Ralph Jules Frantz spent the late twenties and early thirties in Paris on the staff of the European edition of the Chicago Tribune (also known as the Paris Tribune), holding the position of managing editor from 1 December 1929 until the paper merged with the Paris Herald (the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune) on 30 November 1934.

Frantz began his newspaper career in 1919 as a reporter, and later sports editor, for the Springfield Sun while he was attending Wittenberg College. In 1922 he joined the staff of the Cleveland Commercial (later the Cleveland Times). Taking a leave of absence in the summer of 1925, Frantz traveled in Britain, Holland, Germany, and Belgium before he arrived in France in November. By December he was working for the Paris Tribune.

In an article for the Lost Generation Journal Frantz describes the paper's beginning on 4 July 1917 as the Army Edition of the Chicago Tribune...