Thomas, Lowell (Jackson)

Lowell Thomas

(credit: Brown Brothers)

(born April 6, 1892, Woodington, Ohio, U.S.—died Aug. 29, 1981, Pawling, N.Y.) U.S. radio commentator, journalist, and author. A war correspondent in Europe and the Middle East while in his 20s, Thomas helped make T.E. Lawrence famous with his exclusive coverage and later with the book With Lawrence in Arabia (1924). He was a preeminent broadcaster with CBS from 1930; his radio nightly news was an American institution for nearly two generations, and he appeared on television from its earliest days. Out of his lifelong globetrotting came lectures, travelogues, and more than 50 books of adventure and comment, including Kabluk of the Eskimo (1932) and The Seven Wonders of the World (1956).

Thomas, Lowell (Jackson) (1892–1981) news commentator, author; born in Woodington, Ohio. After earning two M.A.s (University of Denver and Princeton), and working as a reporter and teacher, he took a trip to Alaska (1915). His resultant travelogue led President Woodrow Wilson to commission him to film and record ongoing World War I events; this led to his contacts with Colonel T. E. Lawrence in the Middle East and eventually to his best-selling book, With Lawrence in Arabia (1924). Immediately after the war he began a career as a lecturer and as a world traveler; his encircling the entire globe by airplane during 1926–27 was one of the first promotions of the potential of aviation. From 1930–76 he was a radio newscaster, but he managed to travel to exotic places around the world, narrate Movietone newsreels (1935–52) and travelogues for Twentieth Century-Fox, and write numerous books. He broadcast from many combat zones during World War II and in 1949 he was invited to Tibet by the Dalai Lama. He profiled outstanding historical figures on Public Broadcasting System's Lowell Thomas Remembers (1976–79) and published a two-part autobiography, Good Evening Everybody (1977) and So Long Until Tomorrow (1978).