Hollywood, September 1940. Based on the true story of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil.
Dinners at Hedy Lamarr’s house usually ended with tipsy producers and photographers lying in wait in the garden. That one ended differently: with two people sitting at the piano at three in the morning and a newspaper open on the lid. A German submarine had sunk the City of Benares, a ship carrying ninety British children away from the bombs. Seventy-seven of them would never reach Canada.
George Antheil had known her for only a few weeks. He was a composer, and the press had nicknamed him “the bad boy of music” ever since, in 1926, he premiered a ballet in Paris with aeroplane propellers and player pianos. He knew what everyone knew: that Hedy was the most dazzling star at MGM. He knew much less about her earlier life. In 1933, in Vienna, she had married Fritz Mandl, an arms manufacturer who held endless dinners with officers and ministers. Nobody bothered to ask the young wife what she had understood of those conversations. She had understood almost everything. In 1937 she fled, and never went back.
“A radio-guided torpedo is far more accurate,” she said, without looking up from the paper. “But the enemy only has to find the frequency to shout over it. And then the torpedo goes deaf. One transmitter is one voice, and one voice is easy to drown out.”
George didn’t know what to say and let his fingers run over the keys. Hedy sat down beside him. “Let’s play a game,” she suggested. “I play and you follow me.” She began a simple tune and suddenly leapt two octaves, came back to the middle, dropped to the bass. George stumbled on the third note. Then she took a score from the music stand, wrote something on it in pencil and set it in front of him. With the paper in view, George followed her leap by leap, as if all four hands belonged to one person. “And if someone were listening from the street,” Hedy asked, “what would they hear?” “Noise,” he said. “Scattered notes. No tune at all.”
Afterwards they talked about that Paris ballet. George told her the score demanded sixteen player pianos playing at once, each reading its own roll of perforated paper. If the rolls started at the same instant, the sixteen sounded like one. If one got half a second ahead, the theatre turned into a henhouse. He rummaged in a sideboard drawer, where Hedy kept mementos from her guests, and pulled out a piece of roll he had given her a few days earlier, a souvenir of that premiere.
Hedy unrolled it against the lamp. The light shone through the perforations and cast a swarm of dots on the wall. She was silent for a long time, moving her lips like someone counting. “George, how many keys does a piano have?” “Eighty-eight.” “Eighty-eight,” she repeated slowly, as if the number meant something else.
When George left, in broad daylight, Hedy was still on the piano stool with the roll spread across her knees, jumping from one key to another in no apparent order. Only she knew there was one.
Activities
1 Detective Inference
What idea is beginning to take shape in Hedy’s mind? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) A transmitter so powerful the enemy can’t shout any louder.
- ✓b) The ship and torpedo hopping together from frequency to frequency.
- c) Hiding the torpedo’s orders inside a song on the radio.
- d) Firing many torpedoes at once so the enemy can’t jam them all.
Which clue proves it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: b). That’s it: whoever has the score follows every leap; whoever doesn’t hears only noise.
Key clue: “With the score in front of him, George followed every leap; from the street, it would have sounded like noise.” That’s the proof: the piano game is the idea in miniature, with two people jumping together and a listener who understands nothing.
2 The Loom Order of events
Put the events in order, starting with the earliest. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 1 Antheil premieres a ballet with player pianos in Paris.
- 6 Hedy asks how many keys a piano has.
- 3 Hedy flees Vienna.
- 4 A submarine sinks the City of Benares.
- 5 Hedy suggests a four-handed game.
- 2 Hedy marries an arms manufacturer in Vienna.
Correct order:
- Antheil premieres a ballet with player pianos in Paris.
- Hedy marries an arms manufacturer in Vienna.
- Hedy flees Vienna.
- A submarine sinks the City of Benares.
- Hedy suggests a four-handed game.
- Hedy asks how many keys a piano has.
The ballet is from 1926, the wedding from 1933 and the escape from 1937. The City of Benares sinks in September 1940, shortly before that night. First comes the piano game, then the question about the eighty-eight keys.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
What happens next, consistent with the story? Tick only one option.
- a) The Navy adopts the idea immediately and Hedy’s torpedoes change the course of the war.
- ✓b) Hedy and George work on the idea for months and file a patent.
- c) Hedy gives up acting and joins the Navy as an engineer.
- d) George composes a ballet about the City of Benares for sixteen player pianos.
Answer: b). It fits: the night ends with Hedy shaping the jumps, and in June 1941 they file the patent together.
- a) The Navy shelved the patent; the idea took decades to spread.
- c) Nothing in the story points to that; Hedy remained an actress.
- d) The night isn’t about a piece of music, but about how to protect a signal.
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- a) George Antheil was a composer.The press called him “the bad boy of music”.
- ✗b) The City of Benares was carrying soldiers to the front.It was carrying ninety British children away from the bombs.
- c) Hedy leapt from octave to octave during the game.And George stumbled on the third note.
- ✗d) In Vienna, Hedy understood nothing of what the officers talked about.She had understood almost everything.
- e) A piano has eighty-eight keys.Hedy repeated the number slowly.
- ✗f) The ballet’s player pianos read handwritten scores.They read rolls of perforated paper.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which picture shows Hedy’s living room at three in the morning?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: Hedy and George at the piano, no guests, with the newspaper on the lid.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
In June 1941, Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil filed a patent with a very uncinematic name: “Secret Communication System”. The idea was that the ship and the torpedo wouldn’t talk on a single frequency, but jump together between eighty-eight of them, as many as a piano has keys. To make the jumps match, transmitter and receiver would carry two identical perforated rolls, like two player pianos playing the same score. Anyone listening without the roll would hear only noise. The patent was granted on 11 August 1942.
The US Navy shelved it. Put a player piano in a torpedo? Hedy was told she could help in another way: by selling war bonds with her famous face. She did, and raised millions.
Decades later, “frequency hopping” became common in military communications, and a related idea still lives inside technologies such as Bluetooth. Recognition came late: in 1997 Hedy received an award for electronics pioneers. She, who had been born in Vienna as Hedwig Kiesler, remarked that it was about time.
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.