Talk:Diners Club International/Archives/2014

Origins

The current early history of the article reads as follows:

The first credit card charge was made on February 8, 1950,[5] by Frank McNamara, Ralph Schneider and Matty Simmons at Major's Cabin Grill, a restaurant adjacent to their offices in the Empire State Building. McNamara was bought out two years later by department store heir Alfred Bloomingdale, who resigned several years later. Schneider died in the early 1960s. Simmons resigned in 1967 to form the publishing company that became National Lampoon. During that approximately 20-year period, these four men were the only major participants in the Diners Club operation.

This is mostly unsourced and I haven't seen any sources saying that Alfred Bloomingdale bought the company (I did find a source saying that many journalists mistakenly said he founded it). I also didn't find any reliable sources saying that Diners Clubs' early press agent Mr. Simmon was physically present at the Major's Cabin Grill event, which is considered the founding of the credit card industry. What I did find was that in the early 2000s Simmons alleged the entire origins story was fabricated[1][2] then later in his own 2012 autobiography claimed he was physically present at the event, however this is one of many facts in his biography that seem to contradict more reliable, more independent sources.

I've put together some information I've found so far on the company's origins at: User:CorporateM/Diners_Club and I was hoping a disinterested editor might take a look. CorporateM (Talk) 01:26, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

User:CorporateM pinged my talk page since I have occasionally closed edit requests in the past. I agree that his new material is better, at least on grounds of being sourced. The phrase "the first credit card charge' which says it happened in 1949 might be a little boastful since the 2005 book by Evans and Schmalensee speaks of many other businesses that were already issuing credit and distributing 'payment cards.' Proving that Diner's Club has no predecessors in the credit card business would be an ambitious task and surely unnecessary for the present article. It may have been the first widely-used card in the dining business supported by a variety of restaurants, but we don't even need to make that claim unless it comes directly from a good source such as a scholarly book. I'll leave a note for CorporateM suggesting revisions, and if he responds I'm considering replacing the current 'Origins' section with his new text. Others are welcome to give their opinion as well. EdJohnston (talk) 21:19, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

 Done I fixed the citation errors. It looks like my slightly erroneous Talk page comment about being the first credit card is not reflected in the draft, so we should be ok there and the comment about historians citing Diners Club as the beginnings of contemporary credit is cited to a book by academic and historian Louis Hyman. I also altered the draft space so it now has the entire article with the newly proposed content in bold and the un-sourced, incorrect or off-topic info I'm proposing we replace is in strikeout. CorporateM (Talk) 21:57, 11 February 2014 (UTC)