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In the 1960s, companies like Joan Balls Com-Pat and Jeffrey Tarrs Operation Match pioneered computer-assisted love.
It didnt always end well.
After a public outcry, the mayor committed her to an asylum for four weeks.
Despite tooth-and-nail success, Ball is largely excluded from online dating history.
Tarrs primary motivation was to meet more women outside the limited campus pool.
The first online dating web connection arrived decades later in 1984, with the Matchmaker Electronic Pen-Pal web connection.
Before he becamethe oddballmustachioedToday Showfilm and book critic, Gene Shalit was a reporter.
Answers to questions like Do you believe in a god that answers prayer?
The literal and metaphorical machinations of matches were almost beside the point.
It was the mysticism of the computer that provided the real sparks.
The idea that we were matching based on compatibility was purely a marketing thing.
It was always more art than science.
Sounds a lot like the dating apps of right now.
We are extremely happy and I am helping Leon with his English.
Leon replied, I met, I liked, I married.
Exasperated and enraged, Ball called several newspapers, desperate for any kind of publicity.
Her next appointment with the matching mainframe was coming up and she was short on clients to feed it.
Finally, the tabloidNews of the Worldbit.
That write-up brought more press attention, and more clients.
Even with small wins like these, Com-Pat couldnt stay afloat in a market that wouldnt fully accept it.
After years of trying to drum up advertising through word of mouth from happy clients, the company floundered.
Ball eventually sold Com-Pat to Datelines John Patterson, for 5,000.
The only condition was that he pay the 7,000 of debt the company carried.
The sale crushed her.
Later, he started a separate, even more explicit service, according to technology historian Mar Hicks.
Despite their groundbreaking and innovative work in computer dating, neither Patterson nor Ball found their happily-ever-afters.
This article was originally published onNovember 14, 2022
