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The Marriott Corporation was a hospitality company that operated from 1927 until 1993. It was founded by J. Willard Marriott and Frank J. Kimball as Hot Shoppes, Inc. In 1957, it opened its first hotel in Arlington County, Virginia, the Marriott Motor Hotel (demolished 1990).

Marriott Corporation's first international property was opened in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1969. Hot Shoppes became Marriott Corporation in 1967, which subsequently split into Marriott International, Inc. and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993.

History

J. Willard Marriott, who had moved away with his business partner Hugh Colton and his wife Alice from Utah to Washington, D.C., in 1927, where he operated a curbside food stand selling A&W Root Beer in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington at 14th Street and Park Road NW.

He would later rename the food stand The Hot Shoppe, adding Mexican food items to the menu. Marriott's business expanded to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1934, shortly after which the company started its food services division. During Second World War, the business expanded to include the management of food services in defense plants and government buildings, such as the U.S. Treasury.

They introduced popular items such as the "Mighty Mo", a double hamburger served in a bun, topped with sesame seeds and divided into three slices. It was stacked with a dill pickle strip in the top layer and tomato, lettuce, and a distinctive dressing on the bottom layer. Very thick milk shakes were served with a long-handled spoon and an unusually wide straw, both of which would stand upright by themselves in the thick drinks. Similarly thick orange sherbet drinks were served in the same tall glass with a spoon and a straw, often called a "freeze". These would become mainstays of the luncheon menu and be imitated forever thereafter.

Then in the 1950s, Hot Shoppes, Inc. started providing food services to public schools and to Children's National Medical Center in 1955, a contract which they held for 35 years.

The company went public in 1953.

In 1957, the firm expanded into the hotel industry by opening the first Marriott hotel, the Marriott Motor Hotel, in Arlington County, Virginia.

In 1964, Hot Shoppes, Inc. was renamed Marriott-Hot Shoppes, Inc. The company became Marriott Corporation in 1967.

In 1967, Marriott acquired the Big Boy family restaurants chain from Bob Wian.

The following year, Marriott acquired the Fort Wayne-based RoBee's, a roast beef sandwich fast-food chain, but later discovered that they would not be able to use the RoBee's name nationally. At the suggestion of the new Marriott board member Bob Wian, cowboy actor Roy Rogers was contacted to lend his name to the roast beef sandwich venture, and the Roy Rogers Family Restaurants was formed a few months later by converting RoBee's and a few Hot Shoppe locations.

Over the years, Marriott's company interests expanded. Continuing with food services, Marriott eventually became involved with airline in-flight food service. This segment of their enterprise continues to be a large part of their business, providing food services to many major airlines.

In 1976, Marriott opened two theme parks named Marriott's Great America in California and Illinois. Another was planned for in Maryland but local opposition prevented construction from ever beginning at any of the three proposed sites. Marriott had also reached an agreement to acquire Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio, but the deal was later called off. The theme parks had replicas of the first Hot Shoppes. Both parks were sold in the mid-1980s, the one in California was sold to the city of Santa Clara, California and the one in Illinois was sold to Six Flags in 1984. They were both later renamed California's Great America and Six Flags Great America, respectively.

In 1982, the company acquired Host International for $120 million and also Gino's Inc., the owner of Gino's Hamburgers and Rustler Steak House restaurant chains, for $48.6 million. 108 Rustler Steak House Restaurants plus three other restaurants were sold in the following year to two different firms for undisclosed amounts. Newly formed Tenly Enterprises purchased 94 restaurants while Sizzler Restaurants International purchased the remaining 17.

By 1984, Marriott had formed a vacation time-share division, now called Marriott Vacation Club International, through the purchase of American Resorts Group for an undisclosed amount and also a senior-living division.

In 1985, the company purchased the Howard Johnson's restaurant chain from the Imperial Group P.L.C. of London for $314 million with plans of converting the acquired restaurants to the Bob's Big Boy brand and to make Bob's the largest coffee-shop business in the country.

In 1987, Marriott sold the Big Boy restaurants franchise rights to Elias Brothers for an undisclosed amount while keeping 208 company-owned Bob's Big Boy restaurants in California and selected locations on the East Coast.

In 1988, Marriott purchased all 91 Wag's restaurants from Walgreens Corporation, but dissolved the chain in 1991.

The Roy Rogers chain was sold to Hardee's in 1990 for $365 million in cash.

The Marriott Corporation ended its existence as a single company in 1993, when it was split into two separate entities: 1) Marriott International Corporation, which operated the hotel and lodging aspect of the business and Marriott Vacation Club International, and 2) Host Marriott Corporation, the new name for the original Marriott Corporation and operating the Marriott Food Services Management. The last Hot Shoppes restaurant, located in the Marlow Heights Shopping Center, closed on December 2, 1999.

See also

• Big Boy Restaurants
• Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour
• Gino's Hamburgers
• Roy Rogers Restaurants
• Rustler Steak House

References

1. McDowell, Edwin (February 4, 1993). "Will Marriott Ever Stand Divided?". New York Times.
2. ^ "The Marriott Timeline". Marriott International.
3. Feldmeier, Julia (October 8, 2006). "Capital Knowledge: Trivia to Challenge Longtime Locals and Newbies Alike". The Washington Post.
4. "Hot Shoppes Stock Offering". Wall Street Journal. February 18, 1953. p. 13. ProQuest 132074273. Hot Shoppes, Inc., Washington, D. C., plans to offer its stock to the public for the first time since the curb-service restaurant chain was founded in 1927.
5. Goodman, S. Oliver (February 17, 1953). "Hot Shoppes Plans Public Sale of Stock". Washington Post. p. 14. ProQuest 152563052. Archived from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2017. Hot Shoppes, Inc., family-owned for a quarter of a century, is expected to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week for the first public offering of shares.
6. Goodman, S. Oliver (March 18, 1953). "Hot Shoppes Issue Is Sold In Two Hours". Washington Post. p. 17. ProQuest 152580613. First public offering of Hot Shoppes Inc. common stock was snapped up within two hours yesterday. Some local brokers reported oversubscription by two or three times the amount allotted to them.
7. "Hot Shoppe Name Change Is Proposed". The Washington Post. October 18, 1964. p. C15. ProQuest 142117126. Marriott Hot Shoppes, Inc., will be the new corporate name of Hot Shoppes, if shareholders vote approval at the annual meeting on Nov. 10.
8. "Marriott-Hot Shoppes Negotiating Acquisition Of Wian Enterprises". Wall Street Journal. December 8, 1966. p. 10. ProQuest 133077023.
9. "Marriott, Big Boy Chains Dickering". Los Angeles Times. December 8, 1966. p. c10. ProQuest 155571592. Marriott-Hot Shoppes Inc., is negotiating to acquire Robert C. Wian Enterprises Inc., and its affiliated Big Boy Properties Inc., officials of the two firms announced Wednesday.
10. "Marriott Buys Ro Bee Restaurant Franchise". Washington Post. February 9, 1968. p. D6. ProQuest 143546118. The Marriott Corp. has completed the acquisition of the RoBee's fast-food franchise organization based in Fort Wayne...
11. Heath, Thomas (April 17, 2016). "Brothers bring back Roy Rogers and its 'holy trio' of burgers, chicken, roast beef". Washington Post.
12. Marriott, Bill (December 30, 2013). "Tasting Success With Roy Rogers". Marriott on the Move. Marriott International.
13. ^ "Roy Rogers Chain Is Sold to Hardee's". New York Times. January 31, 1990.
14. Warga, Wayne (July 4, 1976). "Sugar-Coated History in New Marriott Fun Park". Los Angeles Times. p. N1. ProQuest 158085073.
15. Enstad, Robert (May 23, 1976). "Planning your trip to Great America". Chicago Tribune. p. 12. ProQuest 171342023.
16. Hildebrandt, John (October 2018). Always Cedar Point - A Memoir of the Midway. Casa Flamingo Literary Arts. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-9967504-1-7.
17. "Santa Clara to Buy Park for $101 Million". Los Angeles Times. February 2, 1984. p. F1. ProQuest 153735173. The city of Santa Clara has decided to buy Marriott's Great America amusement park in a $101-million deal to save 138 acres of prime Silicon Valley land from developers...
18. "Bally completes purchase of Great America". Chicago Tribune. May 26, 1984. p. A7. ProQuest 170742626. Bally Manufacturing Corp. completed Friday its previously announced $114.5 million acquisition of Marriott's Great America theme park in Gurnee from Marriott Corp.
19. "Marriott Plans To Buy Host". New York Times. December 4, 1981.
20. "Marriott Offers To Buy Gino's". New York Times. January 5, 1982.
21. Knight, Jerry (January 5, 1982). "Marriott Corp. Makes Bid For Gino's". Washington Post.
22. "Briefs". New York Times. May 3, 1983.
23. "Marriott Acquires American Resorts Group". Washington Post. April 19, 1984. p. B1. ProQuest 138325625. Marriott Corp. has acquired the American Resorts Group, a Florida-based developer and operator of vacation time-sharing condominiums, it was announced yesterday. Terms were not disclosed.
24. Horovitz, Bruce (September 25, 1985). "Marriott and Partner Buy Howard Johnson". Los Angeles Times.
25. Daniels, Lee A. (September 25, 1985). "Howard Johnson Acquired". New York Times.
26. Abramowit, Michael (September 25, 1985). "Marriott Corp. Buys Howard Johnson's". Washington Post.
27. Walsh, Sharon Warren (November 5, 1987). "Detroit Company Picks Up Rights to Marriott's Big Boy Franchises". Washington Post.
28. "Marriott to Buy 91 Wag's Restaurants". New York Times. June 30, 1988.
29. "Marriott to Split Into 2 Firms, Shift Debt Load : Strategy: The hotel management and franchise business will be separated from hotel and retirement properties". Los Angeles Times. October 6, 1992. The two companies, known as Marriott International Inc. and Host Marriott Corp., will be listed separately on the New York Stock Exchange and have their own management teams.
30. Brown, DeNeen L. (December 3, 1999). "Last Taste of a Tradition; In Marlow Heights, Hot Shoppes Closes Its Doors and an Era". Washington Post. p. A.01. ProQuest 408564853. But the last of the Hot Shoppes closed its doors at exactly 1 p.m. yesterday, bringing an end to a chain of restaurants that epitomized the '50s and '60s... Most of the Hot Shoppes closed in the '80s. A few weeks ago, the second to the last closed in Crystal City.

External links

• Marriott Corporation
• Club Marriott

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