Playing Dress-up
Sep. 7th, 2024 10:07 am![]() These chaps playing dress-up are T.E. Lawrence and the American journalist Lowell Thomas. Thomas did more than anyone to create the legend of Lawrence of Arabia. He wrote a book and devised a smash-hit multi-media show that toured the world. Lawrence told friends that he had nothing to do with any of Thomas's enterprises but this was patently untrue. Witness this photograph- which was taken not in the Middle East but in the garden of Thomas's house in London- where Lawrence was a frequent visitor. Arabia was just one incident in their lives. Both went on to do all sorts of interesting things. Lawrence wrote bestsellers, worked as a diplomat under Winston Churchill, served in the ranks of the RAF, helped develop high speed launches to be used in Air Sea Rescue and knew just about everybody who was anybody in the '20s and '30s. He died in 1935 when his motorbike came off the road in what may have been an accident and may have been murder..... Lowell Thomas became a force to be reckoned with in print, radio,TV and film. Something I read said that at the height of his career he was probably the best-known journalist in America. What gets me about this image is how young they both are..... | |