Watch The Hedy Lamarr Story, a New Documentary on the 1940s Film Star & Inventor of Wi-Fi Technology (Streaming Free for a Limited Time)

We told you last year about Hedy Lamarr, the 1940s film star who also helped invent the tech­nol­o­gy behind wi-fi and blue­tooth dur­ing World War II. Now, she’s the sub­ject of a new doc­u­men­tary from PBS’s Amer­i­can Mas­ters series. Direct­ed by Alexan­dra Dean, and stream­ing free online for a lim­it­ed time, Bomb­shell: The Hedy Lamarr Sto­ry, “explores how Lamarr’s true lega­cy is that of a tech­no­log­i­cal trail­blaz­er” and fea­tures, among oth­er things, “four nev­er-before-heard audio tapes of Lamarr speak­ing on the record about her incred­i­ble life, final­ly giv­ing her the chance to tell her own sto­ry.” The win­ner of sev­er­al film fes­ti­val awards, The Hedy Lamarr Sto­ry pre­miered across the US on May 18th. Stream it online above or also here.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

How 1940s Film Star Hedy Lamarr Helped Invent the Tech­nol­o­gy Behind Wi-Fi & Blue­tooth Dur­ing WWII

Watch The Strange Woman, the 1946 Noir Film Star­ring Hedy Lamarr

Gus­tav Machatý’s Erotikon (1929) & Ekstase (1933): Cinema’s Ear­li­est Explo­rations of Women’s Sen­su­al­i­ty