In 1933, a young and beautiful Austrian woman took off her clothes for a movie director. She ran naked through the woods and swam naked in a lake. While King Kong was the most popular movie that year, Hollywood was buzzing about this scandalous film starring the gorgeous Austrian woman.
Louis B. Mayer of the big MGM studio called her the most beautiful woman in the world. The movie, called Ecstasy, was banned in many countries, which made it even more famous and valuable. Mussolini reportedly refused to sell his copy at any price.
The star of the film was Hedwig Kiesler. She joked that the secret of her beauty was “to stand there and look stupid.” In reality, Kiesler was far from stupid.
When she made Ecstasy, Kiesler was married to one of Austria’s richest men, Friedrich Mandl, the country’s leading arms manufacturer. His company later supplied weapons to the Nazis. Mandl showed off his beautiful wife at important dinners with Austrian, Italian, and German fascist leaders. At these meals—which included Hitler and Mussolini—Mandl often talked about the technology behind radio-controlled missiles and torpedoes.
Kiesler, a Jew, hated the Nazis and strongly opposed her husband’s business. Mandl punished her by locking her in his castle, Schloss Schwarzenau. In 1937, she escaped by drugging her maid, dressing as the maid, and selling her jewelry to pay for a trip to London. She escaped just in time: in 1938, Germany took over Austria, seized Mandl’s factory, and he, being half Jewish, fled to Brazil. Later, Mandl became an adviser to Argentina’s president, Juan Peron.
In London, Kiesler met Louis B. Mayer and signed a long-term contract with MGM, becoming one of their biggest stars. She appeared in more than 20 films, acting alongside Clark Gable, Judy Garland, and Bob Hope. Each of her first seven MGM movies was a hit. Still, Kiesler cared more about fighting the Nazis than making movies.
In 1942, at the height of her fame, she developed a new communication system for sending coded messages that could not be “jammed.” The system could guide torpedoes and bombs to always hit their targets—a technology designed to fight Nazis. By the 1940s, both Nazis and Allied forces were using similar radio-controlled technology that her ex-husband had promoted.
Most people today may not know the name Hedwig Kiesler or Hedy Markey. But many will remember one of Hollywood’s most famous beauties of the golden age—Hedy Lamarr. That was the name Louis B. Mayer gave his star actress.