Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story Page #4

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Deep traumatic experiences

change us,

and she came out the other side

remembering what her father

had advised her from childhood:

"Be yourself.

Choose and take what you want,"

which was certainly

Hedy's quality all her life.

There are stories,

whether they're apocryphal

or not,

who knows, but almost like

a prison escape.

Hedy had people watching her

all the time.

There was no way

to break loose.

So, one night,

they were having a dinner party,

and my mother

helped choose the maids

and caretakers,

and so she found someone

that looked like her a lot

'cause she had this in mind.

So, she had

this sleeping powder,

and she made this tea

and she switched the cups

with the maid,

and the maid drank it

and kind of fell asleep.

Now my mother's all ready.

She took all her jewels,

put 'em in the lining

of her coats.

She put on the maid's costume.

She jumped on her bicycle

and rode off.

My parents had friends

in England.

So I went there.

Pre-war London

was a safe haven.

Hedy spent several months there

trying to figure out

her next steps.

We one day went to a movie.

I forgot even what it was.

And they happened

to have a lion.

You know, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

So I said,

"Oh I want to be in that!"

She quickly found

an American film agent.

Somebody took me to a hotel

and there was

a little man there.

I didn't know who he was,

what he was.

I couldn't speak English,

obviously.

Louis B. Mayer

was the little man.

That was Louis B. Mayer?

With his entourage, yeah.

Louis B. Mayer,

of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,

had come to Europe to buy up

all the actors and actresses

who were escaping Nazi Germany.

He figured he could take them

back to Hollywood

and enslave them in

his Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer empire

for a cheap price.

He offered her $125 a week

and reminded her

that she had to keep

her clothes on.

And she said, "I'm sorry,

that's not good enough,"

and walked out.

She impressed him, I'm sure.

People didn't usually turn down

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

But minutes

after she walked out,

she had second thoughts

and quickly booked passage

on the Normandie,

the ship Mayer was sailing

back to New York.

She, I think,

probably rather cleverly

made sure that she saw him

about the decks

in her tennis clothes

and so forth,

in her bathing suit.

On the first

or second night out,

Hedy went

to her very modest cabin

and pulled out

her designer couturier gown

and she put on

the last baubles that she owned

and she walked

through the dining room

of the Normandie,

past Louis B. Mayer's table.

There's Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

sitting right there,

and his eyes are glued

to Hedy Lamarr,

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