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Welcome to another episode of You Must Remember This

The Podcast dedicated to exploring the secret and or forgotten histories of Hollywood's first century

Part of the Panoply Network. I'm your host, Kareena Longworth.

Today we bring you another chapter in our series, Star Wars.

Today's star is the Austrian actress, Heady Lamar. As a teenage stage actress in 1930s Vienna, Heady was branded as the most beautiful girl in the world.

That branding stuck and it didn't evolve. Even after becoming one of the highest paid and most famous stars in Hollywood during World War II, Heady was always referred to as a girl, never a woman.

Her star identity was insolent and submissive, imbued with both world-wearingness, and a kind of naïve a Tay when it came to the destructive impact of her beauty.

One critic took note of her, quote, perfect willlessness in her first Hollywood film, Algiers, commenting,

Miss Lamar doesn't have to say yes, all she has to do is yon. Heady's beauty made her a sensation, but it also doomed her.

She was considered just a pretty face, and as she aged, there were prettier, younger faces waiting to replace her.

By the end of the 1940s, American culture had changed so much that Heady seemed a little dated.

Over the next few decades, she drifted into obscurity, and then after a shoplifting arrest and a series of lawsuits, her name itself became a joke.

And then, in the last years of her life, Heady was suddenly championed for her secrets, there too for unheralded invention, which was intended to help the Allies win World War II, but which in the end, aided the development of cell phones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,

and even drone warfare.

Join us, won't you, for the unbelievable true story of Heady Lamar.

Do you want to get the Inside Scoop on Awards season? I'm Katie Rich, I'm the Awards and Audio Editor at Vanity Fair.

And I'm Richard Lawson, the Chief Critic at Vanity Fair.

And we are two of the hosts of the podcast Little Gold Men.

Each week on Little Gold Men, we go deep on Awards season, whether it's Oscars or Emmys, we cover the snubs and surprises of the latest awards nominations, go deep on whatever awards show has just happened, and we have great conversations with the most important people in all of these races.

Whether you're a Hollywood insider or just want to win your quote-unquote friendly Oscar ballot this year, listen to Little Gold Men, available on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening now.

Heady was born Hedvig Keesler in 1913 in Vienna. Her family was Jewish, and although she wasn't observant, she kept her Jewish heritage as secret, not just during the Nazi era, but throughout her entire life.

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