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Historical records matching William Dwight Whitney
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About William Dwight Whitney
William Dwight Whitney
Find A Grave Memorial ID # 42958242
International Lawyer
Raymond Massey and Adrianne Allen, were seeking a divorce and hired longtime friend and international lawyer, William Dwight Whitney, who was divorced from his wife, Dorothy Whitney. in 1939, Dorothy married Raymond and Adrianne married William Dwight Whitney. Both couples lived happily 'ever after'. Daniel and his sister Anna spent most of their childhood time in London with Adrianne and Bill, and during WWII enjoyed many visits with their uncle, Roger Sherman Baldwin Whitney, M.D.
The film, "Adam's Rib" was "Inspired the real-life story of husband-and-wife lawyers William Dwight Whitney and Dorothy Whitney, who represented Raymond Massey and his ex-wife Adrienne Allen in their divorce. After the Massey divorce was over, the Whitneys divorced each other and married the respective Masseys. see here for more information
Massey's divorce from his ex-wife Adrienne Allen was the inspiration for the 1949 film Adam's Rib (1949). Each was represented by one half of a famous husband-and-wife team of divorce lawyers, Dorothy Whitney and her husband William Dwight Whitney. After the trial was over, the Whitneys divorced. The ex-Mrs. Whitney married Massey, and the ex-Mrs. Massey married the ex-Mrs. Whitneys ex-husband.see here for more information
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Obit: New York Times
William Dwight Whitney, a noted courtroom lawyer who helped to win in 1953 a six‐year trial brought by the Government against 17 leading investment houses on a charge of monopoly and conspiracy, died Friday at his home in La Tour de Peilz, Switzerland. He was 74 years old.
In that case; which upheld the prevailing practice of syndicates in marketing securities at a fixed offering price, Mr. Whitney assisted in getting dismissal of the complaint, with Federal Judge Harold R. Medina, upholding the Wall Street houses.
A partner in the law firm of Cravath, de Gersdorff, Swaine & Wood (now Cravath, Swaine & Moore), from 1930 to 1956, Mr. Whitney was a specialist in international antitrust law as well as the domestic variety. One of the few American lawyers admitted to practice in England, he argued a case there in which Pepsi‐Cola, in a House of Lords decision, won the right to use the word “cola.”
Mr. Whitney, a son of Justice Edward B. Whitney of the New York State Supreme Court and the former Josepha Newcomb, had strong Anglophile leanings. He studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1920–21 after his graduation from Yale and its Law School and wrote a book, “Who Are the Americans?”, in 1941.
In 1940 Mr. Whitney enlisted in the British Army and served in England for a year, when he was transferred to various United States aid missions in liaison with the United Kingdom. Part of the time he assisted former Gov. W. Averell Harriman in military aid work.
Mr. Whitney married Dorothy Ludington in 1924. The couple were divorced in 1936.
In 1939 he married Adrianne Allen, English actress, who had been divorced that year from Raymond Massey, the actor. In that same year the former Miss Ludington was married to Mr. Massey.
Surviving, besides Mr. Whitney's widow, are two daughters, Mrs. Charles Tice of Ventura, Calif., and Mrs. Richarc B. Coney of Reno; two brothers Simon N. of Scarsdale, N.Y. and Hassler Whitney of Princeton, N.J.; a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Sparre of Woodstock, N.Y. and five grandchildren
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William Dwight Whitney's Timeline
| 1899 |
August 26, 1899
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Wainscott, Suffolk County, New York, United States
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| 1930 |
January 4, 1930
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New York City, New York County, New York, United States
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| 1973 |
December 1973
Age 74
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Montreux, Bezirk Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut, VD, Switzerland
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