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Matty Simmons helped pioneer the credit card back in 1950 with the Diners Club, whereby members would go to New York restaurants and pay the bill once per month. He would go on to found Twenty First Century Communications, National Lampoons (producing "Animal House" and the "Vacation" movies), and Weight Watchers.
After being acquired by Continental Insurance, Diners Club’s U.S. business has changed hands a few more times. Today, it’s owned by Discover. Frank McNamara sold his shares in the Diners Club in 1952, thinking it would level off at 250,000 members. He died in 1957. Two years after his death, Diners Club passed 1 million members. Ralph Schneider, who ran Diners Club for years after McNamara’s departure, died in 1964. Al Bloomingdale later took the helm, but he and Simmons “disagreed constantly” about business plans, according to Simmons’ book, and Simmons left the company a few years later. Bloomingdale managed the company for several years, and eventually sold his interest for a profit of $13 million. He died in 1982.
