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What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr | 
 enlarge | Author: Devra Z. Hill
Creator: Jodi Babydol Gibson
Publisher: Corona Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $17.95
You Save: $2.00 (10%)
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 173606
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 212
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.5
ISBN: 0979220254
Dewey Decimal Number: 790
EAN: 9780979220258
ASIN: 0979220254
Publication Date: June 23, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
It's no secret that Hedy Lamarr was a screen goddess and icon of the 1930's, the 1940's, and even into the 1950's. A career which spanned decades, author Devra Hill was one of the few individuals granted access by Hedy into the private moments of her legendary life. Most people knew about the public Hedy, the persona that made headlines in the newspapers. But only Devra Hill got close enough to know her intimate secrets revealed to her through many shared moments of conversation they had together. Devra says "A cunning and brilliantly manipulative woman as exemplified in my chapter involving Hedy's tryst with Adolph Hitler." Although initially taken by him against her will, Hedy remained in his good graces long enough to receive a diamond encrusted cigarette case as a gift from one of the most hated men of the twentieth century. Only Hedy could soothe the savage beast". In "What Almost Happened to Hedy" the reader is faced with some fascinating questions ie; What was it that Hedy Lamarr knew during her liaisons with Adolph Hitler? Why did she know men but never really knew love? Was she really as sexual as everyone imagined? What was it inside the mind of Hedy Lamarr that really made her tick? Hedy Lamarr fans will truly enjoy author Devra Hill's excellent writing and perhaps come to understand a more intimate side of the actress that most of us will never know..
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| Customer Reviews:
 What Should Have Never Happened To Hedy Lamarr November 16, 2008
Hoping that this would be a long anticipated biography on one of my all-time favorite movie stars, Miss Hedy Lamarr, I eagerly began reading this book by author Devra Z. Hill, who claims to have been friends with the late Miss Lamarr.
From the bizarre, unattractive neo art cover of what was a stunning Hedy Lamarr photograph, it all gets worse after that. But then, the dreadful cover is totally adept to the book, which makes no sense. As I read on I kept expecting (and hoping) that the book would return to a "normal" biography once I passed the first 30 pages.
Instead of attempting a true and tried account of Lamarr's life, Devra Z. Hill resorts to fictional writing and skips everything known about Hedy Lamarr; including birth and parents, important years in her life, her films, the actors she knew and worked with, her frequency hopping invention that led to today's cell phone. Even the names of Lamarr's husbands and children are omitted. But I wondered why? This book has a few studio-standard photographs, nothing revelatory. What's left after that you might ask? Well, the answer is obvious: nothing. And that is sad, as Hedy Lamarr was one of Hollywood's most beautiful, fascinating and intelligent women of all times. She truly deserves a real biography.
This book is supposed to chronicle the years of 1940 to 1967 but nothing relevant is to be found. I recommend any admirer of Miss Hedy Lamarr or anyone who is even remotely interested in her life to skip this one and opt for her ghost-written autobiography, Ecstasy and Me. Or better yet, The Films of Hedy Lamarr by Christopher Young. Those are certainly worth your time and money.
Disapponting August 29, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have so many issues with this book in terms of the many ways it failed to live up to expectations:
1. At a most basic level, the book is filled with mis-spellings. "Choked" is spelled as "choaked" and there are many more such errors to find throughout the book. Totally unacceptable.
2. The writing is so simplistic and contrived. A character who is implied to be Greta Garbo uses "I want to be alone" as part of the first thing she ever says when introduced -- and repeats this several times for the few pages she occupies this novel. This book is so full of tired cliches, it's so disappointing.
3. Given the press and the publisher's description of the book, I really thought it was going to be more biographical rather than sensationalizing on a dead celebrity with mostly made-up trash.
4. Perhaps most egregious, I learned the author based this story on notes she had taken back in the 60s when she was invited by Hedy Lamarr to write her biography. Shortly thereafter, Lamarr was arrested for shoplifting and that somehow ended the author's associations with the actress. I can't help but feel the author is doing a disservice to someone who is dead and who can not defend herself. She used information that Lamarr gave her in confidence over 40 years ago to profit by writing a completely sensationalistic book. Looks like Lamarr is being used once again.
 "What Almost Happened To Hedy Lamarr" is GREAT August 18, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
"I just read "What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr" and found it to be fascinating, sexually interesting and humorous. It kept my attention to the last page and made me think it would make a great movie!" What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr
 Getting Off on Hedy August 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Hedy LaMarr to this day can arouse the most impotent of the male species by just looking at photos of her in her prime. Millions of men and women the world over have at one time fantasized about having sex with Heddy Lamarr or at least watching her having sex. Someone finally came forward and provided the next best thing to fullfilling that fantasy. Although it is based on a true story from the author Devra Hill, who claims LaMarr confided in her about these sexual trysts (including working around the one testicled Adolf Hiter, the book reads like an eyewitness account, but coupled with a modern day style as though you were reading an x-rated sex story from the pages of Hustler. The corraboration with a notorious Hollywood Madam in writing this book now makes sense. Prudes need not read this book. It is an orgasm of delighful eroticsim yet tells the inner most secrets of one of the most beautiful women who ever walked this planet. Brian Cowan
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