Matty Simmons

Matty Simmons, born in Brooklyn, was a high school and college basketball player, who, at the age of seventeen, became a newspaper reporter for the "New York World Telegram and Sun". After a brief stint in the army he became a New York press agent, opening his own firm and representing show business clients as well as commercial accounts such as Heinekein Beer. He then became one of the three men who started "The Diners Club", the first all purpose credit card company and served as Executive Vice President of that company primarily directing its marketing and publishing operations including "Signature Magazine", which he founded shortly after the company's inception. He resigned in the late 1960s to form 21st Century Communications which was later to become National Lampoon, Inc. The company went public in 1972 with Mr. Simmons as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Its first magazine was "Weight Watchers Magazine", founded in 1968. In 1970, the company introduced "Natio