Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story Page #2

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In a private school in Vienna.

My favorite thing in school

was...

What's that thing

when you mix things?

- Chemistry.

- Chemistry! Thank you.

Well I'm good at that.

In a different era,

she might very well

have become a scientist.

At the very least,

it's an option

that was derailed by her beauty.

By the time she was a teenager,

when she walked into a room,

conversation stopped.

She was probably

a little dazzled by this power,

testing it out,

seeing how it works

and so forth.

There's a word for what I was.

A... what?

'Enfant terrible.'

I know that.

I know that much French.

Well good!

There are stories about her

heading to the photographer

to get her photos taken

with and without clothes.

She lived in a society

where there were

many prominent women who had

not only incredible careers,

but loads of lovers.

Women, especially in the arts,

could have certain

kinds of liberties

that they would not find

in normal bourgeois society.

Hedy decided one day,

at the age of 16,

that she was ready

and went off to the largest

film studio and walked in.

Very quickly,

within a couple days,

they had her in a walk-on.

I have seen

the little weird Viennese films

that she made in the beginning

where she's

a little bit awkward

but clearly beautiful.

But it's clearly

the 1933 film Ecstasy

that really brought her

into everyone's consciousness.

Hedy became world famous

the moment she appeared naked

in Ecstasy.

The Pope denounced it

and Hitler refused it

to be shown.

People were just shocked by it.

It was quite controversial

because she simulated an orgasm.

I think it was the first time

anybody had ever done that.

I mean, in some ways,

it was analogous to a sex tape.

This was so scandalous

and really marked her

as this certain type of woman.

I don't know

if you ever saw that.

I don't believe I have.

There was a scene

in which I was totally alone

but it was cut so that it

showed that it was

a very hot sex scene,

which it wasn't.

You must have seen

a picture of that, right?

Yes, ma'am.

And I said, "Why do I have

to put my arms together?"

And they said,

"Don't ask so many questions."

"If you don't do what I say

then I put the needle

through the couch

so you do what I tell you."

And I was...

I didn't want to make any

commotion, so I did that.

And when I came back to Vienna

my father... I mean...

it was horrendous.

He wanted to kill me

practically.

What I did though...

right after that

I said, "I'll show them."

Fritz Kreisler

composed a musical called

'Elisabeth of Austria, '

the Queen of Austria,

and I had a big, big, big

success with that.

On stage.

I had ovations

and my father cried.

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