THADDEUS PALMER WHITNEY
Thad Whitney’s
birthdate is January 14. The birthyear is uncertain as his mother
lost his birth certificate, and the hospital where he was born in Kingwall,
Nebraska, burned to the ground in 1936. He estimates 1918-1919.
His father, a train conductor, died in a train crash leaving two year-old
Thad and his mother Iris destitute.
Iris and Thad moved to Orange County where Iris had a sister, and Iris went to work immediately in a nearby factory. Thad began working the orange groves at the age of five. He sang while he worked the groves and people began to take notice.
Iris decided
to capitalize on Thad's talent. She took him on bi-monthly trips
to Hollywood and entered him in singing or dancing contests. Thad’s
"silvery little voice" caught on at a grass roots level and his popularity
grew, requiring Iris to take more and more time off work to attend contests.
When excessive
absence finally got her fired from her job, Iris forced her way into Henry
Conington’s (then head of Cheshire Studios) office and asked him to consider
placing Thad under contract. Henry Conington had heard word of the
child singer and upon meeting Thad, offered a four year contract.
Henry set Thad and Iris up in studio housing, chose a look for Thad and
even coined the name “Baby Thaddeus.”
Baby Thaddeus
became an instant hit, wildly popular among all types of people young and
old, rich and poor. He made seventeen films in four years.
Iris frittered Thad’s earnings on excesses and luxuries that she’d been
unable to afford in her lifetime of want and penury. But the money
couldn’t help what was building up inside her.
Henry renewed Thad’s contract for another 4 critical years. Baby Thaddeus’ popularity skyrocketed as Iris’ depression sunk to the depths. Studio pharmacists tried to medicate her into a more manageable state, but she became even more destructive and abusive.
Despite
Baby Thaddeus’ popularity, at the end of his contract, Henry Conington
chose not to renew because of Iris. Iris stories were so widespread
and her reputation so horrible, that no other studio would touch Baby Thaddeus.
Concerned for Thad's welfare, Cheshire Studios proposed a "corporate adoption"
but Irene wouldn't hear of it. Iris lay low in hopes that good behavior
would cause Henry to reconsider, to think of Thad’s popularity and financial
potential and renew his contract. No call ever came.
It has been rumored that Iris was romantically involved with Henry and
that the end of their relationship was the end of Thad’s contract - a rumor
that Thad emphatically denies.
As Iris waited for Henry’s phone call she slipped into deeper and deeper despair. She and her son lived with anyone who would put them up and lived on whatever food Iris could get her hands on. An acquaintance remembers, "It was a sorry sight. Thaddeus had gone from a golden child star to a street urchin and Iris from a charming young woman to a skinny, gaunt, raving lunatic." Finally, having crossed over to complete insanity, Iris stormed onto the Cheshire Studio lot and cornered Henry Conington while waving a gun and screaming “It’s all your fault.” She was taken into police custody and eventually placed in Woodward Sanitorium.
But underneath
the grime of poverty, Thad had become a strapping, handsome 15 year old.
It’s unclear if it was guilt, obligation or business acumen that cause
Henry Conington to offer Thad another contract. In any case, when
Thad returned to the screen, not as Baby Thaddeus but as Thad Whitney,
fans came out of the woodwork.
On the studio
lot he met his first love, Dulsorte Faran, an exotic beauty 18 years his
senior. Although it was kept hush-hush, she and Thad cohabitated
for 7 years. But when Dulsorte was a young silent actress in Berlin
she’d developed a morphine habit that would eventually catch up with her.
She died of an overdose as Thad drove her to the hospital. Around
the same time Thad’s mother Iris, died of tuberculosis in the sanitorium.
Distraught,
Thad left Hollywood to work on the London stage. It was in London
that he truly found himself and learned his craft. All of the ghosts
of melancholy and deprivation were left in Hollywood. He met a young,
pretty wardrobe assistant, Elena Winton and the two were married several
months later. Thad became homesick for America and felt that Elena would
insulate him from the pain he had known there.
They returned
to American and purchased a classic Hollywood Bungalow in Beverly Hills.
Despite the fact that his marriage to Elena lasted 27 years, it was a troubled
marriage marred by long separations and Thad’s alleged promiscuity.
Within a
year of returning to America, Thad set up a separate residence in the Hollywood
Hills - a notorious bachelor pad where he entertained many guests.
Thad’s friend Dean Heckerman says “Thad loved his wife, truly loved her,
but the losses he suffered in his childhood, his mother’s depression,
Dulsorte’s addiction, both of their tragic deaths, left him forever changed
and full of personal demons. I think he was terribly afraid of becoming
attached to anyone, even his wife. By the time he came to his senses,
Elena had taken all she could take and had vowed to keep him out of her
life. "Thad continues to enjoy a charmed career. Most recently
he appeared in a supporting role in the t.v. Movie "Of All Things".