Jock Whitney
The family of John Hay “Jock” Whitney, descendant of Mayflower traveler William Bradford, owned the fabulously successful Thoroughbred estate known as Greentree Stables, which he ran for much of his life. Greentree produced the superb champions Twenty Grand, Capot, and Tom Fool. Whitney was also successful in England with the great steeplechaser Easter Hero, two-time winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. An early backer of Fred Astaire’s Broadway musicals, Whitney was an inveterate “stage-door Johnny,” well known for his ability to pick up chorus girls after the show. He was also a keen filmgoer, an early investor in Technicolor, and the man who backed David O. Selznick’s productions of Gone with the Wind and Rebecca.Despite his financial largesse, business acumen, and cinematic insight, the self-effacing Whitney never received a single screen credit for any of the dozens of films he was involved in.