John Hay Whitney | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 50thUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |
| In office February 11, 1957 – January 14, 1961 | |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Preceded by | Winthrop W. Aldrich |
| Succeeded by | David K. E. Bruce |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 17, 1904 Ellsworth, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | February 8, 1982 (aged 77) Manhasset, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Kate Roosevelt Whitney Sara D. Roosevelt Whitney |
| Parent(s) | Payne Whitney Helen Julia Hay |
| Relatives | SeeWhitney family |
| Education | Groton School |
| Alma mater | Yale College |
| Awards | Legion of Merit Benjamin Franklin Medal[1] |
John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was an Americanventure capitalist, sportsman, philanthropist, newspaper publisher, film producer and diplomat who served asU.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of theNew York Herald Tribune, and president of theMuseum of Modern Art.
Born in 1904 toPayne Whitney andHelen Hay Whitney, Whitney was a member of the wealthy and prominentWhitney family, longstanding fixtures of New York City and New England society. After attendingGroton School andYale College, where he was anoarsman, he inherited a large fortune from his father, making him one of the wealthiest people in the United States. In 1929, he participated in a hostile takeover ofLee, Higginson & Co. withLangbourne Willliams, rising to the position of chairman of the board at just 29 years old. In 1946, after serving in theOffice of Strategic Services during World War II, he foundedJ. H. Whitney & Company, the oldest venture capital firm in the United States and the origin of the termventure capital. By the 1970s, he was one of the wealthiest men in the world.
Whitney was an influential figure in New York City politics and the politics of theRepublican Party. As a moderate internationalist, Whitney was an early supporter ofDwight D. Eisenhower's presidential campaigns, and in 1957, Eisenhower appointed himUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, a position which had been held by his grandfather and namesake,John Hay. While ambassador, Whitney improved relations between the two countries in the wake of the Suez Crisis and purchased theNew York Herald Tribune. Through theTribune, he was influential in the election ofJohn Lindsay as mayor of New York City in 1965.
Whitney was a skilledpolo player and raisedthoroughbred racing horses, which won him theCheltenham Gold Cup in 1929 and 1930 and were frequent entrants in the Kentucky Derby. He was a patron of the arts, financing several Broadway productions and films, including two Academy Award for Best Picture,Gone with the Wind (1939) andRebecca (1940). He was an early supporter ofFred Astaire, his longtime friend, and helped secure Astaire his first major film contract withRKO Pictures. His large art collection included famous works byPierre-Auguste Renoir,Claude Monet,Edgar Degas,Édouard Manet,Edward Hopper,Henri Matisse,James McNeill Whistler,John Singer Sargent,Paul Cézanne,Paul Gauguin,William Blake andVincent van Gogh. Works from his collection have been exhibited at theTate Gallery, theNational Gallery of Art, theMuseum of Modern Art, and theYale University Art Gallery.
Born on August 17, 1904, inEllsworth, Maine, Whitney was a descendant of John Whitney, aPuritan who settled inMassachusetts in 1635, as well as ofWilliam Bradford, who came over on theMayflower. His father wasPayne Whitney, and his grandfathers wereWilliam C. Whitney andJohn Hay, bothpresidential cabinet members. His mother wasHelen Hay Whitney.[2]
The Whitneys' family mansion,Payne Whitney House on New York'sFifth Avenue, was around the corner fromJames B. Duke House, home of the founder of theAmerican Tobacco Co., father ofDoris Duke. Whitney's uncle,Oliver Hazard Payne, a business partner ofJohn D. Rockefeller, arranged the funding for Duke to buy out his competitors.
Jock Whitney attendedGroton School, thenYale College. He joinedDelta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter), as his father had. Whitney, his father, grandfather, and great-uncle were oarsmen at Yale, and his father was captain of the crew in 1898. He was a member ofScroll and Key. While at Yale, he inspired the coining of the term "crew cut" for the haircut favored by the rowing crew which still bears the name.[3] After graduating in 1926, Whitney went toOxford University, but the death of his father on May 25, 1927, necessitated his returning home. He inherited a trust fund of $20 million (approximately $343.9 million in 2023 dollars), and later inherited four times that amount from his mother.
In 1929, Whitney, despite his vast wealth, was a clerk at the firm ofLee, Higginson & Co where, through his boss, J.T. Claiborne Jr., he met former Lee, Higginson clerkLangbourne Meade Williams Jr., who had come to Claiborne for help in his efforts to gain control ofFreeport Texas Co. Williams was a scion of a founding investment firm in thesulfur mining company. In 1929, the year after Whitney became one of the wealthiest men in America, through inheritance, Williams enlisted the help of Whitney's boss, who then enlisted Whitney's financial participation, in his efforts to oust founder and Chairman Eric P. Swenson, casting Whitney in the role ofcorporate raider before the term existed. Whitney was soon Freeport's biggest shareholder, enabling Williams to replace the chairman and his management team. Claiborne was made a vice-president; Williams became Freeport's president in 1933, and Whitney was appointed chairman of the board.[4][5]
In 1946, Whitney foundedJ.H. Whitney & Company,[2] the oldest venture capital firm in the U.S.,[6] withBenno C. Schmidt Sr.—who coined the term "venture capital"—with J. T. Claiborne as a partner. Whitney put up $10 million to finance entrepreneurs with business plans who were unwelcome at banks. Companies Whitney invested in includedSpencer Chemical andMinute Maid.[2] In 1958, while he was still ambassador to the United Kingdom, his company Whitney Communications Corp. bought theNew York Herald Tribune,[7] and was its publisher from 1961 to its closure in 1966.[8] He was chairman of theInternational Herald Tribune from 1966 until his death.[9] Whitney Communications also owned and operated other newspapers, magazines and broadcasting stations.[10] Whitney's television stations were sold toDun & Bradstreet in 1969.[11]
Whitney invested in severalBroadway shows, includingPeter Arno's 1931 revueHere Goes the Bride, a failure that cost him $100,000, but was more successful as one of the backers ofLife with Father.
An October 1934Fortune article on theTechnicolor Corporation noted Whitney's interest in pictures. He had met Technicolor headHerbert Kalmus at theSaratoga Race Course. In 1932, Technicolor achieved a breakthrough with its three-strip process.Merian C. Cooper ofRKO Radio Pictures approached Whitney with the idea of investing in Technicolor. They joined forces and foundedPioneer Pictures in 1933,[2] with a distribution deal with RKO to distribute Pioneer's films. Whitney and his cousinCornelius Vanderbilt Whitney bought a 15% stake in Technicolor.[12]
Whitney was also the major investor inDavid O. Selznick's production companySelznick International Pictures, putting up $870,000 and serving as chairman of the board. He put up half the money to optionMargaret Mitchell'sGone with the Wind for theSelznick film version, in which he then invested, and later inRebecca (1940).[2]
Whitney served in theUnited States Army Air Forces as anintelligence officer during World War II, assigned to theOffice of Strategic Services. This is where he met his good friend and former leader of the CIA,Allen Dulles. He was taken prisoner by the Germans in southern France,[13] but escaped when the train transporting him to aPOW camp came underAllied fire.[14][15]
Whitney inherited his family's love of horses, a predilection he shared with his sister,Joan Whitney Payson. Jock and his sister ranGreentree Stables in the U.S., owned by their mother. In 1928, he became the youngest member ever elected toThe Jockey Club.[16]
Whitney and his first wife "Liz" raced horses both in the United States and in Europe. He ownedEaster Hero, theJack Anthony–trained horse who was the first to win theCheltenham Gold Cup twice in succession, in 1929 under the mount ofDick Rees and again in 1930, when ridden byTommy Cullinan. In the 1929Grand National, his horse twisted a plate and was beaten by a nose at the finish. Although Whitney entered the Grand National annually, he never again came close to winning.
The Whitneys entered four horses in theKentucky Derby in the 1930s, "Stepenfetchit", which finished 3rd in 1932, "Overtime", which finished 5th in 1933, "Singing Wood", which finished 8th in 1934, and "Heather Broom", which finished 3rd in 1939.
Jock Whitney was also an outstandingpolo player, with a four-goal handicap, and it was as a sportsman that he made the cover of the March 27, 1933, issue ofTime magazine.
In 2015, Whitney was posthumously inducted to the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame as Pillar of the Turf.[17]
Whitney was the major backer ofDwight D. Eisenhower and a member of theNew York Young Republican Club.[18] Eisenhower appointed himUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom,[2] a post held sixty years earlier by Whitney's grandfatherJohn Hay.[19] Whitney played a major role in improving Anglo-American relations, which had been severely strained during the 1956Suez Crisis, when Eisenhower demanded that the British, French andIsraelis terminate their invasion ofEgypt.[20]
In 1930, Whitney purchased theLlangollen estate as a bridal gift for his fiancée, thePennsylvania socialiteMary Elizabeth "Liz" Altemus. It was a 2,200-acre (890 ha) historicequestrian farm just outsideMiddleburg, Virginia. They were married on September 23, 1931.[21] Although married to Altemus, Whitney was romantically linked toTallulah Bankhead,Joan Bennett,Paulette Goddard andJoan Crawford.Clark Gable andCarole Lombard met at one of Whitney's parties. In the early 1930s, Jock Whitney began an affair with Nina Gore Vidal; simultaneously, his wife had an affair with Nina Vidal's husbandEugene Vidal.[22] The couple divorced in 1940,[21] but Liz Whitney remained at Llangollen for the rest of her life, becoming an internationally renowned horse breeder and a member of the Virginia Thoroughbred Association Hall of Fame.
On March 1, 1942, he marriedBetsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney, ex-wife ofJames Roosevelt, son ofFranklin D. Roosevelt,[23] and adopted her two daughters:[2]
Whitney metFred Astaire in New York City while the former was a student atYale University and they became lifelong friends, sharing a passion for horse racing. Whitney became a major investor in two of Astaire'sBroadway stage vehicles,The Band Wagon (1930) andGay Divorce (1932), and played a crucial role in securing for Astaire a contract withRKO Pictures in 1933, using his contacts withMerian C. Cooper; both men were board members ofPan American Airways whose planes were prominently featured in Astaire's breakthrough film withGinger Rogers:Flying Down to Rio (1933).[24]
During the 1970s, Whitney was listed as one of the ten wealthiest men in the world. The residences at his disposal over the years included an estate onLong Island; anAtlantic Beach, New York, beach house;[25]Greenwood Plantation in Georgia; a townhouse and an elegant apartment inManhattan; a large summer house onFishers Island, nearNew London, Connecticut; a twelve-room house inSaratoga Springs, which the Whitneys used when they attended horse races; a golfing cottage inAugusta, Georgia, where he was a member of theAugusta National Golf Club; and a spacious houseCherry Hill in Virginia Water,Surrey, England, near theAscot Racecourse. Mr. Whitney also owned an estate inAiken, South Carolina, which he considered his "retirement" home and where he hoped to spend his final days.[2]
Whitney died on February 8, 1982, atNorth Shore Hospital, Manhasset, Long Island, after a long illness.[2]
Payne Whitney made substantial gifts to Yale, to theNew York Presbyterian Hospital, and theNew York Public Library. After his father's death, the family built thePayne Whitney Gymnasium at Yale in his honor. The family also financedPayne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic atNew York Presbyterian Hospital in 1932.
Whitney created the John Hay Whitney Foundation for educational projects in 1946.[2] The foundation provided fellowships to the racially and culturally deprived. He became a major contributor to Yale University, where he served as a Fellow of the corporation.[26]
In 1951, he and his wife Betsey Cushing Whitney donated land from their "Greentree" estate inManhasset, New York toward the building of North Shore Hospital. Currently calledNorth Shore University Hospital, it is the flagship hospital of the third-largest not-for-profit secular healthcare system in the United States, the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.[27]
In 1953, Whitney receivedThe Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."
In the late 1960s/early 1970s, John Hay Whitney donated two small parcels of land in Manhasset to the County of Nassau and to the Manhasset-Lakeville Volunteer Fire Department. The Nassau County parcel was the new home for the 6th Police Precinct of the Nassau County Police, located at the S/E intersection of Community Drive and East Community Drive. Just east of the 6th pct, at 2 E Community Dr., the M-LFD parcel was the new home of Fire Company #2 of the M-LFD, where John Hay Whitney was voted in by the membership of Company number two as an Honorary Member of the company.
In 1930 Whitney was elected to the board of trustees of theMuseum of Modern Art in New York City, and named President of the MoMA Film Library in 1935. In 1941 he succeededNelson A. Rockefeller as President of MoMA.[28][29] In 1946 he succeeded Stephen C. Clark as chairman of the board of trustees[30]
When Whitney moved to England as United States ambassador, he took a number of his favourite artworks with him to enjoy during his posting. Before his return to the U.S., he agreed for the first time to loan part of his collection for the public to see. He provided the ,,,,,Tate Gallery with 56 paintings from the collection in England and specially brought in a further 11 paintings from the U.S. The exhibition, the John Hay Whitney Collection, ran from 16 December 1960 to 29 January 1961.[31]
In 1983, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, held an exhibition of the John Hay Whitney Collection with paintings loaned by Whitney's wife, The Museum of Modern Art and theYale University Art Gallery[32]
Among the paintings in his collection, Whitney's prized possession was theBal au moulin de la Galette painted in 1876 by the French artistPierre-Auguste Renoir.[2] In 1990, his widow put the painting up for auction withSotheby's, New York City and it sold for US$78 million to Japanese businessmanRyoei Saito.
Whitney's widow donated a number of paintings from his collection to the Greentree Foundation. One of those paintings byPablo Picasso,Garçon à la pipe was auctioned by Sotheby's in May 2004 for $104 million[33]
The following works have been publicly exhibited or sold from the former collection of John Hay Whitney.
Sources: John Hay Whitney Collection (Catalogue), Tate Gallery, 1960, John Hay Whitney Collection (Catalogue), National Gallery of Art, 1983, Sotheby's Catalogue, auction 10 May 1999, Sotheby's Catalogue, auction 5 May 2004
{{cite news}}:|last1= has generic name (help)John Hay Whitney, the paper's chairman, announced yesterday that Mr. Huebner, 38 years old and a native of Sheboygan, Wisc., would take charge of the Paris‐based newspaper on June 18.
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