Lamarr to be honored locally

(JNS) - An historical marker will be dedicated on Sunday, March 12, in Casselberry to recognize and honor Jewish American actress Hedy Lamarr.

Lamarr is considered by many Hollywood historians as one of the most beautiful and best actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She made multiple films opposite some of the greatest Hollywood male talents-Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon and Spencer Tracy, to name a few.

She was a Jewish refugee from Austria who escaped the Holocaust after having known Benito Mussolini and Joseph Goebbels before the war in Austrian high society circles.

Most underreported about Hedy Lamarr was her scientific genius and driven hatred of the Nazis and their party.

In 1942, she and George Antheil received U.S. Patent No. 2,292,387, having designed a "Secret Communication System" for torpedo guidance.

The system, "a frequency jumping" of radio waves, helped defeat Nazi Germany during World War II. The technology was later incorporated into modern cell phones, helping make communications possible. Antheil and Lamarr were posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2014). She never made a penny from the invention.

The marker is a joint effort of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation and the Casselberry Historical Society.

The marker will be dedicated at Red Bug Lake Park, 3600 Red Bug Lake Park Road in Casselberry, Fla. (adjacent to the playground) on March 12 at 4 p.m. by Seminole County Commissioner Bruce Dallal, Jerry Klinger of JASHP and Dr. Deborah Bauer of the Casselberry Historical Society.

In attendance will be the Casselberry Historical Society, Seminole County Historical Society, rabbinic community leaders and members of the community. The dedication is open to the public.