Beauty and brains?!  (GASP!)The story of an unsung  “star” inventor

By day, Hedy Lamarr was one of the most glamorous actresses of the 1940s; but the legendary Hollywood star indulged in her true passion by night. From bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an engrossing new novel, The Only Woman In the Room, in which she captures the life and work of the science world’s best-kept secret.

Having fled her wealthy arms-manufacturer husband and the anti-Semitic tide in Europe, Lamarr eventually landed in Hollywood. Between starring in big-budget films and maintaining the vamp persona bestowed upon her by Hollywood execs, Lamarr tinkered away in her home laboratory to gain the kind of intellectual fulfillment that life as a professional bombshell couldn’t offer.

With her co-inventor, George Anthiel, she engineered a revolutionary frequency-jumping technology—a precursor to GPS, Wifi, and Bluetooth. But Lamarr’s passion for science didn’t pair with the era’s prescribed role for women—least of all one of such extraordinary beauty. Owing in equal parts to her gender and stunning good looks, Lamarr was not taken seriously.

The development could have ended the war much sooner and spared countless lives; instead, the Navy rejected it, literally sealing its fate with a classified designation for decades to come.

Now a USA Today national bestselling author, Benedict spent her early career as a litigator at two of the country’s premier law firms. She decided to leave the practice of law to  pursue her dream: unearthing and writing the hidden historical stories of women. Her narratively connected series of historical novels include The Other Einstein which tells the tale of Albert Einstein’s first wife, a physicist herself, and Carnegie’s Maid. She also published The Chrysalis, The Map Thief and Brigid of Kildare, all historical novels.