#lowell thomas

Reading through the 1933 issues of LIBERTY, I've been fascinated by this serialized memoir by Tex O'Reilly. He'd already written a memoir years before, but LIBERTY had a slot for violent memoirs (see also the purported Foreign Legion expose "Hell Hounds!") and I doubt Ted would turn down money to let Lowell Thomas, the self-appointed publicist for T. E. Lawrence, rewrite his life story. The veracity of " Hell Hounds!" was widely questioned (and LIBERTY felt it necessary to publish a rebuttal asserting that the Legion actually was very nice), but how credible was O'Reilly?

Did you ever hear of Pecos Bill, the legendary liar of pioneer times? I'd thought he was a folklore figure like Paul Bunyan or John Henry, but the consensus seems to be that one Tex O'Reilly made Pecos Bill up out of whole cloth in the 20th century. A fitting origin, I guess, but on the other hand no one questions that O'Reilly fought in the Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Uprising, the Mexican Revolution, etc. That core of truth doesn't vouch for every tale he told about those conflicts, of course, and some stories he told Thomas (or let Thomas tell) are pretty much whoppers. But some of those tall tales, whether he invented them himself or not, make this memoir terrifically entertaining and an untapped (to my knowledge) mine of movie material.

I'm thinking of the story he tells, claiming inside knowledge, about the diplomatic mission led by a high-ranking prince sent by China to Germany after the Boxer Uprising to apologize publically and Kaiser Wilhelm for the Boxers' killing of a German diplomat. According to Tex, the Manchu regime wasn't going to let a prince humiliate himself that way and sent a mere barber in his place who got to be a perfect asshole all over Europe in return for getting executed when he came home. Hogwash, history says, but I could see the Chinese or even Hollywood turning this into a speaking-truth-to-power comedy. And what about the story of Death Valley Slim, another American fighting for the Mexican Revolution who got killed alongside a close comrade-in-arms whom everyone took for another old-timer, but turned out to be a woman? Maybe the biggest whopper Ted tells in the whole serial is his assertion that, while he knew of woman soldiers, he'd never heard of one wearing men's clothes before this.

Then there's his account, admittedly second-hand, of the Rasputin-like demise of Ambrose Bierce. The old gringo met Tex hoping to get access to Pancho Villa and made another appointment with O'Reilly but never showed up. The way Ted heard it later, Bierce went on a bender, got badly mixed up, and ended up with General Huerta's army asking for directions, in minimal drunken Spanish, to Villa's camp. Unsurprisingly, Huerta's men decided to execute the guy. They walked him to a cemetery, sat him down and shot him. Bierce only laughed, Tex says. They shot him several times more, supposedly, with Bierce laughing all the way, perhaps too sozzled to feel pain, until they put one through his heart. For 1933 publication, O'Reilly claimed that he could lead anyone still wondering what happened to Bierce's grave, but I guess no one took him up on it.

Seated on a holy prayer rug originally from Belushistan, captured by Turks and recently taken from them by the pink cheeked angel-faced British tiger known as the ‘Uncrowned King of Arabia’, Col. Lawrence outlined the following program for us during our stay.

- Lowell Thomas, Arabian notebook 27 March 1918, Lowell Thomas Papers

The name of the journalist who helped create the legend of “Lawrence of Arabia,” Lowell Thomas, is not well known today, but for much of the twentieth century Thomas was one of the preeminent journalists in the world - perhaps the best known of America’s journalists. His career spanned six decades. Thomas started in print, experimented early on with multimedia forms, established himself as a star on radio and also worked with great success on television. Indeed, he helped invent broadcast journalism. Thomas distinguished himself as a reporter, newscaster, war correspondent, lecturer, filmmaker, author, explorer, producer and media entrepreneur.

Some referred to Lowell Thomas as “fortune’s son,” for he so often seemed to be in the right place, working in the right medium. But he owed his success to much more than good luck. Few could match Thomas’ drive, dedication, creativity, showmanship, willingness to experiment with technology, journalistic instincts or love for a good story.

Lowell Thomas met T.E. Lawrence, by now a colonel and firmly embedded with the Arabs, in Akaba on 27 March 1918.

During the next two weeks, Lowell Thomas and Harry Chase would take hundreds of photographs and many reels of film of the British and Arab armies, which would help create the legend of “Lawrence of Arabia” when they were shown to audiences around the world after the war in one of Lowell Thomas’s famed lecture shows or “Travelogues”.

“I talked to Col. Lawrence on every conceivable subject,” Thomas writes in his notebook and, indeed, page after page was filled with notes from their conversations, though Lawrence was only with him in Akaba for a few days before going up-country.