Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story Page #6

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And when I invent something

for this country

I am an alien?

I am Tandelayo.

After she did the invention,

what did Louis B. Mayer

offer Hedy Lamarr?

White Cargo.

We were at war by then

and Louis B. Mayer

wanted to entertain

the servicemen

who would pay money

to see what was considered

a dirty picture.

Louis B. Mayer

divided the world

into two kinds of women,

Madonna and whore.

I don't think he ever believed

she was anything but the latter

because of Ecstasy.

You better go now.

Audiences ate it up.

This was a woman who had tried

to change the course of the war.

Now she found herself

in a third rate film

as a distraction

for the troops.

They think I'm a bad actress.

I think sometimes in life

I act more than on the screen.

Hedy really struggled

to make her mark in Hollywood.

She knew she wasn't respected

like a Garbo or a Dietrich.

She wanted to have roles that

allowed her to do something more

and to give her

an acting challenge.

So that brought her in some

conflict with Louis B. Mayer.

He sued her a couple times.

I mean, he tried to keep her

on a very tight leash.

She wouldn't let herself

be kept on a tight leash

and there were always problems.

And she got the reputation

of being difficult.

I believe that we are

controlled by ourselves,

by our way of thinking,

by our way

of dealing with people.

I mean, there comes a point

when you can't take anymore...

then you have to

make yourself heard.

She needed to be free.

I think she was brave

and courageous.

She felt like,

"I'm gonna do it for myself.

I'm gonna live the way...

I bloody wanna live

my own life."

So she said,

"Well, you know what?

I'll make my own movie.

I'll produce my own movie."

I don't really recall

anybody except Hedy

went out and actually

produced a movie.

It was very unusual in 1946.

The system didn't welcome it,

they didn't want movie stars

going out of control

and producing their own films.

What a terrible idea.

Especially the women.

She was so ahead of her time

with being a feminist.

She's never been called that,

but she certainly was.

Don't worry about me.

I can handle trouble.

I know you can.

And then she co-produced

Dishonored Lady,

and I think that both films

were produced very well.

She made Dishonored Lady

with my father.

It's the only movie

they were in together.

I've always wondered

if it were possible for people

like you and me.

This was a time

when America was recovering

from World War Il.

And like the rest

of the country,

she too wanted a family

and a home life.

I was married

and married because

I liked the companionship

of a man, obviously.

I think, you know, he was quite

a bit older and British.

I don't think he was

the love of her life.

I think she had said

he was stuffy and boring.

You know, you're not

at all what I imagined.

No?

No.

So this is a letter

from George Antheil.

"The last time I saw Hedy,

she looked paler.

Something's troubling her.

John Loder is really

and honestly too dull

for this sparkling

and unbelievable diamond."

And I think he hit the nail

on the head with that one.

She was independent,

she was the breadwinner.

She wasn't stuck

in a marriage.

Will you please go?

Of course I'll go.

I think he left, I was a toddler

and Tony was a baby,

and I never heard from him.

She was a single mother

in the '40s,

so she was basically alone.

When we were little,

she was the most charming,

lovely person I can imagine.

And so nice

and warm and loving,

and she opened my hands

that were held in a ball,

"Relax, don't go

to sleep angry."

She was just

such a great mother.

I taught my children swimming.

The little children have

little armbands to swim.

- Have you ever seen that?

- Yes.

Makes absolutely no sense.

because the middle,

the center

is where they should be lifted.

Mm-hm.

That's how I taught

my children

and they swim like fish.

They really were good as gold.

I did a good job with them.

It made me a little tired

but that's...

that's part of it, the job,

I guess.

My mother worked her ass off.

She had to earn a living.

She was on her own.

It was such pressure.

At least she didn't have

to worry about granny.

By then she'd made it

safely to California

and Mom paid for her

to live nearby.

Financially, Hedy wasn't

in the best of shape.

She had two independent films,

she made a lousy comedy,

and she knew she was going

in the gutter career-wise.

She needed a breath

of fresh air.

And just by a stroke of luck,

her agent at the time mentioned,

"Well, I was talking

to C.B. the other day,"

Cecil B. DeMille,

great motion picture producer.

He was just beginning

his biblical epics

of sex and sand.

And Hedy called Cecil B. DeMille

and said,

"I understand you're casting

for a new motion picture.

I am Delilah."

No man leaves Delilah.

Look at her, Samson.

Look well.

Satan himself taught her

all the arts of deception.

Howard Hawks had a great line

about DeMille.

He says, "You know,

DeMille is so bad

he's almost good."

But anyway, Samson and Delilah

was a huge hit.

I think it was

her biggest success.

It thoroughly

revived Hedy's name

into the public consciousness.

Samson and Delilah was

the second highest grossing film

of the decade.

Only Gone with the Wind

surpassed it.

Hedy took notice.

She decided to produce

her own epic

in the style of DeMille.

She would film it in Italy

and title it

The Loves of Three Queens.

Hedy played

all three lead roles.

The subject was beauty

and how it got

in the way of love

for the great women of history.

They're leading you into a trap.

Oh, Napoleon, you're blind.

There is no choice.

It was a huge production.

She didn't have the training

to take on a project

of this size.

And when she was finished

with it,

she couldn't find distribution

in the United States.

She spent millions

of dollars on it,

no one would touch it.

She lost all her money.

She found herself with nothing.

I'm a good artist

and a very bad business person.

She's no longer a star

and she doesn't really have

any money.

She was in Houston for an event

and she ran into Howard Lee

the oil man.

And then I found out

my name was now Tony Lee.

And we were living in Texas.

Mom actually had a Texas twang

with a Viennese accent.

It was hilarious.

He was a nice guy.

I really kind of felt Texan

for a while.

In Texas, Hedy found herself

a trophy wife again.

You know, Texas was retirement.

But a creative person

needs something to do.

She didn't have much to do.

We went on vacation

in Aspen, Colorado.

I used to ski

when I was a young girl.

I skied to school,

I skied all over the place.

And I went through Aspen.

There was nobody there.

Nothing.

Just a little store

and a few houses.

And they said, "This could be a

very wonderful skiing resort."

So I started to build

a place called Villa Lamarr.

She wanted to build

a ski resort,

so she convinced Howard

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