John Hay Whitney Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
John Hay "Jock" Whitney, the multi-millionaire sportsman, pioneering color-movie producer, soldier, financier, philanthropist, art-collector, diplomat, and newspaper publisher was born in Elsworth, Maine on August 27, 1904. He was a descendant of John Whitney, a Puritan who settled in Massachusetts in 1635, as well as of William Bradford, who came...
The role we can play every day, if we try, is to take the whole experience of every day and shape it to involve American man. It is our job to interest him in his community and to give his ideas the excitement they should have.
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To be fair is not enough any more. We must be ferociously fair.
Was good friends with producer, screenwriter, and U.S. Naval Officer, Gene Markey.
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His sister, Joan Whitney Payson became the co-founder and majority owner of the New York Mets baseball team.
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According to the 2005 Louis B. Mayer biography, "The Last Lion," Mayer's son-in-law David O. Selznick sold off his interest in "Gone With the Wind" (1939) to John Hay Whitney for $200,000, which was the stupidest thing Selznick ever did as the classic movie continued to make massive amounts of money in re-release through the 1970s.
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Reportedly put up half of the money for the $50,000 option for Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone With the Wind." Katherine (Kay) Brown, SIP's literary agent, had come across Mitchell's novel before it was published, and sensed a winner. The publishers, Macmillian, had already turned down a $25,000 option offer. The negotiations dragged on from May 21, 1936, when Brown first notified David O. Selznick and Whitney about the book, through the publication of the book, until July 7th, when Brown closed the deal for $50,000, the price she had predicted it would go for back in May.
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Was the president of Pioneer Pictures, which was created to advance the use of Technicolor, a company he was invested in. Pioneer made the first three-strip Technicolor short, "La Cucaracha" (1934) and the first three-stripe Technicolor feature, "Becky Sharp" (1935).
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Made the cover of Time Magazine's March 27, 1933 issue, as a champion polo player.
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Named after his maternal grandfather John Hay, 'Abraham Lincoln' (I)'s assistant secretary, and the 37th Secretary of State from 1898-1905. Hay was also ambassador to the Court of St. James, a position Whitney held from 1956 to 1961.
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His paternal grandfather William Collins Whitney helped rid New York City of Boss Tweed's gang and helped Buffalo, New York mayor Grover Cleveland to the presidency in 1884. He served as Cleveland's Secretary of the Navy, and after Cleveland was defeated for reelection in 1888, Whitney was a favorite for the 1892 Democratic presidential nomination, until Cleveland stood for re-election.
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Chairman of the Board of David O. Selznick's Selznick International Inc., in which he was a major investor. He and his cousin C.V. Whitney (a great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt), helped finance "Gone With the Wind" (1939) and "Rebecca" (1940), Selznick's back-to-back Best Picture Oscar winners.
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An art collector, specializing in French and American paintings, he gave generously to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Washington's National Gallery of Art. He bought Pablo Picasso's "Boy With a Pipe" for $30,000 in 1950. When it was auctioned off in 2004, it fetched a record $104.2 million. Funds from the sale went to the Greentree Foundation, which was set up in 1983 by Betsey Whitney after Jock's death.
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In 1949, he adopted the two daughters his second wife, Betsey, had with James Roosevelt, eldest son of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. Betsey sometimes played the hostess at the White House on those occasions when her mother-in-law was away.
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gone with the Wind
1939
production associate - uncredited
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Lust for Life
1956
we wish to thank: for their cooperation - as Mr. John Hay Whitney
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
Documentary short
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
1988
TV Movie documentary
Himself - Board Chairman of Selznick International (as Jock Whitney)
$700,000
