Martin Gerald "Matty" Simmons[1] (October 3, 1926 – April 29, 2020) was an American film and television producer, newspaper reporter for the New York World-Telegram and Sun, and Executive Vice President of Diners Club, the first credit card company.
[2] Simmons gained his greatest fame while the chief executive officer of Twenty First Century Communications (renamed National Lampoon Inc., after its best-known product).
[9] Simmons is given credit for raiding "Chicago’s satirical Second City troupe to bring Belushi to New York for the 1973 revue National Lampoon's Lemmings.
[17] In the 2018 film, A Futile and Stupid Gesture, about the rise and fall of National Lampoon, Simmons was played by comedian Matt Walsh.
Besides Simmons and Mogel, other employees of the company included William T. Lippe, who went from associate publisher of National Lampoon to vice president, advertising sales.