[1] In 1954, he led a group of New York City-based investors to buy majority control of Hudson Valley Broadcasting, which, in 1957, became Capital Cities Television Corporation.

Thomas also was on the faculty of Chicago-Kent College of Law[6] (now part of Illinois Institute of Technology), where he taught oratory from 1912 to 1914.

[citation needed] Thomas was a relentless self-promoter, and he persuaded railroads to give him free passage in exchange for articles extolling rail travel.

[citation needed] Thomas shot dramatic footage of Lawrence, then returned to America and began giving public lectures in 1919 on the war in Palestine, "supported by moving pictures of veiled women, Arabs in their picturesque robes, camels and dashing Bedouin cavalry."

[10] Thomas went into business with Mike Todd and Merian C. Cooper to exploit Cinerama, a film exhibition format using three projectors and an enormous curved screen with seven-channel surround sound.

He was not actually in Philadelphia but was anchoring the broadcast from a New York studio and merely identifying speakers who addressed the convention to the few thousand people who had television sets in those three cities.

[citation needed] In April 1945, Thomas flew in a normally single-person P-51 Mustang over Berlin while it was being attacked by the Soviet Union, reporting live via radio.

[18][19] In 1953, Thomas was featured in The Ford 50th Anniversary Show that was broadcast simultaneously on the NBC and CBS television networks.

[20] His persistent debt problems were remedied by Thomas' manager/investing partner, Frank Smith who, in 1954, became the President of co-owned Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, which, in 1957, became Capital Cities Television Corporation.

[citation needed] The television news simulcast was a short-lived venture for Thomas, as he favored radio.

His signature sign-on was "Good evening, everybody" and his sign-off was "So long, until tomorrow," phrases that he used as titles for his two volumes of memoirs.

[27] Thomas was inducted into many Halls of Fame: Named after him are the Thomas Mountains in Antarctica,[34] a museum in Victor, Colorado,[35] as well as awards from a number of organizations: 1947 Overseas Press Club of America,[36] 1980 The Explorers Club,[37] 1984 Society of American Travel Writers Foundation,[38] and 2012 Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado.

[39] The communications building at Marist University in Poughkeepsie, New York is named for Thomas, after he received an honorary degree from the college in 1981.