Customer Reviews

Ecstasy and Me: My Life As A Woman

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True to the subtitle "My Life as a Woman", the book reports only about those aspects of and events in the life of the author, Hedy Lamarr, in which the fact that she was a woman played a major role: marriages, sex, and movies, in about equal parts and in considerable detail. Her achievements and her patent in electronics are not mentioned at all, not even hinted at.

Although the over-all story is roughly chonological, there are many flash-forwards and flash-backs. Whether the narrative can hold up agianst these, is a matter of opinion; I could have done with a little less. The main time line starts with her birth and shows repeatedly how here life was influenced by the movie "Extasy" she made when she was 18 years old (hence the title). It ends with the infamous shoplifting affair, of which she gives a vague account, clearly unwilling to tell the whole truth, but equally clearly unwilling to lie. This tension is, to a lesser extend, discernable throughout the entire book. The book ends with about eighty small paragraphs of personal wisdom and advice.

Not high literature but definitely a good read, if you are interested in H.L. or in the Hollywood movie industry of 1935-1965.

This book was ghost-written for her by Leo Guild without her input. He got so many facts wrong, and took so many liberties, that she ended up suing the publisher over them.

There are much better books written about Hedy Lamarr, truly a remarkable woman worth reading about, but sadly she never wrote one herself.

.....Miss Lamarr sued the publisher for inserting false assertions by her ghost writer that she claimed were not true. So how much of the book is fact and how much fiction is up for grabs. One thing is certain, if only one half of the book is factual then Miss Lamarr had a serious problem with her sexuality. She claims that she was over sexed and was under the care of psychiratists for many years. The word nymphomaniac was never used but most certainly must have been the case.

.....I think Miss Lamarr's world class beauty turned out to be a curse instead of a blessing and kept her from ever realizing true contentment or happiness. She admitted as much in her book ..."My face has been my misfortune. It has attracted six unsuccessful marriage partners. It has attracted all the wrong people into my boudior and brought me tragedy and heartache for five decades. My face is a mask I cannot remove: I must always live with it. I curse it." ...

.....I was disappointed that the book did not discuss her patent for frequency hopping which today is called Spread Spectrum Technology and is one of the foundations for modern wireless communications. This to me was the most interesting part of her life. That such a great mind could be smothered and hidden behind a beautiful face is a tragedy.

.....I believe that Miss Lamarr was used and exploited by Hollywood for the money her beauty would generate but I also belive that she was a willing accomplice.

This book is very poorly written beginning with an incorrect date of birth, the lady goes on and on and never talks about her scientific accomplishments but harps on her sexual conquests which appears to me more timid than some stories that we know of from our personal experiences. May be it was torrid when it first appeared but now it seems pretty tame.

The book was in very bad shape, dirty, and very used. Very expensive for its quality. Extremely disappointed with the real product compared with its description.

Aside from being one of the most beautiful woman in her era of the screen, and a totally unappreciated fine actress in her own right -- she also had brains, coinventing an electronic item, far ahead of it's time, but is in use today by both military and commerical sources in our world of today.

She's not all that beautiful to me. I've seen better. I think Linda Darnell and Gene Tierney were more beautiful. Since black actresses didn't get a chance back then because of racism, there were many who could compete with Hedy's, Ava Gardner, and Elizabeth Taylor's beauty, but since back then white beauty was suppose to be the most beautiful, black women didn't have a chance to compete. You should see actress Hilda Simms, Edna Mae Holly - Cotton Club dancer/Sugar Ray Robinson wife, Francine Everett - actress/singer, Ethel Moses - Oscar Micheaux actress/Cotton Club dancer, Model Pauline Green who could beat out Hedy Lamarr in the looks department, Pat Rainey - singer, Josephine Edwards - singer/actress, Hazel Scott - singer/pianist, Emily Santos - model, Dorothy Van Engle - model/Oscar Micheaux actress, Marion Egbert - Cotton Club dancer, Sheila Guyse - singer/actress, Ida James - singer, Savannah Churchill - singer, Rita Thomas - dancer, Millie Monroe - dancer/actress, Lonette McKee - actress, Marilyn McCoo - singer, Freda Payne - singer, Tammi Terrell - singer, Judy Pace - actress, Barbara McNair - actress, Diahann Carroll - actress, Sarah Lou Harris - model, Carrolle Drake, model Lulu Guerrero, and many others, they would make Hedy Lamarr look like nothing. All these black women, including Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge, would definitely give Hedy Lamarr and any other beautiful white actress a run for for their money. Lena Horne was called the black version of Hedy Lamarr, but I think Lena was more beautiful and obviously more talented. Check this video out at Youtube of unsung black beauties who also had talent, just copy and paste the link to see the video and I bet you can't deny that these women were just as beautiful as Hedy Lamarr -

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Hedy is gorgeous but not the most beautiful, to me pretty is pretty, beauty is beauty, no such thing as most beautiful, but it all boils down to what's your taste and preference, some may find Hedy the most beautiful, others won't, I would pick Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, Dolores del Rio, Linda Darnell, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, and Dorothy Dandridge over Hedy anyday. I doubt any man would turn down those ladies, cause they've been called the most beautiful too. Everytime a new chick came around back then, she was called "the most beautiful." God didn't make Hedy so-called beautiful, its called genes. I'm sure God don't go around with a magic wand saying he's going to make one beautiful and another ugly. God isn't partial he would make everyone beautiful. Looks aren't everything, obviously she had a lot of troubles in her life, so her looks didn't give her a perfect life. She suffered like any other woman, probably more so, because she thought cause of her looks all the men and everyone would treat her right. She was too stupid to know when your an attractive woman, all the men want you, but to use you, then when they get done with you, they move on to the next pretty face and that's what happen to Hedy. She's not the only beauty. She allowed herself to be exploited. I hate reading about how much of a whore some of these white Hollywood women were, didn't they have any morals? They go to bed with anyone, just cause you a sex symbol, don't mean you actually have to live up to it. Most of all these women ended up old and alone, the men used them then left them. Beautiful women like Hedy thought all the men would treat her right cause she's a beauty, yeah they'll treat you right in the beginning until they get what they want, then their gone, she should have been smarter.

Since Hedy had no talent, all people can talk about is her looks. Maybe she would have been looked at as a great actress, if she would have worked hard and studied at acting, and stop just looking and being beautiful. She should have showed she was more than just a pretty face by working hard at some talent, whether it be acting, singing, or dancing. If you just sit and look beautiful, you'll be be treated as such, so don't complain. Hedy brought it upon herself if people just wanted her just to be beautiful or just liked her for her looks, if she would have showed talent they would have like her for that too. Charlize Theron is a beauty, but she showed she was a great actress and looked rough in the film she won an Academy for. There were beautiful women who were great actresses, Hedy just didn't have the talent, so of course she was just liked for her looks. Rita Hayworth, Gene Tienery, Garbo, and Linda Darnell were beauties who could act, Rita was multi-talented, she could dance as well. Elizabeth Taylor was a beauty who could act real good. I pick them any day over Hedy. Hedy just seem cold, like a lot of beautiful women, nice face, but ugly and cold on the inside because they feel cause they look good, they can treat people any kind of way or act any kind of way. Hedy was good looking but she looked like a mannequin, no life in her face, no spark. I've seen photos where she looked not so hot. When you got good lightning and a good photographer and a good makeup artist anyone can look good in Hollywood. Its a matter of opinion who thinks she's the most beautiful in the world, but I don't, and since black women weren't given a chance in films, well you can't say she was the most beautiful, cause you haven't seen the other beauties. Its all a matter of opinion who's the most beautiful. Oh there was another called the most beautiful woman, and that was actress Dolores del Rio, and I believe Greta Garbo was called the most beautiful in the early 30's, and an obscure actress named Anna Sten was called the most beautiful in the 30's too, so it wasn't just Hedy called the most beautiful. I pick Dolores del Rio, Garbo, Anna Sten, Rita Hayworth, Linda Darnell, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Tierney, Lana Turner, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, Ellen Holly, Diahanna Carroll, Hilda Simms, and Dorothy Dandridge over Hedy Lamarr anyday. All these women are in the same category of beauty as Hedy.

I bet no man can't deny any of these women's beauty, if they wanted any man, no man would turn them down. I bet all these beauties could make any woman jealous too.

I'm sick of these Hollywood women saying their beauty is a curse when they life go wrong, you brought it on yourself by the decisions you made, your looks had nothing to do with it.

Beauty isn't a curse, its how you handle it, if you use it negative or let people in your life to use it negative, your life experience will be negative, if you do good things, surround yourself about good people, you'll have a positive life. There are a lot of women that had beauty and did well, the ones who didn't are the ones who thought people should hand things to them on a silver platter, they were selfish, cold, didn't have much of a personality, because they would use their looks to attract people, and thought every man was going to treat them like a queen cause of their beauty, and they found men only use them, abuse them, and then moved on to the next beauty. When your an attractive woman, you have to be careful beautiful the more beautiful you are, the more men want you to use you, every woman should know. I think Hedy was dumb in a lot of ways.

Most women who are beautiful, don't have inner beauty, and that's why their beauty is a curse, and that's why they can't keep a man. Most Hollywood beauties have many love affairs and husbands, because they can't keep a man because they don't have inner beauty, they can get any man they want with outer beauty, but the lack of inner beauty is what caused them many failed love affairs and many upsets in life. Hedy's the perfect example of perfect on the outside, but messed up on the inside, I guess you can't have it all!!!! If people perfected inner beauty as much as they do outer beauty, the world would be a better place and everyone would be perfect. Anyways, Hedy proved she was just like any other human being. She got old, wrinkled, and ugly like everyone else, even her son said she aged badly and tried to fix it with plastic surgery, but ended up looking worse, then she hid from the public cause she didn't look like she did when she was young. HA! Looks don't last forever, so always have something to fall back on like smarts or talents.

If she had anything to do with Hitler, I really don't like her now!!