The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
presents a documentary film
screening and discussion of
THE VOICE OF AMERICA:
LOWELL THOMAS AND THE
RISE OF BROADCAST JOURNALISM
with film producer Rick Moulton
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.
Henry A. Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum will present a screening of the documentary film
THE VOICE OF AMERICA: LOWELL THOMAS AND THE RISE OF BROADCAST JOURNALISM -- based on research from the Lowell Thomas collection at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, New York -- on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. Following the screening,
film producer Rick Moulton will discuss the making of the documentary. The event will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home.
This is a free public event but registration is required.
Synopsis:
Lowell Thomas was more famous than any American journalist had ever been. A swashbuckling adventurer, he took American audiences with him on the radio and in newsreels, establishing personality driven journalism and reporting from around the world. During the First World War, Thomas traveled to the Middle East and discovered T. E. Lawrence, making him the celebrity, Lawrence of Arabia.
Thomas was the role model for intrepid foreign correspondents today. The man who helped invent this way of reporting and telling the news was the Indiana Jones of journalism: crashing planes, falling from horses, staring down rifles but always coming back with the story. His stories shaped American knowledge of the world and influenced foreign policy.
Lowell Thomas's journalism is described -- sometimes bitterly, sometimes reverently -- as "mainstream journalism." He was the original deep voiced omnipotent journalistic narrator: the first "voice of god." But his journalism was not always traditional.
THE VOICE OF AMERICA tells this story.
Rick Moulton has been an independent filmmaker since 1972. His career began in the 1960s with the making of FREEFORM and OCEANS, surf movies made in Hawaii and California. He came back east with his wife Melinda and worked for Vermont Public Television in the 1970s. As an independent filmmaker in the early 80s, his film LEGENDS OF AMERICAN SKIING was nationally released on PBS. His clients have included IBM, The Orton Foundation, and NBC. Rick has extensive archival experience, setting up the Care Collection for the New York Public Library, a film archive for the National Ski Hall of Fame, and most recently working with the Lowell Thomas collection at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, New York, for his film THE VOICE OF AMERICA: LOWELL THOMAS AND THE RISE OF BROADCAST JOURNALISM.