TOD (TV without Picture)
Earliest Memories:
Curled up under the covers, with the bedroom window covered with a black shade, listening to Edward R. Murrow broadcast from London. (And hearing Gracie Fields sing "Now is the Hour".)
Kate Smith singing "God Bless America".
School Days:
Sky King
Great Gildersleeve
Green Hornet
Sgt Preston
Inner Sanctum
The Shadow
Jack Armstrong - All American Boy
And the greatest radio serial ever - Lowell Thomas goes to Tibet!
The
BookViewZine in a review of:
SO LONG UNTIL TOMORROW:
FROM QUAKER HILLS TO KATMANDU
by Lowell Thomas
reports:
During the summer of 1949 Lowell, and his son, decided to make a trip across the Himalayas to Liasa, the little-known capital of Inner Tibet, to meet the Dali Llama, the Living Buddha. Loaded down with supplies the expedition began on July 31 and in Tibet Lowell made the first radio broadcast ever, with battery equipment. Then disaster hit with Lowell taking a fall from a horse that caused him to break the bones in his hip. At 17,000 feet he was in bad shape without any aid, only his son and he had to get back to civilization. Which he did and he continued broadcasting.
Listening to this real life adventure was more thrilling than any fictional show!
Thomas started his professional life by popularizing a guy he dubbed "Lawrence of Arabia".
A
white paper by the Red Chineese complains:
Around the end of 1949, the American Lowell Thomas roamed Tibet in the guise of a "radio commentator" to explore the "possibility of aid that Washington could give Tibet."
The book review adds the following info:
In the 1950s the movie industry was facing a tough foe called television. Among the gimmicks that the movie industry put forward was Cinerama that Lowell had a part in. Since it had been through motion pictures that Lowell had gotten his start, film was a logical place to be. However, it wasn't to be and he sold his share of Cinerama to Mike Todd who went forward with Todd/AO. Toward the end of 1954, he bought some television stations that turn out to be a good bet and this would evolve into Capital Cities Communications
der Brucer (who learned that his Pop felt the top of the radio to see if it was warm and he had been "sneak-listening" in bed while they were out - some handy dishtowel-wrapped ice-cubes fixed that problem!)
