Marriott

When J. Willard Marriott opened his first nine stool A&W restaurant in Washington D.C. on May 20, 1927 he had no idea what his name would mean to the world one day. John Willard Marriott was born on September 17, 1900. He was from a farm in Utah where he spent his childhood and young adult ages working for his parents. Early on, J. Willard was a young mind looking for business. When he was old enough his dad let him travel for the family business. While he was going through Washington D.C. he noticed the A&W franchise. He immediately thought it would be a good idea to run part of the franchise. He could not wait to get his hands on his own business, although he knew it would be hard since he didn’t have an education. Once he returned home he attended college at Weber Junior college and then the University of Utah. He and his business partner, Hugh Colton, were able to come up with six thousand dollars to open the root beer stand. Not even two weeks after they opened he returned to Utah where he married his wife, Alice Sheets who had also just graduated from the University of Utah. They both returned to Washington D.C. in J. Willard’s Model T Ford. Alice and J. Willard were both very devoted to the new business that they had their hands on. The root beer stand was more popular than they had imagined. They did very well during the summer months but when winter rolled around they had to find a new way for their business to stay afloat. Alice cooked up hot tamales, chili, and barbeque for customers during those cold moths. This is when they realized they could expand their business into restaurants. Soon after, they began opening many restaurants that were known as Hot Shoppes. The Hot Shoppes were very popular and even served customers car side. In the late 1950’s, as J. Willard was fascinated with the automobile, he came up with a new idea. He thought that since the Pentagon employed so many people and the airport was so close that it would be a great