Letter: Hedy's partner in torpedo project
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Your article (28 February) about Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil and their torpedo guidance system contained an error. George Antheil was not married to Hedy Lamarr. He was married to - and stayed married to - Boski Marcus, who lived until about 1981. George died in 1959. He was definitely a lady's man and no doubt a Lamarr lover, not husband.
As a pianist who has recently recorded and edited Antheil's piano music, I'm sure that George would have loved your story, since he made up a few of them himself (such as being eaten by lions in Africa as a publicity stunt before the Ballet Mecanique Paris premiere).
His son, Peter Antheil, told me in a phone conversation in January that Hedy and George gave the patent to the Navy out of patriotism, a fact that Peter and Lamarr's son have long regretted.
MARTHANNE VERBIT
Newport, Rhode Island, USA
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