 alfred schiffer bloomingdale (april 15, 1916âaugust 23, 1982) was an heir to the bloomingdale's department store fortune, "father of the credit card", and the celebrated lover of murdered hollywood model vicki morgan.poisoned passions at investigation discovery ==early life and education== born into great wealth in new york city, alfred was the son of hiram bloomingdale and rosalind schiffer;american inventors, entrepreneurs, and business visionaries by charles w. carey retrieved march 18, 2013 and the grandson of a co-founder of the famous department store, lyman g. bloomingdale. bloomingdale attended brown university in providence, rhode island, where he was a member of the football team as well as delta kappa epsilon fraternity (upsilon chapter). as a young man he had a keen interest in theater and between 1941 and 1945 was involved in the direction and/or production of several broadway shows. during that period he was married briefly to an actress who went by the name barbara brewster, with the marriage ending in divorce. ==career== to facilitate the need of his wealthy friends who liked to patronize new york city's upscale restaurants following a night at the theater, bloomingdale launched a credit card business called "dine and sign" that meant people on a night out no longer needed to carry large sums of cash. in 1951, he merged his company with diners club and joined the rapidly growing business as an executive, becoming chairman of the board of directors in 1964. in 1969, he left diners club,carey, charles w., jr. (2002). american inventors, entrepreneurs & business visionaries, pp. 30-31. facts on file, inc. acquiring its "international floatels" division. ==personal life== in 1946, he married for the second time, to betty lee newling, a practicing roman catholic, movie starlet and daughter of a beverly hills doctor. they had three children: geoffrey (born 1950), lisa (born 1951), and robert (born 1954)."two unerdervalued diors get betsy bloomingdale in trouble with the feds in los angeles" (september 13, 1976) people bloomingdale and his wife betty were friends and confidantes of ronald and nancy reagan. in 1981, following his election to the u.s. presidency, reagan
1916_births 1982_deaths American_Jews American_Roman_Catholics American_people_of_German-Jewish_descent Burials_at_Holy_Cross_Cemetery,_Culver_City Cancer_deaths_in_California Deaths_from_esophageal_cancer Knights_of_Malta