Lowell Thomas

Thomas was born in Woodington, Ohio, to Harry and Harriet (née Wagoner) Thomas. His father was a doctor, his mother a teacher. In 1900, the family moved to the mining town of Victor, Colorado. Thomas worked there as a gold miner, a cook, and a reporter on the newspaper.Hesse, Nelson S. (1930) [https://archive.org/details/radiodigest1930126radi/page/n146/mode/1up Lowell Thomas] Radio Digest p 6-9,128

File:BOYHOOD HOME OF LOWELL THOMAS, VICTOR, COLORADO.jpg]]

In 1911, Thomas graduated from Victor High School where one of his teachers was Mabel Barbee Lee.Lee, Mabel Barbee: "Cripple Creek Days", pg. 265. Doubleday & Company, 1958 (LOC=58-12050) The following year, he graduated from Valparaiso University with a bachelor of science degree. The next year, he received both a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Denver[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lowell-Thomas "Lowell Thomas"], Encyclopedia BritannicaStephens, Mitchell (2017) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vs-YDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism] New York: St. Martin's Press {{ISBN|978-1-137-27982-8}} pg 18,24 and began work for the Chicago Journal, writing for it until 1914. Thomas also was on the faculty of Chicago-Kent College of Law[https://alumni.kentlaw.iit.edu/alumni-distinction-lowell-thomas "Lowell Thomas"] at Kent Law (now part of Illinois Institute of Technology), where he taught oratory from 1912 to 1914. He then went to New Jersey where he studied for a master's at Princeton University (he received the degree in 1916) and again taught oratory at the university.{{Citation needed |date=January 2024}}

Thomas became interested in travel as a young man, and his skills for self-promotion helped him to persuade railroads to give him free passage in exchange for articles extolling rail travel. When he visited Alaska in 1914, he took a movie camera with him and became one of the first to use the new medium to make travelogues. After the United States entered World War I, Thomas went to Europe to report on the conflict and from there to Egypt and Palestine, where he met T.E. Lawrence, who was acting as British liaison to the local leaders of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. {{cite news|date=August 30, 1981|title=LOWELL THOMAS, A WORLD TRAVELER AND BROADCASTER FOR 45 YEARS, DEAD|language=en|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/30/obituaries/lowell-thomas-a-world-traveler-and-broadcaster-for-45-years-dead.html|access-date=March 17, 2018}}

File:Lowell Thomas in Arabia, 1918.jpg

Thomas shot dramatic footage of Lawrence in Arab dress, then returned to America and began giving public lectures in 1919 on the war in Palestine, "supported by moving pictures of veiled women, Arabs in their picturesque robes, camels and dashing Bedouin cavalry." His lectures were very popular and audiences large. He agreed to take the lecture to Britain, but only "if asked by the King and given Drury Lane or Covent Garden" as a lecture venue. His conditions were met, and he opened a series at Covent Garden on August 14, 1919. "And so followed a series of some hundreds of lecture–film shows, attended by the highest in the land".Hall, Rex (1975) The Desert Hath Pearls, (Melbourne: Hawthorn Press) pp. 120–1 In 1924, Thomas published the memoir With Lawrence in Arabia.

Thomas genuinely admired Lawrence and continued to defend him against later attacks on Lawrence's reputation.Clio Visualizing History Page, Lowell Thomas and Lawrence of Arabia.[http://www.cliohistory.org/thomas-lawrence/legacy/ "A Legacy of Ripples."] Accessed August 13, 2012. Lawrence's brother Arnold allowed Thomas to contribute to T.E. Lawrence by his Friends (1937), a collection of essays and reminiscences published after Lawrence's death.Lawrence, A.W. (editor). T.E. Lawrence by His Friends (Doubleday: New York, 1937), pp. 163-174

In the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, a fictionalized version of Thomas called Jackson Bentley was portrayed by Arthur Kennedy.

File:T. E. Lawrence (by Lowell Thomas, 1918).jpg

Thomas was a magazine editor during the 1920s, but he never lost his fascination with the movies. He narrated Twentieth Century Fox's twice weekly Movietone newsreels until 1952, and provided the voice-over for numerous short subject film series, including Lowell Thomas' Magic Carpet of Movietone and Going Places with Lowell Thomas. Webb, Graham (2020) [https://books.google.com/books?id=cmDwDwAAQBAJ Encyclopedia of American Short Films, 1926-1959] McFarland {{ISBN|9781476681184}}

File:Movietone_title_card.jpg

Thomas went into business with Mike Todd and Merian C. Cooper to exploit Cinerama, a film exhibition format using three projectors and an enormous curved screen with seven-channel surround sound. He narrated the Cinerama documentaries This is Cinerama (1952) and Seven Wonders of the World (1956), and both produced and narrated Search for Paradise (1957).Crestview, Florida, "Cinerama Crews Shooting New Movie At Eglin AFB", The Okaloosa News-Journal – Edgewater Area News section, Thursday November 1, 1956, Volume 42, Number 44, page 1.

Thomas was first heard on radio delivering talks about his travels in 1929 and 1930: for example, he spoke on the NBC Radio Network in late July 1930 about his trip to Cuba."Radio Notes." Canton (OH) Sunday Repository, July 27, 1930, p. 7. Then, in late September 1930, he took over as the host of the Sunday evening Literary Digest program, replacing the previous host, Floyd Gibbons."Gibbons Series Ends." Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel, September 28, 1930, p. C-5. On the program, he told stories of his travels. The show was fifteen-minutes long, and heard on the NBC Network."Through the Static." New Britain (CT) Herald, September 29, 1930, p. 18. Thomas soon changed the focus of the program from his own travels to interesting stories about other people. By October 1930, he was including more news stories. It was at this point that the program, which was now on six days a week, moved to the CBS Radio network.Yank Taylor. "Radio Review." Chicago Daily Times, October 4, 1930, p. 9

After two years, he switched back to the NBC Radio network but returned to CBS in 1947. He was not an employee of either NBC or CBS, contrary to today's practices, but was employed by the broadcast's sponsor Sunoco. He returned to CBS to take advantage of lower capital-gains tax rates, establishing an independent company to produce the broadcast which he sold to CBS, like coverage of the Coronation Ice Show in Lake Placid, New York in 1934.{{Cite book |last=Sausa |first=Christie |title=Lake Placid Figure Skating. A History |publisher=History Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-60949-565-7 |pages=52}} He hosted the first television news broadcast in 1939 and the first regularly scheduled television news broadcast beginning on February 21, 1940, over W2XBS (now WNBC) New York, which was a camera simulcast of his radio broadcast.[https://populartimelines.com/timeline/NBC-News NBC News] Timelines

File:Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lowell Thomas - NARA - 196577.jpg in 1936]]

In the summer of 1940, Thomas anchored a television broadcast of the 1940 Republican National Convention, the first live telecast of a political convention, which was fed from Philadelphia to W2XBS and on to W2XB Schenectady (now WRGB). He was not actually in Philadelphia but was anchoring the broadcast from a New York studio and merely identifying speakers who addressed the convention to the few thousand people who had television sets in those three cities.{{Cite web |title=LTP.1940.06.24 |url=https://exhibits.archives.marist.edu/s/ltnb/media/60783 |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=exhibits.archives.marist.edu |series=Lowell Thomas News Broadcasts |agency=Marist Archives and Special Collections Exhibits and Collections}}

In April 1945, Thomas flew in a normally single-person P-51 Mustang over Berlin while it was being attacked by the Soviet Union, reporting live via radio.{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PNlXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cfUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1874%2C4891161 |title = Spokane Daily Chronicle – Google News Archive Search}}[https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/person/lowell-jackson-thomas Lowell Thomas], American Air Museum

In 1953, Thomas was featured in The Ford 50th Anniversary Show that was broadcast simultaneously on the NBC and CBS television networks. The program was viewed by 60 million persons. Thomas presented a tribute to the classic days of radio.{{cite news|title=Ford's 50th anniversary show was milestone of '50s culture|newspaper=Palm Beach Daily News|date=December 26, 1993|page=B3|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59934494/fords-50th-anniversary-show-was/|via=Newspapers.com}}

His persistent debt problems were remedied by Thomas' manager/investing partner, Frank Smith who, in 1954, became the President of co-owned Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, which, in 1957, became Capital Cities Television Corporation.{{Citation needed |date=January 2024}}

File:Lowell Thomas Magic Dials.jpg

The television news simulcast was a short-lived venture for Thomas, as he favored radio. It was over radio that he presented and commented upon the news for four decades until his retirement in 1976, the longest radio career of anyone in his day, since surpassed by Paul Harvey. His signature sign-on was "Good evening, everybody" and his sign-off was "So long, until tomorrow," phrases that he used as titles for his two volumes of memoirs.{{Citation needed |date=January 2024}}

File:Lowell gramma 2.jpg

Thomas' wife Frances often traveled with him. She died in 1975, and he married Marianna Munn in 1977. They embarked on a {{Convert|50,000|mi||adj=on}} honeymoon trip that took him to many of his favorite old destinations. Thomas died at his home in Pawling, New York in 1981. He is buried in Christ Church Cemetery. Marianna died in Dayton, Ohio on January 28, 2010.{{cite news|title=Local Activist, Widow of Author and Commentator Lowell Thomas Dies at 82|url=http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/local-activist-widow-of-author-and-commentator-lowell-thomas-dies-at-82-521169.html|access-date=March 17, 2018|date= 2010 |work=Dayton Daily News}}

In 1945, Thomas received the Alfred I. duPont Award.[http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/page/412-past-dupont-award-winners/594 All duPont–Columbia Award Winners] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120814182043/http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/page/412-past-dupont-award-winners/594 |date=August 14, 2012 }}, Columbia Journalism School. Retrieved August 6, 2013. In 1971, Thomas received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement,{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/}}{{cite web |date=1974 |title=Our History Photo |url= https://achievement.org/our-history/|quote= Members of the Awards Council: award-winning actress Helen Hayes, pioneer TV newscaster Lowell Thomas, and famed attorney Leon Jaworski at the American Academy of Achievement's 1974 Banquet of the Golden Plate Award ceremonies in Salt Lake City, Utah.}} and was honored at the 1973 Peabody Awards. [https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/personal-award-lowell-thomas/ Lowell Thomas], peabodyawards.com In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.{{cite news|title=21 Named by Ford to Receive Medal of Freedom|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/02/archives/21-named-by-ford-to-receive-medal-of-freedom.html|access-date=March 17, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=1977}} He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/lowell-thomas/index.html Lowell Thomas] Walk of Fame, LA Times Thomas was inducted into many Halls of Fame:

• 1966 National Ski Hall of Fame[https://skihall.com/hall-of-famers/lowell-thomas/ Lowell Thomas], National Ski Hall of Fame
• 1977 National Association of Broadcasters[https://nab.org/hof/inductees/lowellThomas.asp Lowell Thomas], NAB
• 1978 Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame[https://www.snowsportsmuseum.org/hall-of-fame-all/lowell-thomas Lowell Thomas], CSM
• 1989 National Radio Hall of Fame{{cite news|title=Journalists Named to Hall of Fame|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/02/archives/journalists-named-to-hall-of-fame.html|access-date=March 17, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=May 2, 1975}}
• 1992 National Aviation Hall of Fame[https://nationalaviation.org/enshrinee/lowell-thomas/ Lowell Thomas], NAHF
• 2018 Laurentian Ski Hall of Fame.[https://skimuseum.com/honorary-members/lowell-thomas/ Lowell Thomas], Laurentian Ski Hall of Fame, Canada

Named after him are the Thomas Mountains in Antarctica,{{cite web |title=Thomas Mountains |url=https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:5:::NO::P5_ANTAR_ID:15198 |website=geonames.usgs.gov}} a museum in Victor, Colorado,[https://www.victorcolorado.com/lowellthomas.htm Museum] as well as awards from a number of organizations: 1947 Overseas Press Club of America,[https://opcofamerica.org/ Lowell Thomas Award] OPCA 1980 The Explorers Club,[https://www.explorers.org/awards/ Lowell Thomas Award], The Explorers Club 1984 Society of American Travel Writers Foundation,[https://satwf.com/archives-2020-lowell-thomas-competition/ Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year] and 2012 Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado.[https://broadcastpioneersofcolorado.com/lowellthomasaward.html Lowell Thomas Award], BPoC

The communications building at Marist University in Poughkeepsie, New York is named for Thomas, after he received an honorary degree from the college in 1981. The Lowell Thomas Archives are housed as part of the university library.{{cite news|last1=Carroll|first1=Maurice|last2=Anderson|first2=Susan Heller|title=NEW YORK DAY BY DAY; Marist College Honors Modest Walter Cronkite|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/nyregion/new-york-day-by-day-marist-college-honors-modest-walter-cronkite.html|access-date=March 17, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=April 27, 1984|language=en}}

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• With Lawrence in Arabia, 1924
• The First World Flight, 1925
• Beyond Khyber Pass, 1925
• [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73765 Count Luckner, the Sea Devil], 1927
• European Skyways, 1927
• The Boy's Life of Colonel Lawrence, 1927
• Adventures in Afghanistan for Boys, 1928
• Raiders of the Deep, 1928
• The Sea Devil's Fo'c'sle, 1929
• Woodfill of the Regulars, 1929
• The Hero of Vincennes: the Story of George Rogers Clark, 1929
• The Wreck of the Dumaru, 1930
• Lauterbach of the China Sea, 1930
• India--Land of the Black Pagoda, 1930
• Rolling Stone: The Life and Adventures of Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore, 1931
• Tall Stories, 1931
• Kabluk of the Eskimo, 1932
• This Side of Hell, 1932
• Old Gimlet Eye: The Adventures of General Smedley Butler, 1933
• Born to Raise Hell, 1933
• The Untold Story of Exploration, 1935
• Fan Mail, 1935
• A Trip to New York With Bobby and Betty, 1936
• Men of Danger, 1936
• Kipling Stories and a Life of Kipling, 1936
• Seeing Canada With Lowell Thomas, 1936
• Seeing India With Lowell Thomas, 1936
• Seeing Japan With Lowell Thomas, 1937
• Seeing Mexico With Lowell Thomas, 1937
• Adventures Among the Immortals, 1937
• Hungry Waters, 1937
• Wings Over Asia, 1937
• Magic Dials, 1939
• In New Brunswick We'll Find It, 1939
• Soft Ball! So What?, 1940
• How To Keep Mentally Fit, 1940
• Stand Fast for Freedom, 1940
• Pageant of Adventure, 1940
• Pageant of Life, 1941
• Pageant of Romance, 1943
• These Men Shall Never Die, 1943
• Out of this World: Across the Himalayas to Tibet (1951)
• Back to Mandalay, 1951
• Great True Adventures, 1955
• The Story of the New York Thruway, 1955
• Seven Wonders of the World, 1956
• History As You Heard It 1957
• The Story of the St. Lawrence Seaway, 1957
• The Vital Spark, 1959
• Sir Hubert Wilkins, A Biography, 1961
• More Great True Adventures, 1963
• Book of the High Mountains, 1964 ({{ISBN|978-0671202392}})
• Famous First Flights That Changed History, 1968 ({{ISBN|1-59228-536-8}})
• Burma Jack, 1971 ({{ISBN|0-393-08647-X}})
• Doolittle: A Biography, 1976 ({{ISBN|0-385-06495-0}})
• Good Evening Everybody: From Cripple Creek to Samarkand, 1976; subtitled on cover "An Autobiography by Lowell Thomas" ({{ISBN|0-688-03068-8}})
• So Long Until Tomorrow, 1977 ({{ISBN|0-688-03236-2}})

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• With Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia (1918){{AFI film|id=16281|title=WITH ALLENBY IN PALESTINE AND LAWRENCE IN ARABIA}}[https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060022595 film elements], Imperial War Museum
• Out of This World (1952)[https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150002206 BFI]
• High Adventure with Lowell Thomas (1957–59)

The following is a selection of films with Thomas as host or narrator.

File:Magic_Carpet_of_Movietone_-_1932_promo.jpg

• Africa Speaks (1930)
• Lowell Thomas Driftin' Around (1931–32)
• The Blonde Captive (1931)
• Movietone News (1932–52)
• The Throne of the Gods (1933)[https://catalog.afi.com/Person/101725-Lowell-Thomas Lowell Thomas] AFI
• Mussolini Speaks (1933)
• Lowell Thomas' Magic Carpet of Movietone (1933–43)[https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher131unse/page/n316/mode/1up?view=theater 1938 ad] Motion Picture Herald v131#9:69
• Going Places with Lowell Thomas (1934–38){{IMDb name|0859180}}
• Schlitz on Mt. Washington (1937)
• Killers of the Sea (1937)
• Titans of the Deep (1938)
• The Lion Has Wings (1940)
• This is Cinerama (1952)
• Seven wonders of the world (1956)
• Search for Paradise (1957)
• Winter Olympics (1960)
• World's Fair report with Lowell Thomas (1963)
• The Best of Cinerama (1963)
• The Great Shikar (1970)
• Lowell Thomas Remembers (1975)[https://archives.library.sc.edu/repositories/5/archival_objects/394950 Lowell Thomas Remembers] at University of South Carolina library

The following is a list of films with Thomas as the Subject.

• Sports Parade: King Salmon (1941)
• The Big Picture: Challenge of Ideas (episode 512)
• Yesterday's witness: a tribute to the American newsreel (1977)
• Eulogy, Lowell Thomas (1981)
• Lowell Thomas: Man About the World (2000)
• Lowell Thomas: American storyteller (2008)
• The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Rise of Broadcast Journalism (2019)

{{Reflist}}

;Sources

{{refbegin}}

• Bowen, Norman (ed) (1968) The Stranger Everyone Knows Doubleday
• Hamilton, John Maxwell (2011) Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting LSU Press {{ISBN|9780807144862}} pg 248

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Lowell Thomas}}

• {{IBDB name|99262}}
• [https://archive.org/stream/withlawrenceinar00thomuoft#page/2/mode/2up With Lawrence in Arabia] at Internet Archive
• {{Find a Grave|22877}}
• [https://www.victorheritagesociety.com/memories-of-lowell-thomas--victors-most-famous-former-resident.html Memories of Lowell Thomas], Victor Heritage Society
• [http://www.americanheritage.com/content/%E2%80%9Cgood-evening-everybody%E2%80%9D Lowell Thomas interview] at American Heritage
• [http://www.cliohistory.org/thomas-lawrence/ "Creating History: Lowell Thomas and Lawrence of Arabia" online history exhibit] at Clio Visualizing History.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Veidy8FvoU An Evening with Lowell Thomas] (August 13, 1981), on the YouTube-channel of Pikes Peak Library District.

{{Cinerama}}

{{T. E. Lawrence}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Lowell}}

Category:1892 births

Category:1981 deaths

Category:American broadcast news analysts

Category:20th-century American businesspeople

Category:American male journalists

Category:American radio journalists

Category:American travel writers

Category:Peabody Award winners

Category:People from Darke County, Ohio

Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients

Category:University of Denver alumni

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:Valparaiso University alumni

Category:T. E. Lawrence

Category:Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society