Harry Chase Portraits, 1918, 1919
Posted by Jeremy Wilson, UK, List Moderator
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 15:47:39 -0500
[See also 'Lawrence and Lowell Thomas']
As most people on this List know, Lowell Thomas’s photographer Harry Chase took a series of photographs of Lawrence in London in 1919. This would seem to include all the indoor photographs of Lawrence in white, and some at least of the ones in a patterned head-dress.
While working on the thumbnail photo gallery for the ‘Factfile’ (rather urgently, for the benefit of my German publishers), I have found myself asking another question in relation to the Chase pictures:
How many photographs of Lawrence did Harry Chase take during the brief time that they were together at Akaba in 1918?
The answer seems to be… very few indeed.
Before Akaba, there is a Chase photograph of Lawrence on the balcony in Jerusalem
After Akaba, there is a small series of photographs of Lawrence, Hogarth and Dawnay.
There is one photograph of Lawrence, apparently taken at Akaba, standing outside a tent and looking rather small and unromantic. As far as I know Thomas used this only once, in an early Asia Magazine article.
There is a photograph of Lawrence and Thomas together, outside a tent (there may be several similar shots). Presumably these were taken at Akaba.
Can Joe Berton or Claire Keith tell us what other photographs of Lawrence were definitely taken by Chase at Akaba?
The question has implications:
First, of course, if Thomas was going to follow the popular mood and upgrade the ‘Lawrence’ element in the Travelogue in 1919, it was not just that he could do with a few more shots of Lawrence, he desperately needed them!
Second, without more pictures of Lawrence, it would have been very hard indeed for Thomas to sustain the fiction implied-but-not-quite-stated in his presentations and subsequent book, that he and Chase had spent a considerable time with Lawrence and the Arab forces. How many readers of With Lawrence in Arabia have guessed that the author had in fact been ‘with Lawrence in Arabia’ for only a day or two, and ‘in Arabia’ (but not with Lawrence), for only a few days after that?
Reply by SM, location not identified
Posted: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 11:34:32 -0500
Jeremy’s absolutely right. A close read of With Lawrence of Arabia makes it clear that Thomas spent a couple of days with Lawrence at Akaba, then went up to Petra with Harry Chase (but without Lawrence); and that was the extent of it. All of Thomas’ accounts of Lawrence’s activities in Arabia, apart from the few observations in Akaba, are second- or third-hand. With Lawrence of Arabia really is a fraudulent book. Note the few lines about Lawrence’s supposed trip into the jungles of Sumatra, chasing (or being chased by) headhunters.
Lawrence himself went on record saying that Thomas never rode with him on any of his desert outings.
The popularity of the Lawrence legend seems to have taken even Thomas by surprise. According to John Mack’s book, Thomas began in New York by giving a series of slide shows on different aspects of the war, including the Western Front and Allenby’s operations in Palestine. The Allenby show was the only one that caught on with the public, so Thomas dropped the others. Thomas then took the Allenby show to London, calling it With Allenby in Palestine. The Lawrence story, which was just a small part of that show, turned out to be the crowd-pleaser, so Thomas redesigned the show around Lawrence.
Thomas did not in any way anticipate Lawrence’s popularity in the years after the war. He saw the public pick up on Lawrence, knew that he had a winner, and responded.
Reply by Jeremy Wilson, UK, List Moderator
Posted: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 15:15:40 -0500
The problem is one of standards. As historians, we judge people by standards of honesty and conduct which have never applied in the world of popular journalism — whether we are talking about 1919 or today.
Within the accepted mores of journalism, it is no insult to Lowell Thomas to say that he ‘improved’ his yarns liberally and laced them with outright fabrication. The problem begins when people assume that every word that Thomas uttered was true, and that any facts that appear inconsistent with his utterances must therefore be false.
I have worked alongside Fleet Street journalists and I therefore know better than many scholars how their minds work. Successful journalists are usually people of great charm and apparent sincerity, able to put themselves alongside — and be trusted by — the high and the humble alike. Behind all that, their job is to exploit their sources and their popular audience with a deeper cynicism even than politicians. A journalist always has a hidden agenda, as many people discover to their cost. However patiently, sympathetically, enthusiastically they listen, they will always try to write something that sells.
I think that the gulf between standards of truthfulness that are acceptable to academics and standards of truthfulness that are acceptable to journalists is so wide that academics have a very real problem writing about journalists.
Reply by AWM, USA
Posted: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 13:28:22 -0500
Jeremy’s questions about the Harry Chase photos are intriguing. Someone mentioned on the list once that she recalled reading that Lowell Thomas said the negatives for the show were destroyed. So is there anywhere else a record of what slides were shown? Do surviving programs list the pictures? If any such description existed, it could help narrow down when and where the photos were taken.
Reply by Brian Duggan, USA
1065) Posted: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 15:12:17 -0800
With regard to Chase’s photographs at Akaba, I can vouch for a few more. There is one photo of Lawrence, Joyce, Goslett and others outside the staff tent (Goslett has his Saluki with him). I believe this is the same tent that Jeremy Wilson mentions in the Thomas/Lawrence portrait – the gramophone will tip you off. There are a couple of other photographs of camp scenes at Akaba (attributed to Chase) that do not feature Thomas or Lawrence.
An energetic photographer could have shot them all in one or two days but of course, that does not preclude a longer stay by Chase and Thomas. I believe that some motion picture film was also shot, but that may not have been at Akaba.
Reply by Jeremy Wilson, UK, List Moderator
Posted: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 15:12:17 -0800
Yes, there are a number of photos at Akaba and Guweira by Chase. I was thinking specifically of ‘portrait’ photos where TEL is the central figure. I agree about the staff tent photo — although Lawrence’s face is not easy to make out in the printed version I have seen. There are also two photos of TEL in groups with Arabs, and one on his camel — again, not certainly identifiable because his face is small.
To complicate matters, not all the photos in With Lawrence in Arabia were by Chase — e.g. the official Peace Conference group and the photo of Hussein.
Reply by Professor Bob Morris, Canada
Posted: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 16:14:29 -0500 (EST)
>>According to John Mack’s book, Thomas began in New York by giving a series of slide shows on different aspects of the war, including the Western Front and Allenby’s operations in Palestine. The Allenby show was the only one that caught on with the public, so Thomas dropped the others. Thomas then took the Allenby show to London, calling it With Allenby in Palestine. The Lawrence story, which was just a small part of that show, turned out to be the crowd-pleaser, so Thomas redesigned the show around Lawrence.<<
No.. Thomas first took the show (after New York) to Toronto (and some other less important places in the US.) 
The Toronto Star sponsored his talk and thus placed huge display ads in their newspaper. (Shameless self promotion?)
Before the first talk, a picture of Thomas and Lawrence was published but Lawrence was not named!
Then, after the talk, the following appeared:
- – -
STORY OF LAWRENCE LIKE [H. RIDER] HAGGARD NOVEL
Traveloguer Gives an Amazing Account of British Boy Who United Arabs
AN UNCROWNED KING
Was Largely Responsible for Successful Revolt Against the Turks
One of the most astounding stories of the whole war, the tale of Col. T. Lawrence, the British archeologist, who became the uncrowned king of the Hedjaz, was related to an audience at Massey Hall last night by Lowell Thomas in his travelogue “Freeing Holy Arabia.” Listening to this amazing tale as it flowed coolly and impersonally from the lips of the speaker, the average hearer had to pinch himself to determine whether he were actually hearing a true story and seeing motion pictures of its incidents, or were listening to some new romance by a Sir Rider Haggard or a Kipling.
[etc. etc.]
- – -
I posted the whole story on the list some time ago.
So, in Toronto, it was the newpapers who decided that the Lawrence story was the big one of the half dozen that Thomas presented.
Thomas “by public demand” held the show over and repeated the Allenby/Lawrence item.
Lawrie Raskin and I have prepared a brief story on Thomas in Toronto for possible publication in the Ottawa Citizen.
Interestingly, the Massey family commisioned Augustus John to do his World War I pictures, some of which are in our National Gallery here in Ottawa, including one of Lawrence (see Grosvenor — the one of Lawrence in a cap.)
And, Raymond Massey, the actor of the family, was I believe, going to play Feisal in one of the Lawrence films that never was!
Raymond Massey was most famous for playing Abe Lincoln.
Reply by Professor Claire Keith, Marist College, USA
1070) Posted: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 13:44:03 EST
My apologies for not answering promptly Jeremy’s recent query regarding the photos taken by Chase in Aqaba. The teaching and departmental work tend to get in the way at the beginning of the semester. Chase did take a number of photographs at Akaba, some of them very moving, to my mind, in the way they echo the descriptions of the Seven Pillars: the ragged and irrepressible Arabs, ramshackle dwellings, and overall raw energy of wartime. As Jeremy points out, however, a very limited number of them show Lawrence himself, and they are all familiar to us. Thomas’ war diaries and correspondence (not just from Arabia) give us a good perspective on his method – or lack thereof – in recording what he saw. He took notes in abundance but in an impressionistic way, following his own inclination toward the human interest value rather than the larger military analysis.
In fact, he never really chased a particular story, but tried to follow any potentially good narrative material on the spot. As he moved on to his next destination, a new story piqued his interest, and displaced the previous one in his thoughts. This is true for the Lawrence episode also.
We may wish to keep in mind the following:
The Allenby-Lawrence show achieved its suprising overnight success in London without the benefit of the later series of Lawrence portraits from the London sitting. An experienced creator of travelogues, Thomas constantly sought to improve his product, as is illustrated by his bartering of footage with the British War Office, his purchases of National Geographic desert scenes (the suggestion of Dale Carnagey), Chase’s additional filming and photographing as they took the show to Australia, and, of course, Lawrence’s London portraits.
Fran Thomas’ diary show that the Thomases did not know Lawrence’s whereabouts and did not expect him to be in England as they sailed for their first presentation on the continent. It came as a thrilling surprise that Lawrence should call on them in person shortly after the show’s beginning. In his customary ad hoc manner, Thomas saw the chance for additional portraits and we can guess that he was enchanted when Lawrence agreed to pose. Thomas always made the best of what he had or, to be exact, he embroidered on what he had. He did not so much need the pictures for a pre-arranged tale. Rather, the sudden and unexpected bonus of the additional pictures opened new horizons in his creativity…
I am sorry that for want of time, I cannot address here the larger issue of the inventions and excesses of With Lawrence in Arabia. A substantial amount of Thomas source material will be released shortly in the Journal of T.E.Lawrence Society, which will hopefully give more references for this fine discussion.
Reply by MSM, USA
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 13:12:20 EST
Regarding With Lawrence in Arabia: who are the 18 gentlemen of Chicago mentioned in the dedication?
Reply by GH, USA
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 07:37:24 -0800
I believe these were businessmen who provided funding for Thomas’s early film-making endeavors. I do not know their names.
Reply by JA, UK
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 14:45:52 -0500
I seem to remember some of the Chicago businessmen were being blackmailed or might face unwanted police charges and Lowell Thomas got them clear of these. They offered to help him in return if he ever needed it; he subsequently asked them for support in his war reporting activities. Do not think any were named. Jeremy probably has more comment and information on this.
Reply by Jeremy Wilson, List Moderator, UK
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 14:45:52 -0500
Sorry to disappoint, but I am not an expert on Lowell Thomas’s pre-Lawrence biography!
Reply by HR, USA
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 01:09:21 EST
There have been a number of questions pertaining to Lowell Thomas recently on this list.
Many of these questions can be answered in the very interesting book by Joel C. Hodson. This book is Lawrence of Arabia and American Culture: The Making of a Transatlantic Legend (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995). For example, the story of the “nameless gentlemen” who became Lowell Thomas’s benefactors is covered on pp. 13-14. Lowell Thomas’s daily itinerary when he was in Aqaba and environs, 28 March-10 April 1918, is given on p. 18. Hodson states, “Together, Lawrence and Thomas created a potent story, but one no less honest than most of the official Allied war propaganda and a good deal more appealing” (p. 26).
There is much more worth reading in this very interesting and insightful study by Hodson. It is highly recommended.
Reply by St.John Armitage, UK
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 10:00:31 -0500
There are at least three Chase photographs of Lawrence and Faisal with others at Aqaba.
There is also a photograph of Thomas (rear view) being introduced to Faisal by Lawrence. I saw this only two days ago during the Centennial of Saudi Arabia celebrations in Riyadh in an unpublished history of the Royal Saudi Air Force captioned “Wing Commander Lovell (sic)Thomas being introduced to Sharif Faisal”!
With regard to the time spent by Thomas with Lawrence in Arabia, the former’s book is the least reliable basis for calculation. Thomas skeleton diary entries as published by Joel Hodson are a much a clearer pointer especially when collated with references by Lawrence and others.
Reply by Joe Berton, USA
1094) Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1999 14:46:57 -0600
I would like to add some more information to the recent postings concerning Harry Chase and his photographs of Lawrence. I think it’s best to divide the Chase photos of Lawrence into three catagories; 1) Wartime photos, 2) Postwar photos, and 3) Mislabeled photos.
In the first catagory there are Chase photos of:
- Lawrence at Akaba standing on a prayer rug
- Lawrence and British officers at Akaba
- Lawrence and two Syrian advisors
- Feisal and Arabs seated-Lawrence on the right
- Another unpublished version of this
- Lawrence and Lowell Thomas standing in front of a tent
- The well published photo of Lawrence and L.T. squatting in front of the tent
- Another unpublished one similar to the last but showing Lawrence and L.T. facing each other.
Other wartime photos include the two Jerusalum shots of Lawrence in Arab robes – one an interior and the other on the balcony. There are also three photos of Lawrence in army uniform in Cairo, two with Hogarth and Dawnay.
I am aware of thirteen wartime photos of Lawrence; eight taken in Arabia. Some photos from this group appeared in print as early as Sept. 1919 in Asia magazine.
There are at least nineteen postwar Chase photos of Lawrence. These include the ‘Lawrence dressed in all white’ shots and the patterned head dress shots that were published in the Century and Hutchinson editions of With Lawrence in Arabia. Some of these remain unpublished. These photos were taken in London, most likley in September or October of 1919. (For more information see Joel Hudson’s book Lawrence of Arabia and American Culture or Fred Crawford’s and my article in English Literature in Transition, Volume 39:3 1996). The first widespread print appearance of any of these postwar Lawrence photos was in Strand magazine of January 1920.
So far I’ve put three Chase/Lawrence photos in the mislabeled catagory. The first is the photo showing an Arab standing behind his kneeling camel with another Arab on a camel behind him. This first appeared in Asia, Oct. 1919 properly captioned “Two members of Lawrence’s Bodyguard”. It then is used in the Hutchinson editions of With Lawrence in Arabia titled “Lawrence on his racing camel.” I have seen an original print of this at the Thomas archives at Marist and almost certainly neither figure is Lawrence. The definitive proof however is in the Lawrence papers on reserve at the Bodleian where I saw a copy of this print. On the reverse in Lawrence’s handwriting is; “Mustafa Abdoula Akaba” with Abdoula crossed out.
Another wrongly identified photo is titled by Thomas as “Lawrence and his bodyguard in the desert.” Printed first in Asia magazine of September, 1919, it reappears in the Century edition of his book titled as “Sidi Lawrence and his sons.” Lawrence is not in this group picture however.
Lastly, the photo titled “Lawrence would occasionally disguise himself as a gypsy woman of Syria.” I found an original of this print at Marist with an inventory number on the reverse. I looked up this number on Thomas’s list of identified glass plate negatives and it comes from a group of pictures taken by Chase of Palestinian women and children. In the inventory the print is simply titled “Heavily veiled woman.”
When Thomas brought his show to London he was surprised to find Lawrence there and willing to be of some assistance to him. He posed for more pictures to fill out the Lawrence part of the travelogue and is almost undoubtedly the source for additional photographs that Thomas uses in the February 1920 Strand article and some future Asia stories. These photos by Lawrence himself appear in print in the Strand uncredited and in Asia, wrongly attributed to Chase and Thomas. It seems no photos by Lawrence were used in the travelogue though and none in the book editions of With Lawrence in Arabia.
Jeremy Wilson rightly points out that Chase did not take many photos of Lawrence in Arabia but when one looks over the entire list of photos taken by Chase in Egypt, Palestine and Arabia, over five hundred photos, the only individual who is the subject of more photos is Allenby. Adding the postwar photos of Lawrence not only filled out Part Two of the travelogue, but they also provided Thomas the matinee idol image he must have wanted.
Reply by St.John Armitage, UK
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 10:30:18 -0500
Joseph Berton has provided an interesting description of the Chase photographs.
Those of Lawrence in Arabia would be an additional attraction for inclusion in Factfile. Do the Arabian photographs include the one which I mentioned in my posting of 29 January of Thomas being introduced to Faisal?
>>”Mustafa Abdoula Akaba” with Abdoula crossed out.<< = Mustafa “the gentle boy” of Seven Pillars?
It is good to see such a categorical lie given to the implication of that ridiculous caption “Lawrence would occasionally disguise himself as a gypsy woman of Syria.”
Reply by Jeremy Wilson, UK, List Moderator
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 10:30:18 -0500
Patience, please… we will get there in the end!
On the subject of captions, I have seen criticism somewhere or other of the caption in an English edition of With Lawrence in Arabia under the photo of Lawrence, Hogarth and Dawnay in Cairo, on the grounds that Hogarth is not named. I see that he is named in the US edition — presumably someone at Hutchinson thought Hogarth too unimportant to bother with in the caption…
Reply by Joe Berton, USA
Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 12:43:27 -0600
St. John Armitage asked if the photograph of Thomas being introduced to Faisal was included in my listing of Chase photographs taken in Arabia. It was not. I think the photo he saw was almost certainly a still from film footage taken by Chase, not a separate photograph. Stills from this film footage appear in at least two books; see Tabachnick and Matheson, Images of Lawrence, p.85, and Brown and Cave, A Touch of Genius, p. 151. The film can be seen at the Imperial War Museum and, I think, it is in the two Brown documentaries. I did not refer to any of the film taken by Chase and prefer to keep that a separate category from the still photographs. Like a number of Chase’s photographs, some of this film footage has been misidentified over the years as well. I’ll save that for a later posting.
I am sorry to say that so far in my research I have not come across any reference by Thomas or Chase indicating some ‘missing’ Lawrence film footage.
Reply by St.John Armitage, UK
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 09:24:03 -0500
Joseph Berton’s posting is clear identification of the photograph I mentioned. It is clearly a treated print of the photograph in Brown which is of the same group as the photograph in Images – the latter taken from half-left rear, the former from half right rear.
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