Heir to Bloomingdale's Department Store. Born in New York City to Hiram C. and Rosalind Bloomingdale. He attended the Riverdale Country Day School and the Westminster School in Connecticut. Alfred was graduated from Brown University in 1938, after more than a year in a hospital recovering from a back injury received on the football field. After graduation, he worked as a salesman, starting at $18 a week, in the Manhattan store founded by his grandfather, Lyman G. Bloomingdale. His career there was brief. Between 1941 and 1945 he was involved in the direction and/or production of several Broadway shows. During that period he was married briefly to an actress who went by the name Barbara Brewster, with the marriage ending in divorce. In 1946, he married for the second time, to Betty Lee Newling, a practicing Roman Catholic, movie starlet and daughter of a Beverly Hills doctor. They had three children. In 1950, Alfred and his wife Betty were friends and confidantes of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In 1981, following his election to the U.S. presidency, Reagan appointed Alfred 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. Alfred started a credit card business in Los Angeles called Dine and Sign. While in Los Angeles, 54-year-old Alfred began an affair with 18-year-old Vicki Morgan. For 12 years, he 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 multi-million dollar palimony lawsuit against Bloomingdale's estate. The case against Bloomingdale's estate was quickly dismissed by the courts. Morgan eventually moved into a low-rent condominium in the San Fernando Valley. However, Alfred would die before this was concluded. At Alfred's retirement, when the credit card company had been acquired by the Continental Corporation, an insurance holding company, there were 2 million Diners' Club cards in use. His major business involvement had been in the Marina Bay Operating Company of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., owners of the Marina Bay Club and Hotel. He died at the age of 66 of throat cancer.