HEDY'S FOLLY The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

Fans of show business and of military history will find common pleasure in this fine production of Rhodes’s account of how, early in WWII, actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheill invented a jam-proof guidance system for torpedoes—using the principle of the player piano. Female voices predominate in this narrative, based heavily on accounts by Lamarr and by Antheill’s wife, Boski, who understandably had her own perspective on her husband’s collaboration with the glamorous star. For all this, Bernadette Dunne proves an inspired choice of narrator. Her phrasing is a textbook example of ease, clarity, and sensitivity to nuance in a text that is lively and anecdotal but does have its stretches of Basic Mechanics. Rhodes is a gifted and expressive writer, and a distinctive voice. But for the six hours this tight, captivating little sleeper lasts, Dunne makes his words her own. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2012]