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.

Lawrence of Arabia

He, and a cameraman called Harry Chase, firstly went to the Western Front but the trenches had little to inspire the American public. They then went to Italy where he heard of General Allenby's campaign against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine. With the permission of the British Foreign Office as an accredited war-correspondent, Thomas met T. E. Lawrence, a colonel in the British Army in Jerusalem. Lawrence was spending £200,000 a month encouraging the inhabitants of Palestine to revolt against the Turks. Thomas and Chase spent several weeks with Lawrence in the desert, though Lawrence said "several days".

Related Topics:
Harry Chase - Western Front - Allenby's - Ottoman Empire - Palestine - Foreign Office - T. E. Lawrence - British Army - Jerusalem

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Thomas shot dramatic footage of Lawrence and after the war toured the world narrating his film, With Alleby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia making Lawrence--and himself--household names. The performances were highly dramatic. At the opening of Thomas's six-month run in London, there were incense braziers, exotically dressed women danced in front of images of the Pyramids and the band of the Welsh Guards played to provide the accompaniment. Lawrence saw the show several times, though later claimed he disliked it, which generated valuable publicity for his own book. However to strengthen the emphasis on Lawrence in the show, Thomas needed more photographs of him than Chase had taken in 1918. Lawrence therefore agreed to a series of posed portraits in Arab dress in London, though he claimed to be shy of publicity. Thomas later said of Lawrence that "He had a genius for backing into the limelight".

Related Topics:
Pyramids - Welsh Guards

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The shows gave Lawrence a degree of publicity that he had never previously experienced. Newspapers became keen to print his attacks on Government policy, and politicians began to pay attention to his views. At the end of 1920 he was invited to join the British Colonial Office, under Winston Churchill, as an adviser on Arab affairs. However Lawrence said that he never forgave Thomas for exploiting his image, and called him a 'vulgar man'.

Related Topics:
1920 - Colonial Office - Winston Churchill

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

About four million people saw the show around the world and it made Thomas $1.5 million. Thomas would also later write a book, With Lawrence in Arabia (1924), about his time in the desert. It would be the first of fifty-six volumes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~