To hear Jerry Seinfeld tell it, he had a major hand in American Express’ creation of its Centurion Card (widely known as the Black Card) in 1999.
As the story goes, when Seinfeld was a spokesperson for American Express in the 1990s, a member of a commercial’s crew asked him if he owned an AmEx Black Card. Not knowing what it was but thinking it was about time he did, he called up the company’s president at the time, Harvey Golub, and said that he wanted one — but it turned out the coveted card for the ultra-rich and famous was just a rumor at that time.
When it was made a reality, Seinfeld said he was the first person to be gifted one.
The iconic comedian first broke out the story on his Netflix’s talk series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” with guest John Mulaney in 2018. But in a recent live audience interview with comic and actor Sebastian Maniscalco to launch his “We Got Company!” podcast, Seinfeld added another layer to the tale.
“I was on the set, we’re shooting a commercial, and one of the guys on the crew slides up next to me and whispers, ‘Do you have the Black Card?’ I go, ‘Well, what’s that?’ He goes, ‘There’s supposed to be a secret Black Card, and only the Sultan of Brunei and the president of American Express has it. And I thought maybe you had it too.’
“I go, ‘No, I don’t have it. But I’m gonna get it,’” Seinfeld continued. “And, the next morning, I called the president of American Express, Harvey Golub at the time, a nice Jewish guy from Brooklyn, and I said, ‘What about the Black Card?’ He says, ‘It’s just a rumor, it’s never existed.’ I go, ‘Let’s do it, let’s make the Black Card.’ He goes, ‘Let me look into it.’ And that’s how it happened.”
When Maniscalco asked Seinfeld to confirm that he was indeed the first person to be presented the American Express Black Card, the comic shared a coda:
“I had the first one, and I threw it out,” Seinfeld said, laughing. “I don’t know what happened to it. But he gave it to me in this nice padded thing, and it was the first one, and I don’t have it anymore.”
For those hoping to follow in Seinfeld’s footsteps and also become an AmEx Black Card holder, CNBC previously detailed in its own account that the main thing needed for such access is a “well-padded bank account.” Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey, the outlet reported, are also said to be among the card’s elite holders.
