Edwin F. Weigle
Edwin Frederick Weigle
Biography
He was born in Chicago on 13 March 1889. His parents Adolph and Sophie came from Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1879. Weigle worked for the Chicago Tribune from 1909 and achieved prominence as a film correspondent during the First World War. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, Weigle covered the resistance of the Belgian army against the German invaders. Weigle obtained permission from the Belgian government to photograph actual battle scenes for the first time. The result was "On Belgian Battlefields",[1] one of the first war documentaries shown in the United States. In 1915 and 1916, the Chicago Tribune again sent Weigle to Europe where he shot film on the Western and Eastern Front for "The German Side of the War."[2] After the American entry in the war, Weigle joined the U.S. Signal Corps, and filmed with the 35th Division in France. He retired as a film correspondent shortly after the war. Edwin Weigle died in Deerfield, Illinois, on 1 August 1973.
References
"Edwin F. Weigle: Cameraman for the Chicago Tribune", by Cooper C. Graham and Ron van Dopperen. Published in "Film History", vol. 22, number 4 (2010), 389-407.