Alfred Weidler

Alfred Wilhelm Carl Weidler (27 May 1886, Georgsmarienhütte, Germany – 16 June 1966, Los Angeles) was an architect who, after moving from Germany to Los Angeles in 1923, went on to become a prolific model builder for 40 years with 20th Century Fox.

The impetus for Weidler moving his family to America, arriving 1923, came at the collapse of the German mark after World War I. He had been in the German Army Engineering Corps during World War I. After the war, Alfred became the city architect for Hamburg and, with his wife, started having children. By 1939, Weidler had made more than 500 models for Hollywood sets, large and small. And he was the author of correspondence courses in modelmaking. The Weidler Studio was at 4589 Lexington Avenue, Hollywood, California.

He was married in 1917 in Berlin to a former Wagnerian opera singer, Margarete Therese Louise (née Radon; 1890–1987), later known as Margaret Weidler. They had six children, the first four (Waldtraud, Verena, Werther, and Wolfgang). Waldtraud, later known as Sylvia (1919–2003), was a child actress who appeared in the 1930 film, What a Widow!.

The youngest daughter, Virginia (1927–1968), flourished as a child actress. Sons George (1926–1989), Werther (later known as Warner), and Wolfgang (later known as Walter), were musicians. George, the second youngest child, was a well-known big band saxophonist and composer, whose first marriage was to Doris Day.

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