25 Facts About Floyd Gibbons

Floyd Phillips Gibbons was the war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune during World War I One of radio's first news reporters and commentators, he was famous for a fast-talking delivery style.

Floyd Gibbons lived a life of danger of which he often wrote and spoke.

Floyd Phillips Gibbons was born on July 16,1887, in Washington, DC Gibbons moved with his family to Des Moines, Iowa and lived there from 1900 to 1903.

Floyd Gibbons's father owned a trading stamp business for merchants in Iowa.

Floyd Gibbons married a woman from Minneapolis and they were later divorced.

Floyd Gibbons began as a police reporter on the Minneapolis Daily News in 1907, but was fired.

Floyd Gibbons worked for the Milwaukee Free Press and the Minneapolis Tribune.

Floyd Gibbons became well known for covering the Pancho Villa Expedition in 1916.

Floyd Gibbons became a London correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in 1917 and reported on the 1917 torpedoing of the British ship RMS Laconia, on which he was a passenger.

Floyd Gibbons accompanied the Fifth Marines where his account of the battle that he submitted violated wartime censorship by mentioning that he was serving with the US Marine Corps.

Floyd Gibbons lost an eye after being hit by German gunfire at Chateau-Thierry in June 1918 while attempting to rescue an American marine.

Floyd Gibbons was given France's greatest honor, the Croix de Guerre with palm, for his valor on the field of battle.

Floyd Gibbons gained fame for his coverage of wars and famines in Poland, Russia and Morocco.

Floyd Gibbons was fired in 1926, started to write novels, and became a radio commentator for NBC.

Floyd Gibbons narrated newsreels, for which he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Floyd Gibbons narrated the 1930 documentary With Byrd at the South Pole and narrated a series of Vitaphone short subjects from 1937 to 1939 as well as writing several of them.

Floyd Gibbons narrated Vitaphone's "Your True Adventures" series of short films, which began as a radio program in which Gibbons paid twenty-five dollars for the best story submitted by a listener.

Competition from Paul Whiteman's show on CBS Radio brought Floyd Gibbons' show to an end by March 1930.

Floyd Gibbons wrote the speculative fiction world-war novel The Red Napoleon in 1929.

Floyd Gibbons describes his villain as taking a series of white female lovers and encouraging his non-white soldiers to do the same.

Floyd Gibbons emphasizes the voluntary nature of these couplings, which he portrays as making them more repellant.

When Floyd Gibbons suggested that Frank Buck write about Buck's animal collecting adventures, Buck collaborated with Edward Anthony on Bring 'Em Back Alive which became a bestseller in 1930.

Floyd Gibbons was planning to start covering World War II in Europe before his death.

Floyd Gibbons died of a heart attack on September 24,1939, at his "Cherry Valley" farm in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

Floyd Gibbons was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, DC.