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Hedy Lamarr: 'Invention' and inventor on Turner Classic Movies (photo: Hedy Lamarr publicity shot ca. early '40s) Two Hedy Lamarr movies released during her heyday in the early '40s — Victor Fleming's Tortilla Flat (1942), co-starring Spencer Tracy and John Garfield, and King Vidor's H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), co-starring Robert Young and Ruth Hussey — will be broadcast on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Pt, respectively. Best known as a glamorous Hollywood star (Ziegfeld Girl, White Cargo, Samson and Delilah), the Viennese-born Lamarr (née Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), who would have turned 100 on November 9, was also an inventor: she co-developed and patented with composer George Antheil the concept of frequency hopping, currently known as spread-spectrum communications (or "spread-spectrum broadcasting"), which ultimately led to the evolution of wireless technology. (More on the George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invention further below.) Somewhat ironically,...

Mario Lopez, Anna Stuart, James Cromwell Mario Lopez interviews James Cromwell and guest Anna Stuart at the 84th Academy Awards from Hollywood, CA, on February 26, 2012. Cromwell wasn't nominated for anything this year, but he is one of the featured players in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, which won five Oscars, including Best Picture. Thus, Cromwell got the chance to hop onstage with his fellow cast members, among them Penelope Ann Miller, Bérénice Bejo, and Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin. (Matt Brown / ©A.M.P.A.S.) An animals rights advocate and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for Chris Noonan's Babe, Cromwell is also the son of filmmaker John Cromwell and actress Kay Johnson, both of whom were kept quite busy at the dawn of the sound era — the time period in which The Artist is set. John Cromwell directed three 1929 releases, including two Nancy Carroll musicals, The Dance of Life and Close Harmony.