[msb-alumni] Matty Simmons, 93, Dies on April 28, 2020; Helped Start the Diners Club And Backed 'Animal House'
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 3 May 2020 15:49:56 -0400
BlankMatty Simmons, 93, Is Dead; Helped Start the Diners Club And Backed
'Animal
House'. By Neil Genzlinger.
He helped get National Lampoon off the ground and was a producer of the Lampoon
franchise's hit movies.
Matty Simmons, who helped launch National Lampoon magazine and was instrumental
in
bringing into being its most famous side project, the 1978 movie "National
Lampoon's
Animal House," died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93. His
son
Michael confirmed his death.
In his 2012 book, "Fat, Drunk and Stupid: The Inside Story Behind the Making of
'Animal House," Mr. Simmons gave a succinct version of his unusual career path:
"The Diners Club begat Weight Watchers Magazine, which begat the National
Lampoon,
and that begat 'Animal House."
Mr. Simmons was a press agent in New York, with clubs and restaurants among his
clients, when, in 1949, Frank McNamara, a businessman, and Ralph E. Schneider,
a
lawyer, asked him if he wanted to help them bring an idea they ad to fruition.
They
envisioned a card that people could use instead of cash to pay for restaurant
meals.
Their Diners Club Card helped usher in the era of credit cards. Diners Club
International calls it "the world's first multipurpose charge card," and Mr.
Simmons
was at the lunch with Mr. McNamara and Mr. Schneider in February 1950 when a
Diners
Club Card was used for the first time, at Major's Cabin Grill in Midtown
Manhattan.
Mr. Simmons rose to vice president for sales of the new company and started The
Diners Club Magazine.
Publishing came to interest him more than sales did, so in the late 1950s he
left the
company and started his own, 21st Century Communications.
Weight Watchers asked him to help turn their corporate publication into a
general-interest magazine, which he did in 1968, to considerable success. His
company, he said, had a half-share stake in the new magazine, and with the
profits he
began looking to invest in other magazine projects.
The president of a magazine distribution company introduced him to three young
men
from the student publication The Harvard Lampoon: Henry Beard, Robert Hoffman
and
Douglas Kenney. Mr. Simmons helped them put out a parody of Life magazine, then
a
parody of Time.
Then came National Lampoon, with Mr. Simmons as chairman. As National Lampoon
grew
more successful, it turned into a franchise, with stage shows, comedy albums
and
eventually "Animal House."
The movie, directed by John Landis (who was then largely unknown) and produced
by Mr.
Simmons and Ivan Reitman, involved a troublemaking fraternity, Delta Tau Chi,
and its
ensemble cast featured John Belushi, who had become well known from "Saturday
Night
Live."
"Animal House" became a cultural touchstone of sorts.
"I must have had 1,000 people say to me, 'That was based on my fraternity," Mr.
Simmons told the Postmedia Network in 2013. "It wasn't; it wasn't really
anyone's
fraternity. But it's everyone."
Martin Gerald Simmons was born on Oct. 3, 1926, in Brooklyn. His father,
Irving, was
a sign painter, and his mother, Kate (Shapiro) Simmons, was a homemaker. He
graduated
from Textile High School in Manhattan in 1942 and attended the City College of
New
York but dropped out. He worked briefly for The New York World-Telegram and Sun
before being drafted into the Army. From 1944 to 1946 he served in the Signal
Corps
at Fort Monmouth, N.J., where he produced entertainment shows.
Mr. Simmons began working as a press agent after his discharge. He acknowledged
that
when he first heard the pitch from Mr. McNamara and Mr. Schneider about the
Diners
Club charge card, he wasn't impressed.
"I told them I thought it was the worst idea I'd ever heard," he told Adweek in
1990.
"I never charged anything. In those days, most people didn't."
But the men won him over, and he embarked on the path that led to the founding
of
National Lampoon.
The first issue of the magazine appeared in April 1970. The Lampoon, which at
its
peak had a circulation of more than one million, was a defining force in satire
during the 1970s and '80s, thanks to a collection of writers and editors that
included P.J. O'Rourke, Bruce McCall, Tony Hendra, Sean Kelly, Anne Beatts and
Michael O'Donoghue.
"It was the greatest collection of humorists, over a 20-year period, since
perhaps
the days of the Algonquin Round Table," Mr. Simmons wrote in "Fat, Drunk and
Stupid."
The magazine soon branched out into stage shows like 'National Lampoon's
Lemmings,' a
1973 revue that packed the Village Gate in Greenwich Village and featured Mr.
Belushi
and his future 'S.N.L.' cast mate Chevy Chase. There was also "The National
Lampoon
Radio Hour," as well as several record albums.
In 1979 came "Delta House," a short-lived TV series based on "Animal House";
Mr.
Simmons was an executive producer.
He was often at odds with some of the key figures on the creative side of the
National Lampoon enterprise. In 1978, for instance, he dismissed Mr. Kelly as
editor
of the magazine.
"After "Animal House" came out, Matty Simmons decided this particular goose
could lay
larger, better-quality gold eggs if it emulated what he saw as "Animal House,"
by
which he meant adolescent," Mr. Hendra complained to The New York Times in 2005.
The magazine's popularity began to wane in the 1980s. But the franchise's
movies,
with Mr. Simmons as a producer or executive producer, often did well,
especially
'National Lampoon's Vacation' in 1983 and 'National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation' in
1989, both starring Chevy Chase.
Mr. Simmons sold his stake in the magazine in 1989.
His marriages to Korky Kelley in 1945 and Lee Easton in 1952 ended in divorce.
His
third wife, Patti Browne, died in 2017. In addition to his son Michael, who is
from
his second marriage, he is survived by another son, Andrew, and a daughter,
Julie
Simmons-Lynch, from that marriage; a daughter from his third marriage, Kate
Simmons;
four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Mr. Simmons wrote several other books, including "If You Don't Buy This Book,
We'll
Kill This Dog: Life, Laughs, Love and Death at National Lampoon" (1994). (The
title
was a reference to an especially notorious Lampoon cover.)
In "Fat, Drunk, and Stupid," he recalled driving around Manhattan in July 1978
marveling at the long lines of people waiting to buy tickets to "Animal House."
Outside one theater he saw Walter Garibaldi, National Lampoon's treasurer,
poking at
a calculator, and stopped to ask what he was doing.
"I'm just figuring out how much money we make every time somebody buys a
ticket,"
came the answer. Mr. Garibaldi, he wrote, was still standing there hours later.
"Animal House," which was made on a budget of about $3 million, eventually
raked in
about $140 million.
Other related posts:
- » [msb-alumni] Matty Simmons, 93, Dies on April 28, 2020; Helped Start the Diners Club And Backed 'Animal House' - Steve
