ibid., 102.
34 “Absolutely breathtaking”: Boski Antheil memoir, 17.
35 “When I went to school”: Ibid., 71.
36 “Paris was like a carnival”: Ibid., 8, 17.
37 “I still don’t remember”: Ibid., 18.
38 “she was kind”: Hemingway (1964), 35.
39 “threw up the job”: Walsh (2010), 87.
40 “I tried my best”: Ibid., 93.
41 “Sylvia and George immediately”: Boski Antheil memoir, 18.
42 “was on the look-out”: Imbs (1936), 23.
43 enclosed mezzanine: Ibid.
44 “consisted of one room” … “one went to the public”: Boski Antheil memoir, 20, 40.
45 “I was very shy”: Ibid., 20.
46 “the great piano warehouse”: Antheil (1945), 104.
47 “In order to prevent”: Stravinsky (1936), 101.
48 “the next day we went”: Antheil (1945), 104.
49 “Months later”: Ibid., 107.
50 “tremendously” … “for where”: Ibid., 107–8.
51 “We are done”: Antheil (1924).
52 “A dark, pretty”: Antheil (1945), 121.
53 Le coeur à barbe: See Delson (2006), 47–49.
54 “All the celebrities”: Quoted in ibid., 48.
55 “One day a tall”: Quoted in ibid., 49.
56 “Even though the idea”: Boski Antheil memoir, 6. Boski’s recollection argues against Antheil’s claim in Bad Boy of Music that he conceived his Ballet mécanique first and then “sought a motion-picture accompaniment to this piece” (134).
57 “George was writing”: Boski Antheil memoir, 32 (55).
58 “Georgette Leblanc”: Monnier (1976), 247–48.
59 “the theater, the famous”: Antheil (1945), 7.
60 “The uproar was such”: Boski Antheil memoir, 28.
61 “I now plunged”: Antheil (1945), 133.
62 “After the finish”: Quoted in Whitesitt (1983), 19.
63 “Satie came out”: “Why ‘Bad Boy of Music’?”, 1.
64 “where Antheil played”: Copland and Perlis (1984), 75.
65 “My first big work”: Quoted in Oja (2000), 80–81.
THREE: MECHANISMS
1 “Mr. George Antheil was engaged”: Quoted in Donald (2009), 44.
2 “during the winter”: Antheil (1945), 137.
3 “Kiesler liked it so well”: Boski Antheil memoir, 61, box 17, folders 1–3, Antheil Collection, Library of Congress.
4 “One night we went”: Ibid., 65.
5 “Bullitt is a striking man”: Kennan (1985), 57.
6 “a hearty, charming”: Imbs (1936), 103.
7 “And of course there was Bill”: Boski Antheil memoir, 60–62.
8 “He was furious”: Brownell and Billings (1987), 112.
9 “Bill and Louise”: Boski Antheil memoir, 60–62.
10 “We had a lovely”: Ibid., 44.
11 “One day in the future”: “The Death of Cities,” box 14, folder 3, Antheil Collection.
12 “W
e went to Vienna”: Boski Antheil memoir, 66–67.
13 “Fritz was immersed”: “Latin America: Double Cross?” Time, 16 April 1945.
14 “are unintelligible”: Sedgwick (1939), 282.
15 “The only serious problem”: Ford (1987), 42–43.
16 “This is the first edition”: Quoted in Whitesitt (1983), 22.
17 “The idea of [sixteen] pianos”: George Antheil, “My Ballet mécanique,” 10 June 1951, box 14, folder 8, Antheil Collection.
18 “There was a great deal”: Imbs (1936), 100–2.
19 “We shall see”: Quoted in Lehrman (1999). Translation corrected from the original German version in De Stijl, 8 June 1924, 101–2.
20 two thousand player pianos: Mick Hamer, “Don’t Shoot the Pianola,” New Scientist, no. 1435/1436, 20–27 Dec. 1984, 52.
21 “And what will the music”: George Antheil, “An Introduction to the Actuality of My Present Music,” Ezra Pound file, box 1, folder 88, Antheil Collection.
22 “When I first came”: Boski Antheil memoir, 110.
23 “The eleven grand pianos”: Friede (1948), 52.
24 “Everybody wanted to meet”: Ibid., 55.
25 “The trouble was”: Ibid., 56.
26 “When it reached”: Ibid., 60–61.
27 “The unheard-of viciousness”: Antheil to Bok, [April 1927], box 2, folder 1.17, Antheil Collection.
28 “This year I made”: Ibid.
29 “heartsick and broke”: Antheil (1945), 197.
30 “America has received”: Antheil to Bok, [April 1927], box 2, folder 1.17, Antheil Collection.
31 “I changed my musical style”: Antheil, “Autobiographical Notes,” box 14, folder 5, Antheil Collection.
32 “The place was well calculated”: Antheil (1945), 265.
FOUR: BETWEEN TIMES
1 armed with surplus weapons: Mötz (2010), 56.
2 “The Heimwehr and its principals”: Newton (1986), 545.
3 “Austria may be assured”: Quoted in Johnson (1934), 126.
4 “Mandl also sold arms”: Newton (1986), 545.
5 armed both sides in the Spanish Civil War: Ibid.
6 “He would often ask” … “Sometimes he would get”: Hall (1938), 75–76.