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{{Short description|American composer and inventor (1900–1959)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = George Antheil
| image       = Antheil 1927.jpg
| image_size  =
| caption     = Detail from a portrait of Antheil, by American photographer [[Berenice Abbott]], {{circa|1927}}
| birth_date  = {{birth date text|July 8, 1900}}
| birth_place = [[Trenton, New Jersey]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death-date and age|February 12, 1959|July 8, 1900}}
| death_place = [[New York City|New York]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| occupation  = {{hlist|[[Composer]]|[[pianist]]|author|inventor}}
| spouse      = {{marriage|Boski Markus|1925}}
| children    = 1
| signature   = [[File:George Antheil Signature transparent.png|200px]]
}}
'''George Johann Carl Antheil''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|n|t|aɪ|l}} {{respell|AN|tyle}}; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American [[avant-garde]] composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of the early 20th century. Spending much of the 1920s in Europe, Antheil returned to the United States in the 1930s, and thereafter composed music for films, and eventually, television. As a result of this work, his style became more tonal. A man of diverse interests and talents, Antheil was constantly reinventing himself. He wrote magazine articles, an autobiography, a mystery novel, and newspaper and music columns.

In 1941, Antheil and the actress [[Hedy Lamarr]] developed a radio guidance system for Allied [[torpedo]]es that used a code (stored on a punched paper tape) to synchronize frequency changes, referred to as [[frequency hopping]], between the transmitter and receiver. It is one of the [[spread spectrum]] techniques that became widely used in modern telecommunications. This work led to their induction into the [[National Inventors Hall of Fame]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://invent.org/inductee-detail/?IID=489|title = Spotlight – National Inventors Hall of Fame|publisher = invent.org|access-date = January 6, 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303220911/http://invent.org/inductee-detail/?IID=489|archive-date = March 3, 2016|url-status = dead}}</ref>

==Early life==
Antheil was born George Johann Carl Antheil, and grew up in a family of German immigrants in [[Trenton, New Jersey]].<ref name="greene">{{Citation|last=Greene |first=David Mason|title=Greene's biographical encyclopedia of composers |publisher=Reproducing Piano Roll Fnd.|year=1985|pages=1297–1298|isbn=978-0-385-14278-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3S7PIxe0mwC&pg=PA1297}}</ref> His father owned a shoe store.<ref name=g256>{{Harvnb|Garafola|2005|p=256}}</ref><ref name=c313>{{Harvnb|Crunden|2000|p=313}}</ref> Antheil got his education in the Trenton public schools.<ref>{{cite web |last= Cleary |first= John J. |title= A History of Trenton 1679–1929 (Chapter XVI, Trenton's Recreations) |year= 1929 |access-date= January 6, 2020 |website= Trenton Historical Society |location= [[Trenton, New Jersey]] |url= http://www.trentonhistory.org/His/Recreation.html |quote= He got his education in the Trenton public schools}}</ref> He was raised bilingually, writing music, prose, and poetry from an early age, and never formally graduated from high school or college,<ref name="c313"/> flunking out of [[Trenton Central High School]] in 1918.<ref>Livingston, Guy. [http://www.paristransatlantic.com/antheil/mainpage/childhood.html "George Antheil's Childhood in Trenton"], ''[[Neue Zeitschrift für Musik]]'', September 2001. Accessed August 1, 2019. "In the winter of 1918, George flunked out of Trenton Central High School in the midst of his Senior year."</ref> According to Antheil's autobiography, ''The Bad Boy of Music'' (1945), he was "so crazy about music", that his mother sent him to the countryside where no pianos were available. Undeterred, George simply arranged for a local music store to deliver a piano.<ref>Guy Livingston, "[http://www.paristransatlantic.com/antheil/mainpage/childhood.html George Antheil's Childhood in Trenton]", English text of article originally published in German as "Der Mann hinter dem Mythos: George Antheils amerikanische Kindheit", trans. Esther Dubielzig. ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'' 162, no. 5 (September–October 2001): 18–21.</ref> His somewhat unreliable memoir mythologized his origins as a futurist, and emphasized his upbringing near a noisy machine shop and an ominous prison.<ref name=g256/><ref name=o7374>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|pp=73–74}}</ref> George's younger brother was [[Henry W. Antheil Jr.]]; he became a diplomatic courier and died on June 14, 1940, when [[Kaleva (airplane)|his plane]] was shot down over the Baltic Sea.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120709134512/http://helsinki.usembassy.gov/antheil.html Henry W. Antheil, Jr.'s], US Embassies, State Department</ref>[[File:Antheil violin.jpg|thumb|Journal entry by a young Antheil, showing a [[violin]] and [[hand saw]], captioned, "Drawing of a violin and the thing to play it with"]]

Antheil started studying the piano at the age of six. In 1916, he traveled regularly to [[Philadelphia]] to study under Constantine von Sternberg, a former pupil of [[Franz Liszt]].<ref name="c313"/> From Sternberg, he received formal composition training in the European tradition, but his trips to the city also exposed him to conceptual art, including [[Dadaism]].<ref name=o74>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|p=74}}</ref> In 1919, he began to work with the more progressive [[Ernest Bloch]] in New York.<ref name="c313"/><ref name="o74" /><ref name=grove>Linda Whitesitt, Charles Amirkhanian, and Susan C. Cook, "Antheil, George [Georg] (Carl Johann)", ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]] (London: Macmillan Publishers; New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 2001)</ref> Initially, Bloch had been skeptical and had rejected him, describing Antheil's compositions as "empty" and "pretentious"; however, the teacher was won over by Antheil's enthusiasm and energy, and helped him financially as he attempted to complete an aborted first symphony.<ref name="c313"/><ref name=j2>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2002|p=2}}</ref> Antheil's trips to New York also permitted him to meet important figures of the modernist movement, including the musician [[Leo Ornstein]], journalist and music critic [[Paul Rosenfeld]], painter [[John Marin]], photographer [[Alfred Stieglitz]], and [[Margaret Caroline Anderson|Margaret Anderson]], editor of ''[[The Little Review]]''.<ref name="o74" />

At age 19, Antheil was invited to spend the weekend with Anderson and a group of friends; he stayed six months, and the close-knit group, who included [[Georgette Leblanc]], former companion of [[Maurice Maeterlinck]], were to become influential in Antheil's career. Anderson described Antheil as short with an oddly shaped nose, who played "a compelling mechanical music", and used "the piano exclusively as an instrument of percussion, making it sound like a xylophone or a cymballo". Intensely engaged in his music, during this period, Antheil worked on songs, a piano concerto, and a work that came to be known as "The Mechanisms".<ref name=c314>{{Harvnb|Crunden|2000|p=314}}</ref>

Around this time, von Sternberg introduced Antheil to his patron of the next two decades: [[Mary Louise Curtis Bok]], later the founder of the [[Curtis Institute of Music]].<ref name="c314"/> Assured by von Sternberg of Antheil's genius and good character, Bok gave him a monthly stipend of $150, and arranged for him to study at the [[Settlement Music School|Philadelphia Settlement Music School]]. Though she came to disapprove of his behavior and his work, for the next 20 years, she continued to respond favorably to his letters.<ref name=j2/><ref name="c314"/> As her financial support enabled Antheil to maintain a degree of independence in his work, many observers believed he should have given her more credit in his autobiography for the length and extent of her contribution to his career.<ref name="whitesitt">{{Citation|last=Whitesitt|first=Linda |date=Spring 1984|title=Book review: Bad Boy of Music by George Antheil; Charles Amirkhanian|journal=American Music|volume=2|issue=1|pages=110–111|jstor=3051969|publisher=University of Illinois Press|doi=10.2307/3051969 }}</ref>

Antheil continued his piano studies,<ref name=j2/> and the study of modernist compositions, such as those by [[Igor Stravinsky]] and members of the [[Les Six]] group of French composers. In 1921, he wrote his first in a series of technology-based works, the solo piano ''Second Sonata, "The Airplane"''. Other works in the group included the ''Sonata Sauvage'' (1922–23) and subsequently ''Third Sonata, "Death of Machines"'' (1923), ''"Mechanisms"'' ({{circa|1923}}), both composed in Europe.<ref name=o7475>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|pp=74–75}}</ref> He also worked on his first symphony, managing to attract [[Leopold Stokowski]] to premiere it. Before the performance could take place, Antheil left for Europe to pursue his career. This may have diminished his chances for success in his native country.<ref name=j23>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2002|pp=2–3}}</ref>

==Berlin and Paris==
[[File:Antheil 1922.jpg|thumb|upright|Antheil photographed with his signature [[Bangs (hair)|bangs]], {{circa|1922}}]]
On May 30, 1922, at the age of 21, Antheil sailed for Europe to make his name as "a new ultra-modern pianist composer" and a "futurist terrible".<ref name=c315>{{Harvnb|Crunden|2000|p=315}}</ref><ref name=o75>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|p=75}}</ref> He had engaged [[Leo Ornstein]]'s manager, and opened his European career with a concert at [[Wigmore Hall]]. The concert featured works by [[Claude Debussy]] and Stravinsky, as well as his own compositions.<ref name="c315"/>

He spent a year in Berlin, planning to work with [[Artur Schnabel]], and gave concerts in [[Budapest]], Vienna, and at the [[Donaueschingen Festival]]. As he had desired, he achieved notoriety, but often had to pay the concert expenses out of his own pocket. His financial situation was not helped by Mrs. Bok's reduction of his stipend by half, though she often responded to requests to fund specific aspects of his concerts.<ref name="c315"/> He met Boski Markus, a Hungarian and niece of the Austrian playwright [[Arthur Schnitzler]], who became his companion and whom he married in 1925.<ref name=w267>{{Harvnb|Wilhelm|2008|p=267}}</ref><ref name="m495"/>

In the fall of 1922, Antheil took advantage of a chance meeting to introduce himself to his idol Stravinsky in Berlin. They established a warm intimacy and the more established composer encouraged Antheil to move to Paris.<ref name=c31517>{{Harvnb|Crunden|2000|pp=315–317}}</ref><ref name="white"/> He went as far as arranging a concert to launch Antheil's career in the French capital, but the younger man failed to show up, preferring to travel to Poland with Markus.<ref name=j3/> The Antheils finally arrived in Paris in June 1923, in time to attend the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet ''[[Les Noces]]'', but the relationship with Stravinsky did not survive for long. Stravinsky snubbed the younger man, having discovered that Antheil had boasted that "Stravinsky admired his work". The breach devastated Antheil, and was not ultimately repaired until 1941, when Stravinsky sent the family tickets to a concert he was giving in Hollywood.<ref name=g256/><ref name="white">{{Citation|last=White|first=Eric Walter |title=Stravinsky, the composer and his works |publisher=University of California Press|year=1985|pages=80–84|isbn=978-0-520-03985-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3gjrxSRphoC&pg=PA83}}</ref>

[[File:Paris Rue de l Odeon 12.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''12 Rue de l'Odéon'', Antheil's home in Paris, as seen in 2004]]Despite the inauspicious beginning, Antheil found Paris, at the time, a center of musical and artistic innovation, to be a "green tender morning" compared to the "black night" of Berlin.<ref name=f148>{{Harvnb|Fitch|1985|p=148}}</ref>
The couple lived in a one bedroom apartment above [[Sylvia Beach]]'s bookshop [[Shakespeare and Company (1919–1941)|Shakespeare and Company]].<ref name="m495">{{cite book |last= Monnier |first= Adrienne |author-link= Adrienne Monnier |title= The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier |translator-last= McDougall |translator-first= Richard |year= 1996 | orig-year = 1976 |publisher= [[University of Nebraska Press]] |isbn= 978-0-8032-8227-8 |page= 495 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JcH7g0vj1B0C&q=%22In+1925+Antheil+married+Elizabeth+%28Boski%29+Markus%22&pg=PA495 |quote= In 1925 Antheil married Elizabeth (Boski) Markus}}</ref><ref name=w268>{{Harvnb|Wilhelm|2008|p=268}}</ref> Beach described him "as fellow with [[Bangs (hair)|bangs]], a squished nose and a big mouth with a grin in it. A regular American high school boy."<ref name="meister115">{{Citation |author=Meister, Barbara |title=Music musique: French & American piano composition in the Jazz Age |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |year=2006 |page= 115|isbn=0-253-34608-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAxLixiOakUC&pg=PA115}}</ref> She was very supportive, and introduced Antheil to her circle of friends and customers including [[Erik Satie]], [[Ezra Pound]], [[James Joyce]], [[Virgil Thomson]], and [[Ernest Hemingway]]. Joyce and Pound were soon talking of an opera collaboration.<ref name=f1501>{{Harvnb|Fitch|1985|pp=150–151}}</ref> Pound, in particular, was to become an extravagant supporter and promoter of Antheil and his work, comparing him variously to Stravinsky and [[James Cagney]], and describing him as breaking down music to its "musical atom". Pound introduced Antheil to [[Jean Cocteau]], who in turn helped launch Antheil into the musical salons of Paris; Pound also commissioned Antheil to write three violin sonatas for his mistress, [[Olga Rudge]]. In 1924, Pound published ''Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony'', as part of his campaign to boost Antheil's reputation. The book may have done Antheil more harm than good, and the composer was to distance himself from it in his memoir.<ref name=a70>{{Harvnb|Albright|2004|p=70}}</ref><ref name=f1567>{{Harvnb|Fitch|1985|pp=156–157}}</ref><ref name="adams"/> [[Natalie Barney]] helped produce some original works, including the First String Quartet in 1925.<ref name=rodriguez>Suzanne Rodriguez ''Wild Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris'' (New York: HarperCollins, 2002): 249. {{ISBN|0-06-093780-7}}.</ref>

Antheil was asked to make his Paris debut at the opening of the [[Ballets suédois]], an important Paris social event. He programmed several recent compositions, including the "Airplane Sonata", the "Sonata Sauvage", and "Mechanism". Halfway through his performance, a riot broke out, much to Antheil's delight. According to Antheil, "People were fighting in the aisles, yelling, clapping, hooting! Pandemonium!&nbsp;... the police entered, and any number of surrealists, society personages, and people of all descriptions were arrested&nbsp;... Paris hadn't had such a good time since the premiere of Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring|Sacre du Printemps]]''."<ref name=g257>{{Harvnb|Garafola|2005|p=257}}</ref> The riot was filmed and may in fact have been engineered, as the [[Marcel L'Herbier]] movie ''[[L'Inhumaine]]'' needed a riot scene set in a concert hall. In the audience were Erik Satie, [[Darius Milhaud]], [[Man Ray]], [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Jean Cocteau]], and [[Francis Picabia]]. Antheil was delighted when Satie and Milhaud praised his music.<ref name=f1567/><ref name="g257"/>

Reactions to his first performances were cool at best. His technique was loud, brazen, and percussive. Critics wrote that he hit the piano rather than played it, and indeed he often injured himself by doing so. As part of his "bad boy" behavior, Antheil provocatively pulled a revolver from his jacket and laid it on the piano.<ref name=j3>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2002|p=3}}</ref>

==''Ballet Mécanique'' and later work in Europe==
Antheil's best-known composition is ''[[Ballet Mécanique]]''. The "ballet" was originally conceived to be accompanied by [[Ballet Mecanique|the film of the same name]] by experimental filmmakers [[Fernand Léger]] and [[Dudley Murphy]] (with cinematography by [[Man Ray]]),<ref name=g258>{{Harvnb|Garafola|2005|p=258}}</ref> although the nature of the collaboration is mysterious.<ref name=o190>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|p=190}}</ref> The first productions of Antheil's work in 1925 and 1926 did not include the film, which turned out to last around 19 minutes, only half as long as Antheil's score.<ref name=g258/>

[[File:George Antheil noisemaker.jpg|thumb|Antheil posing with one of the "noisemakers" he built for ''[[Ballet Mécanique]]'', {{circa|early 1920s}}]]Antheil described his "first big work" as "scored for countless numbers of player pianos. All percussive. Like machines. All efficiency. No LOVE. Written without sympathy. Written cold as an army operates. Revolutionary as nothing has been revolutionary."{{sfn|Oja|2000b|page=185}} Antheil's original conception was scored for 16 specially synchronized player pianos, two grand pianos, electronic bells, xylophones, bass drums, a siren and three airplane propellers, but difficulties with the synchronization resulted in a rewrite for a single pianola and multiple human pianists.<ref>{{Harvnb|Thomas|Key|Rothe|2001|p=56}}</ref> The piece consisted of periods of music and interludes of silence set against the roar of the airplane propellers.<ref name=a6970>{{Harvnb|Albright|2004|pp=69–70, 386}}</ref> Antheil described as "by far my most radical work&nbsp;... It is the rhythm of machinery, presented as beautifully as an artist knows how."<ref name=o64>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|p=64}}</ref> The Léger-Murphy film and Antheil's score were finally performed together at the [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York, in 1935.<ref name=g258/>

Antheil assiduously promoted the work, and even engineered his supposed "disappearance" while on a visit to Africa, so as to get media attention for a preview concert.<ref name=f1923>{{Harvnb|Fitch|1985|pp=192–193}}</ref> The Paris première in June 1926 was sponsored by an American patroness who at the end of the concert was (according to Antheil) "tossed in a blanket by three baronesses and a duke."<ref name=greene/> At the official première at the Théâtre du Champs Elysées, Antheil's music enraged some of the concert-goers, whose objections were drowned out by the cacophonous music,<ref name=rodriguez/> while others vocally supported the work, and the concert ended with a riot in the streets.<ref>{{Harvnb|Thomas|Key|Rothe|2001|p=58}}</ref>

[[File:George Antheil.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Antheil arriving in New York in 1927]]
On April 10, 1927, Antheil rented New York's [[Carnegie Hall]] to present an entire concert devoted to his works, including the American debut of ''Ballet Mécanique'' in a scaled-down version. He commissioned elaborate backdrops of skyscrapers and machines, and engaged an African American orchestra to premiere his ''[[A Jazz Symphony]]''.<ref name=g258/><ref name=o176>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|p=176}}</ref> The concert started well, but according to the concert's promoter and producer, when the wind machine was turned on, "all hell, in a minor way, broke loose." During the gale, audience members clutched their programs and their hats, one "tied a handkerchief to his cane and waved it wildly in the air in a sign of surrender." Much to the amusement of the audience, the untested siren failed to sound on cue, despite frantic cranking and reached its climax only after the end of the performance, as the audience was clapping and leaving the hall.<ref name=o71>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|p=71}}</ref> American critics were hostile, calling the concert "a bitter disappointment" and dismissing the ''Ballet Mécanique'' as "boring, artless, and naive" and Antheil's hoped-for riots failed to materialize. The failure of the ''Ballet Mécanique'' affected him deeply, and he never fully recovered his reputation during his lifetime,<ref name=o195>{{Harvnb|Oja|2000|p=195}}</ref> though his interest in the mechanical was emulated by other prominent composers such as [[Arthur Honegger]], [[Sergei Prokofiev]], and [[Erik Satie]].<ref name=j6>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2002|p=6}}</ref> In 1954, Antheil created a modified version of the work for percussion, four pianos, and a recording of an airplane motor.<ref name=greene/>

In the late 1920s, Antheil again moved to Germany, where he worked as assistant musical director of the municipal theatre in Berlin, and wrote music for the ballet and theatre. In 1930, he premiered his first opera ''[[Transatlantic (opera)|Transatlantic]]''.<ref name=g258/><ref name=j7>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2002|p=7}}</ref> This work, which involved American politics, gangsters, a bathtub scene and a [[Childs Restaurants|Childs Restaurant]] was a success at the [[Frankfurt Opera]].<ref name=greene/> In 1933, the rise of the [[Nazi party]] made Antheil's ''avant garde'' music unwelcome in Germany, and in the depths of the [[Great Depression|Depression]], he returned to the US and settled in New York City.

He re-entered American life with enthusiasm, organizing concerts, working on committees with [[Aaron Copland]] and [[Wallingford Riegger]], and writing piano, ballet, and film scores, as well as an opera ''[[Helen Retires]]'' about [[Helen of Troy]]; the latter proved a flop. His music had moved away from more extreme aspects of modernism, and more tonal, [[Neoromantic music|neoromantic]] aspects were by now discernible in his work.<ref name=greene/><ref name=j7/><ref name=g260>{{Harvnb|Garafola|2005|p=260}}</ref>

==Hollywood==
In 1936, Antheil travelled to Hollywood, where he became a sought-after film composer, writing more than 30 scores for such directors as [[Cecil B. DeMille]] and [[Nicholas Ray]],<ref name=greene/><ref name=grove/> including ''[[The Scoundrel (1935 film)|The Scoundrel]]'' (1935) and ''[[The Plainsman]]'' (1936).<ref name="adams">{{Citation|last=Adams|first=Stephen J.|title=The Ezra Pound Encyclopedia |editor=Tryphonopoulos, Demetres P. |editor2= Adams, Stephen |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2005|pages=13–15|chapter=Antheil, George (1900–1959) and "Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony" |isbn=978-0-313-30448-4|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttMlqGMYCsIC&pg=PA13}}</ref> The Antheils' only child, a son named Peter, was born in 1937.<ref name=j8>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2002|p=8}}</ref> Antheil found the industry hostile to modern music, complaining that it was a "closed proposition", and describing most background scores as "unmitigated tripe". He became increasingly dependent on more independent producers such as [[Ben Hecht]] to give him work, such as ''[[Angels Over Broadway]]'' (1940) and ''[[Specter of the Rose]]'' (1946).<ref name="miller"/> He also wrote the score for the independent film ''[[Dementia (1955 film)|Dementia]]'' (1955) and ''[[In a Lonely Place]]'' (1950) starring [[Humphrey Bogart]].<ref name=Time>{{Citation
| title = Music: Bad Boy at 53
| magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]
| date = July 20, 1953
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889855,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081222112624/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889855,00.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = December 22, 2008
}}</ref> Antheil was confident in the ability of his music to save a weak film. "If I say so myself, I've saved a couple of sure flops".<ref name=Time/>

Besides writing scores for movies, he continued to compose other music, including for ballet<ref name=g266>{{Harvnb|Garafola|2005|p=266}}</ref> and six symphonies; his later works were in a more romantic style and influenced by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, as well as American music including jazz.<ref name=greene/><ref name="adams"/><ref name=Time/><ref name=c320>{{Harvnb|Crunden|2000|p=320}}</ref> Works such as Serenade No. 1, Piano Sonata No. 4, ''Songs of Experience'' and ''Eight Fragments from Shelley'', written in 1948 showed a self-described desire "to disassociate myself from the passé modern schools of the last half-century, and to create a music for myself and those around me which has no fear of developed melody, real development itself, tonality, or other understandable forms."<ref name=j8/> His 1953 opera ''[[Volpone (opera)|Volpone]]'' was premiered in New York in 1953 to mixed reviews,<ref name=Time/> while a visit to Spain in the 1950s influenced some of his last works, including the film score for ''[[The Pride and the Passion]]'' (1957).<ref name=j8/> He also accepted a commission from the [[CBS Television]] network to compose a theme for their [[newsreel]] and documentary film series ''[[Twentieth Century (TV series)|The Twentieth Century]]'' (1957–1966), narrated by [[Walter Cronkite]].

==Other interests==
Apart from music, Antheil had many other pursuits. In 1930, as Stacey Bishop, he wrote a murder mystery called ''Death in the Dark'' with a character based on [[Ezra Pound]].<ref name=greene/><ref name="adams"/> He was the film music reporter and critic for the magazine ''Modern Music'' from 1936 to 1940, writing columns considered lively and thoughtful, noting the comings and goings of musicians and composers during an era when the industry was flirting with more "modern" scores for films. He was disappointed, however, and wrote that "Hollywood, after a grand splurge with new composers and new ideas, has settled back into its old grind of producing easy and sure-fire scores."<ref name="miller">{{Citation |author=Marks, Martin Miller |title=Music and the silent film: contexts and case studies, 1895–1924 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |year=1997 |pages=14–16 |isbn=0-19-506891-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALbz24g5aOAC&pg=PA14}}</ref>

Before [[World War II]], he participated in the [[Hollywood Anti-Nazi League]], putting on exhibits of artworks banned in Nazi Germany such as those by [[Käthe Kollwitz]].<ref name=j7/> He also published a book of war predictions, entitled ''The Shape of the War to Come''.<ref name=g266/>

In 1945, he published a memoir called ''Bad Boy of Music'', which became a bestseller.<ref name="j8"/>

Antheil wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper relationship advice column, as well as regular columns in magazines such as ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' and ''[[Coronet (magazine)|Coronet]]''. He considered himself an expert on female [[endocrinology]], and wrote a series of articles about how to determine the availability of women based on glandular effects on their appearance, with titles such as "The Glandbook for the Questing Male".<ref name=greene/><ref name="abelson">{{Citation|last=Abelson|first=Harold|author2=Ledeen, Ken|others=Lewis, Harry|title=Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion |publisher=Addison-Wesley|year=2008|pages=278–280|isbn=978-0-13-713559-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7DOltmSGjgC&pg=PA278}}</ref> Another book of "glandular criminology" was titled ''Every Man His Own Detective''.

Antheil's interest in this area brought him into contact with the actress [[Hedy Lamarr]], who sought his advice about how she might enhance her upper torso. He suggested glandular extracts, but their conversation then moved to [[torpedo]]es.<ref name="abelson"/>

==Frequency-hopping radio invention==
{{Disputed section|date=October 2022}}

During World War II, Lamarr realized that a single radio-controlled torpedo could severely damage or sink enemy ships causing irreparable damage. However these radio-controlled torpedoes could easily be detected and jammed, by broadcasting interference at the frequency of the control signal, thereby causing the torpedo to go off course.<ref name="ScienceShow">{{cite episode|title=Hedy Lamarr – actor, inventor, amateur engineer|series=The Science Show|series-link=Radio_National#Science|network=Radio National|url=http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2014/07/ssw_20140705_1218.mp3#t=420|format=MP3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140705081920/http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2014/07/ssw_20140705_1218.mp3#t=420|url-status=live|archive-date=July 5, 2014|minutes=7|airdate=July 5, 2014}}</ref>

Antheil and Lamarr developed the idea of using [[frequency hopping]]: in this case using a [[player piano]] roll to randomly change the signal sent between the control center and torpedo at short bursts within a range of 88 frequencies on the spectrum (88 black and white keys are on a piano keyboard). The specific code for the sequence of frequencies would be held identically by the controlling ship and in the torpedo. This basically encrypted the signal, as it was impossible for the enemy to scan and jam all 88 frequencies because this would have required too much power. Antheil would control the frequency-hopping sequence using a player-piano mechanism, which he had earlier used to score his ''Ballet Mécanique''.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/bombshellthehedylamarrstory |title=Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story |publisher=[[Zeitgeist Films]] |people=Writer/Director: Alexandra Dean}}</ref>

On August 11, 1942, {{US patent|2292387}} was granted to Antheil and "Hedy Kiesler Markey", Lamarr's married name at the time. This early version of frequency hopping, though novel, soon met with opposition from the U.S. Navy and was not adopted.<ref name="npr.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/11/27/142664182/most-beautiful-woman-by-day-inventor-by-night|title='Most Beautiful Woman' By Day, Inventor By Night|date=November 22, 2011|publisher=NPR|access-date=May 26, 2015}}</ref>

The idea was not implemented in the US until 1962, when it was used by U.S. military ships during a blockade of Cuba after the patent had expired.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Tony|last=Long|url=https://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/08/0811hedy-lamar-george-antheil-torpedo-patent|title=This Day in Tech: Aug. 11, 1942: Actress + Piano Player=New Torpedo|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|date=August 11, 2011|access-date=October 17, 2011}}</ref> The patent was little known until 1997, when the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] gave Lamarr a belated award for her contributions. In 1998, an Ottawa wireless technology developer, [[Wi-LAN]], acquired a 49% claim to the long expired patent from Lamarr for an undisclosed amount of stock.<ref>(Eliza Schmidkunz, ''[[Inside GNSS]]'').</ref> Lamarr and Antheil's frequency-hopping scheme shares some concepts with modern [[spread-spectrum]] communication technology, such as [[Bluetooth]], [[COFDM]] used in [[Wi-Fi]] network connections, and [[CDMA]] used in some cordless and wireless telephones. Blackwell, Martin, and Vernam's 1920 Secrecy Communication System ({{US patent|1598673}}) was a predecessor to Kiesler and Antheil's patent, which employed the techniques in the autonomous control of torpedoes.

==Later life==
Antheil died of a heart attack in the New York City borough of Manhattan.<ref name=time>{{Citation
|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,825623,00.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201075256/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,825623,00.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=February 1, 2011
|title=Milestones, Feb. 23, 1959
|magazine=Time
|access-date=July 24, 2009
|date=February 23, 1959}}</ref> His legacy included three accomplished students, [[Henry Brant]], [[Benjamin Lees]], and [[Ruth White (composer)|Ruth White]]. He is buried in [[Riverview Cemetery (Trenton, New Jersey)|Riverview Cemetery]], in Trenton, New Jersey.

==In literature==
"Antheil's my man." Mrs. McKisco turned challengingly to Rosemary, "Antheil and Joyce. I don't suppose you ever hear much about those sort of people in Hollywood, but my husband wrote the first criticism of ''Ulysses'' that ever appeared in America."   ([[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], ''[[Tender Is the Night]]'')<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fitzgerald|first=F. Scott|title=Tender is the Night|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1933|edition=1962|pages=16}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{{Incomplete list |date=January 2023}}

* ''Death In the Dark'', a crime novel edited and published by [[T. S. Eliot]] (1930)
* ''Every Man His Own Detective: A Study of Glandular Criminology'', New York City: Stackpole Sons (1937)
* "The Shape of the War to Come", a pamphlet (1940)
* ''Bad Boy of Music'', Garden City, New York: Doubleday (1945; various reprints and languages)
* {{cite book |author=Antheil, George |editor=Birmingham, Frederic A. |title=The girls from Esquire |location=London |publisher=Arthur Barker |date=1953 |pages=287–299 |chapter=Glandbook for the questing male}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|20em}}

===Sources===
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
*{{Citation|last=Albright |first=Daniel |title=Modernism and music: an anthology of sources |publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-226-01267-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PqSfxYTiA0cC&pg=PA71}}
*{{Citation|last= Crunden |first= Robert Morse|title=Body & soul: the making of American modernism|publisher=Basic Books|year=2000|isbn= 978-0-465-01484-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=duhoC8Nr_Q4C&pg=PA311}}
*{{Citation|last=Fitch|first=Noel Riley|title=Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=1985|isbn=978-0-393-30231-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zpu5_c2o-2IC&pg=PA148}}
*{{Citation|last=Garafola|first=Lynn|title=Legacies of Twentieth-century Dance|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8195-6674-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7gIDy6ait3IC&pg=PA256}}
*{{Citation|last=Johnson|first=John Andrew|title=Music of the twentieth-century avant-garde: a biocritical sourcebook|editor= Sitsky, Larry |editor2=Kramer, Jonathan D |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2002|chapter=George Antheil (1900–1959)|isbn=978-0-313-29689-5|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-M_jhnOuboC&pg=PA3}}
*{{Citation|last=Oja|first=Carol J.|author-link=Carol J. Oja|title=Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-19-516257-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cVKLKpDRH4MC&pg=PA71}}
*{{Cite book|last=Oja|first=Carol|editor-last=Ludington|editor-first=Townsend|chapter=George Antheil's Ballet Mécanique and Transatlantic Modernism|title=A Modern Mosaic: Art and Modernism in the United States|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|year=2000b|isbn=0-8078-4891-3|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/modernmosaicartm0000unse/page/185}}
*{{Cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Michael Frederic|last2=Key|first2=Susan|last3=Rothe|first3=Larry|title=American Mavericks|publisher=[[San Francisco Symphony]]|location=San Francisco, California|year=2001|isbn=0-520-23305-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vu3O9-Yk8E4C&pg=PA53}}
*{{Citation|last=Wilhelm|first=J. J. |title=Ezra Pound in London and Paris, 1908–1925 |publisher= Penn State Press|year=2008|pages=267–268|isbn=978-0-271-02798-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpmBwzOT7hwC&pg=PA267}}
{{div col end}}

==Further reading==
*{{Citation|last=Smith|first=Catherine Parsons|title=Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music|editor=Cook, Susan C.|editor2=Tsou, Judy S.|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1994|chapter="A distinguished virility"; Feminism and Modernism in American Art Music|isbn=978-0-252-06341-1|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2F_2J2vslwC&pg=PA96|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780252063411|ref=none}}

==Listening==
{{Archival records|title=George Antheil Correspondence to Stanley Hart, 1919-1931|location= [[Library of Congress|Music Division, Library of Congress]]|inventory_number=ML31 .A585|description_URL=https://lccn.loc.gov/2010563504}}
{{Archival records|title=George Antheil Collection|location= [[Other Minds (organization)|Other Minds]] Archives|inventory_number=OMA.COL005.ANT|description_URL=https://archives.otherminds.org/index.php/Detail/collections/7}}
{{wikiquote}}
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20061001164347/http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/composer.pl?comp=210 Art of the States: George Antheil]}} ''Second Sonata for Violin'' (1923) and ''Dreams'' (1934–35)
*[http://www.guylivingston.com/content/audio.shtml Piano Music] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725104935/http://www.guylivingston.com/content/audio.shtml |date=July 25, 2008 }} ''Fourth Sonata'', ''Sonate Sauvage'', ''Woman Sonata'' performed by Guy Livingston
*[http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/programs/program3.html American Mavericks: Program 3 – Oh to Be Popular] Three works performed by the San Francisco Symphony
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040317020404/http://newmusicjukebox.org/composers/c_works.asp?ComposerID=17821&ActorID=33380 New Music Jukebox: George Antheil] Three works performed by the American Composers Orchestra
*[https://www.otherminds.org/recording/antheil-plays-antheil/ From Other Minds] ''Antheil Plays Antheil''
*[https://www.otherminds.org/recording/george-antheil-complete-works-string-quartet/ Del Sol Quartet: George Antheil] ''The Complete Works for String Quartet'' by [[Del Sol Quartet]], [[New Jersey]]
*{{YouTube|GfdO0yi88hE|Giuseppe Galante – George Antheil: Sonata for Trumpet: I. Allegretto}}, {{YouTube|8EAuhalc4Ns|II. Dolce – espressivo|link=no}}, {{YouTube|xPN3z_3mve4|III. Scherzo – Vivace|link=no}}, {{YouTube|P8ciwCWNhNE|IV: Allegretto|link=no}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110518145306/http://users.macunlimited.net/msteer/filmradio/aintro.html ''The Original American in Paris'' – text of a programme written for BBCr3] by Michael Maxwell Steer in 1988
*[http://www.antheil.org/ Antheil] by Paul Lehrman
*[https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/ballet_pr.html George Antheil and a modern-day performance of Ballet Mécanique]  ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]''
*[http://www.ltmrecordings.com/futurpianoinfo.html Antheil and ''Futurpiano''] at LTM
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20141217063239/http://georgeantheil.com/ Antheil's life and works] curated by Les amis de George Antheil (Paris)
*[http://www.concertzender.nl/programmagids/?date=2015-01-23&month=-1&detail=76088 Guy Livingston talks about the Ballet mécanique] broadcast by ConcertZender Radio, Utrecht
*[http://www.rts.ch/espace-2/programmes/d-un-air-entendu/6416292-d-un-air-entendu-du-12-01-2015.html Marcel Quillévéré broadcast in five episodes] Life, works, and context of George Antheil on Radio Suisse Romande (2015)
*[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1907109 Hearing Antheil's 'Lost Sonatas' Again] NPR interview with pianist and musicologist Guy Livingston. May 23, 2014
*[http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/the-rise-and-fall-of-george-antheil/6249624 Bad boy of music: the rise and fall of George Antheil] [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] broadcast. February 24, 2015
*{{YouTube|hG5ixKNGMRs|Audio (18:00)}}, George Antheil interview by Truman Fisher ([[KPPC-FM]] Radio; 1958)
*[https://archives.otherminds.org/index.php/Detail/objects/5167 Interview with Benjamin Lees about George Antheil, 1970] [[Other Minds (organization)|Other Minds Archives]]

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0005947}}
*{{Discogs artist|George Antheil}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Antheil, George}}
*[https://brahms.ircam.fr/en/george-antheil Composer's entry] on [[IRCAM]]'s database
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070525091324/http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~tojan/antheil/gaworks.htm A concise chronological list of George Antheil's compositions. Compiled by Tommi A. Ojanperä. Last revised on January 2, 2000]. Accessed on March 4, 2024 on the [[Internet Archive]].

{{Commons category}}
{{George Antheil}}
{{Futurism (music)}}
{{Modernist composers}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Antheil, George}}
[[Category:George Antheil| ]]
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