Movie star inventors
A reading-list theme from the original Inventor Underground: the connections between entertainment, practical problem-solving and invention.
Beyond a familiar profession
The 2006 page collected references to film and stage figures associated with inventions. Its reading list named Florence Lawrence, Charlotte Bridgwood, George McGuire and Edward LeVeque, alongside Hedy Lamarr, Danny Kaye, Zeppo Marx, Harry Houdini, Lawrence Welk, Jamie Lee Curtis and Marlon Brando.
The original biographical material was credited to The Stars of Hollywood Forever. The list is presented here as a record of the site’s interests, rather than as a catalogue of verified patent claims.
The same curiosity in the inventor gallery
The idea behind the section was broader than celebrity: someone known for one kind of work may also be experimenting with a tool, a mechanism or a different way to solve a problem.
Inventor Underground’s own contributors described ideas from many fields. Their profiles record those projects in their own words, while The art of invention follows the development of particular prototypes.
To research a specific invention or attribution, start with the official patent-search resources in Resources for inventors.
Contributors’ accounts and product descriptions reflect their original time.