Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler, best remembered for publicising T. E. Lawrence. He was also involved in promoting the Cinerama widescreen system.
Second time around for this book. The first time reading was many years ago as a leisure endeavor while in college. I had forgotten how full of 20th century history are in its pages. Lowell Thomas was even a tad before my time, but I do recall hearing his nightly news wrap-ups in the early 1970s. For those not familiar with Lowell Thomas, he was in many ways the most popular newscaster from the early days of radio, predating the likes of Edward R. Murrow. Before Lowell Thomas became well-known on the radio he was a newspaper reporter (an actual journalist) bringing to fame the likes of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and reporting the exploits of early aviation. Unfortunately, many people today are unfamiliar with this unique individual who traveled the world covering the major events of the 20th Century.
A word of explanation, if you will indulge me. The book is related to my employment as an archivist. I am creating an index for this autobiography so that it can be used as an in-house ready reference guide. Lowell Thomas wrote a second autobiography, and, if I have the time and inclination, I will make an index of that work as well. I'm not a particularly fast reader. Creating an index slows my words per minute considerably and makes reading somewhat laborious. The book is not a particularly interesting read, but a useful work (for me, at least).
I found this a fascinating book. I barely even knew who Lowell Thomas was. Then, when I got further into the book, I found that he had done a lot of the newsreels and travelogues that we used to see at the movies.
He was growing up in Cripple Creek at the time of the labor riots. His father was a local doctor. He went to Chicago to work on the Tribune and go to school. He was the one who interviewed T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). He went everywhere. He was one of the first to go to Tibet.