Who is lowell thomas

Thomas is maybe best known for making T. He had a really complicated attitude towards fame. In one sense he pursued it, in one sense he hid from it. Lowell was the opposite.

Lowell lived very comfortably on the surface, was very comfortable with himself, with the fame he eventually achieved. So they were an odd combination. Lawrence was disturbed by this crass American fame that this journalist was bestowing on him, fame to the point that people were chasing him down the streets. Lawrence was one of the first media-made stars. That was very difficult for a man of his complications and his difficulties, his fissures and fractures.

Something else that comes up with both World Wars is the thin line between journalism and propaganda. How did Thomas navigate that line?

The line between journalism and propaganda was not well drawn early in the 20th century. Lowell sent himself over to cover World War I shortly after the United States entered it because he was always the man who wanted to be where the action was. He was there in part to publicize and build support for the war—something that we would not want to find journalists doing today.

He had the support of the United States government, and when he went to cover events in the Middle East he had the support of the British government.

In some ways that was important during World War II when—by my calculation—maybe one of every five adults in the U. It was a reassuring voice in a very scary time, when a lot of Americans were dying overseas.

Another element of his success is his willingness to adapt to new technologies. The most important medium for his career was a then-new media, radio. We think of this as an age of new technology, of journalists on Twitter, using Reddit and Snapchat and Instagram and so on, but in some ways Lowell was more advanced in his use of technology years ago than any of them.

He was early to use a typewriter, he was early on radio, he was one of the first to combine voice with film before sound film had really caught on. And then when sound film did catch up, he was host of the dominant newsreels that were shown in movie theaters twice a week when most Americans would go to movie theaters every week.

Lawrence was allegedly introduced to Thomas as the 'Uncrowned King of Arabia'. Thomas and Chase were invited to Feisal's desert camp where they shot moving and still pictures of Lawrence with the Arabs. Later both men were to dispute how long the filming had taken, Thomas claiming it was a few weeks, Lawrence said it was only days.

Lawrence later claimed he had been "tricked" into being filmed and photographed; Thomas said he had been a willing model. Nonetheless, the images of Lawrence in Arabia captivated a public exhausted by the horrors of the 'war to end all wars'. The romantic and adventurous tales of this "mysterious blue eyed Arab in the garb of a prince wandering the streets" were an instant hit. Lowell Thomas' screen show showed to packed audiences in New York and then London.

In planning a competition to recognize and reward outstanding travel journalists, the Foundation directors decided to name the program for Thomas. A mark of his stature: His obituary in The New York Times spread across the top half of an entire page, with a six-column banner headline and copy that ran more than half a page deep — about 78 inches in all, including a picture of him on location with some African tribesmen.

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