Kemmon Wilson

Kemmon Wilson: Kemmon Wilson, the founder of Holiday Inns, was a high school drop out and a former popcorn vendor before he entered the hospitality field. Wilson grew up during the Great Depression and was forced to leave high school; when his widowed mother lost her job. The enterprising youth acquired a popcorn vending machine on installments and rented space in the lobby of a local theatre. His business extended and rewarded him with good profit. Wilson reinvested his profits in a variety of vending machines, eventually acquiring a house, a jukebox distributorship and several theatres of his own.

After serving in the Air Transport Command during World War II, Wilson failed with a soft drink contract, before finally succeeding in the construction trade. In 1951, driving with his family on vacation from Tennessee to Washington D.C., he was displeased at his inability to find even a single motor inn with good sanitation and comfortable accommodation suitable for a vacationing family. Soon afterward, Wilson opened his own hotel outside Memphis. Catering to vacationing families, Wilson called his new establishment the Holiday Inn, after 1942.

In sharp contrast to other motor inns of the early 1950's the Holiday Inn included ample parking, televisions, phones, a swimming pool for guests and soft drink dispensers. Over the next few years, Wilson built three more hotels and, with an entrepreneur named Wallace Johnson, began franchising Holiday Inns a national level.

By 1959, the chain boasted a hundred hotels, most owned by doctors, lawyers and other financially capable investors. Wilson retired as chief executive in the franchise chain in 1979, after suffering a mild heart attack. Holiday Inns is still the world's largest lodging organization and one of the most recognizable franchise trademarks. It is estimated that 90% of the nation's travelers spend at least one night in Holiday Inn.