Lowell Thomas

Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29,1981) was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveller best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous. So varied were Thomas's activities that when it came time for the Library of Congress to catalog his memoirs they were forced to put them in "CT" in their classification--biographies of subjects who don't fit into any other category.

Later career

During the 1920s, he was a magazine editor. In 1930, he became a broadcaster with the CBS radio network. After two years, he switched to the NBC radio network but returned to CBS in 1947. He hosted the evening news for four decades until his retirement in 1976, the longest radio career of anyone. "No other journalist or world figure, with the possible exception of Winston Churchill, has remained in the public spotlight for so long," wrote Norman R. Bowen in Lowell Thomas: The Stranger Everyone Knows (1968). His signature sign-on was "Good evening, everybody" and his sign-off "So long, until tomorrow," phrases he would use in titling his two volumes of memoirs.

Related Topics:
1920s - 1930 - CBS - NBC - 1947 - 1976 - Norman R. Bowen

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Thomas never lost his fascination with the movies. He narrated Twentieth Century Fox's Movietone newsreels until 1952. That year he went into business with Mike Todd and Louis B. Mayer to exploit Cinerama, a movie format that used three projectors and an enormous curved screen. Because of both the cost and technical issues in synchronizing the projectors, Cinerama never caught on, but a quarter-century later, Thomas was still raving about it in his memoirs and wondering why someone wasn't trying to revive it.

Related Topics:
Twentieth Century Fox - 1952 - Mike Todd - Louis B. Mayer - Cinerama

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"The world's foremost globetrotter" took his radio show on his travels, broadcasting from the four corners of the globe. Once on the Spanish Steps in Rome he was asked by a fellow American, "Lowell Thomas, don't you ever go home?" He was a fanatical skiier, helping develop the Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec and skiing near Tucson, Arizona.

Related Topics:
Spanish Steps - Rome - Mont Tremblant - Quebec - Tucson, Arizona

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He was a successful businessman, helping to found Capital Cities Communications, which in 1986 took over the American Broadcasting Company, and developed the Quaker Hill community in Dutchess County, New York, near Pawling, where Thomas resided when not on the road. Among his neighbors there was Thomas E. Dewey, one of a huge circle of friends that included everyone from the Dalai Lama to Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded Thomas the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.

Related Topics:
Capital Cities Communications - 1986 - American Broadcasting Company - Quaker Hill - Dutchess County, New York - Pawling - Thomas E. Dewey - Dalai Lama - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 1976 - Gerald Ford - Presidential Medal of Freedom - Hollywood Walk of Fame - Radio Hall of Fame - 1989

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Thomas was fictionalized in David Lean's film Lawrence of Arabia as American journalist Jackson Bentley, played by Arthur Kennedy.

Related Topics:
David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia - Arthur Kennedy

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Thomas died at his home at Pawling at the age of eighty-nine.

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His only child, Lowell Thomas, Jr., was lieutenant governor of Alaska in the 1970s.

Related Topics:
Lowell Thomas, Jr. - Lieutenant governor of Alaska - 1970s

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