Alfred Schiffer Bloomingdale (April 15, 1916 – August 23, 1982) was an American businessman who launched the credit card business Dine and Sign, was chairman of Diners Club, and became known as "father of the credit card." He was an heir to the Bloomingdale's department store fortune and the lover of murdered mistress Vicki Morgan.
Early life and education
Bloomingdale was born to a wealthy Jewish family on April 15, 1916, in New York City, the son of Rosalind (née Schiffer) and Hiram Bloomingdale, and the grandson of Lyman G. Bloomingdale, a co-founder of the famous department store Bloomingdale's. Bloomingdale attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island,
- Geoffrey Bloomingdale (born 1950), married to Elizabeth Fahr in 1972;
- Lisa Bloomingdale Bell (born 1951), married to R. McKim Bell in 1974; and
- Robert Russell Bloomingdale (born 1954), married to Justine Hayward Schmidt in 1979.
Bloomingdale and his wife Betsy were friends and confidantes of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In 1981 Reagan, following his election to the U.S. presidency, appointed Bloomingdale to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and the following year named him a member of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Although born to a Jewish family, Bloomingdale became a Catholic to marry Betsy, and later became a member of the Knights of Malta. The Bloomingdales maintained homes in New York, the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, and an apartment in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Vicki Morgan affair
In 1970, while in Los Angeles, 54-year-old Alfred Bloomingdale began an affair with 18-year-old Vicki Morgan. For 12 years, Bloomingdale kept her in a luxurious apartment, showering her with expensive clothing, jewelry, and cars. Soon after, the affair with Vicki Morgan made headline news as its unsubstantiated and sordid details, which included allegations of sado-masochistic activities instigated by Bloomingdale, were made public after Morgan filed a multimillion-dollar palimony lawsuit against Bloomingdale's estate. Morgan eventually moved into a condominium in the San Fernando Valley where she rented a room to a schizophrenic named Marvin Pancoast, whom she knew from the withdrawal clinic. In July 1983, Pancoast beat her to death with a baseball bat.