In he married his girlfriend, Dorothy "Dot" Elizabeth Lee. By , Kemmons and Dot had five children. By the time Kemmons was 30 years old, he had become one of the most prominent young businessmen in Memphis, Tenn. A day family vacation in the summer of to visit Washington, D.
At that time, parents still had to pay extra for each child to stay in the same hotel room with them. With their five children, that added nightly expense doubled or tripled the room rate. Frustrated with the high cost of lodging a family in a single room, coupled with the poor accommodations and inconsistent amenities, Kemmons told Dorothy that he was going to build a chain of motels where kids would stay free in the same room as their parents, and offer a quality experience for guests of all ages.
Kemmons set a goal to create a lodging chain with a brand name that folks could trust, with modern comforts and conveniences, like air conditioning, on-site dining, and a swimming pool. He envisioned a motel that would attract the business traveler, as well as families on driving vacations. He immediately set about designing his inaugural motel when they returned home from vacation. Kemmons chose that location primarily because he already owned the empty lot at that address, but also because Summer Avenue was also known as Highway 70; the main highway running from Nashville to Memphis at that time.
This first property was barely open before Wilson aggressively and ambitiously moved forward with building more Holiday Inn properties throughout the Memphis area. He approached a successful local business acquaintance, Wallace E. Johnson, to partner with him in growing the Holiday Inn portfolio of properties. Johnson and Wilson shared similar business interests and creative, scrappy business strategies and tactics. Their Holiday Inn business partnership led to a lifelong, close friendship.
In , Wilson and Johnson embarked on an aggressive growth strategy through the concept of business format franchising. They knew that the franchising business model could offer the scaling and rapid growth Wilson was seeking for the Holiday Inn brand. In , Kemmons Wilson understood that he needed a new approach in order to reach his goal of building Holiday Inns.
He realized that he could achieve his goal faster if he could persuade large homebuilders to build a Holiday Inn in each of their hometowns. Kemmons reached out to Wallace E. Johnson , a successful builder and businessman who was Vice President of the National Homebuilders Association.
They partnered together to launch one of the first business franchise systems in the United States. Beyond their business partnerships, they became life-long friends. The concept of business format franchising in the early s was still new to America, and it was new to Kemmons and Wallace.
However, they made for a very successful partnership; Kemmons possessed the business strategy, and Wallace had the homebuilder contacts and relationships. Letters co-signed by Kemmons and Wallace were sent to builders all over the country inviting them to come to Memphis traveling at their own expense to learn about an opportunity that Kemmons and Wallace claimed would be important to their futures as builders.
More than 60 homebuilders accepted the invitation and met with Wallace and Kemmons in March These initial agreements required the franchisees to pay their own construction costs while also requiring that Holiday Inn architectural plans be followed. It was located in Clarksdale, Miss. Although only three of the builders who came to Memphis actually ended up building hotels, Kemmons later felt fortunate for the low turn-out given that the royalty return on the original Holiday Inn franchise offer since was so low.
Later franchise agreements would specify a healthier return. Kemmons broadened his target list to include affluent business professionals doctors, lawyers, etc. They regularly hosted Sunday night suppers and holiday events at their home on Galloway Drive for years as a way to keep the family connected. Charles Kemmons Wilson, Jr.
Doll and Kemmons returned to her hometown of Memphis shortly after the death of her young husband. His first successful venture involved selling popcorn outside a movie theater in Memphis. When Kemmons began to make more money from popcorn sales than the theater made in ticket sales he was forced by the theater manager to stop selling his popcorn. Kemmons went on to manage pinball machines and cigarette vending machines sharing the cash he took in with the owners of the locations. In addition, he owned an ice cream store, and eventually 11 movie theaters in several cities.
At age 20, working hour days, he soon had saved enough money to build a home for his mother and himself. Later, he used the house as collateral to borrow funds to purchase a regional jukebox distributorship for Wurlitzer. Learning that you could build a house, then use it to borrow more money than it cost to build it, was a life-changing experience for him. Thus began a career in construction that continued until his death.
Five days later Pearl Harbor was attacked while they were on their honeymoon and jukebox convention in New Orleans. After his service, Kemmons returned to Memphis and continued with his construction business and other endeavors with little time for fun and relaxation other than enjoying his growing family. After building his first two homes on the wrong lots both quickly outgrown by his growing family Kemmons learned his lesson and bought 3 adjoining lots to build a house the family would not outgrow.
He and Dorothy resided there for more than 50 years. In , on a family vacation, Kemmons conceived of an idea that would change the landscape of America and the hospitality industry forever. Kemmons describes this trip as the most miserable trip of his life. While traveling, he became increasingly annoyed at the lack of consistency and quality in the lodging available and was outraged that he had to pay extra for his kids who stayed in the same room with them. Kemmons decided that he was going to build a chain of motels, coast to coast, so you can travel completely across the country and stay at one of his motels each night.
And with that vision, Holiday Inns was born in An early investor in the business was Memphis music producer Sam Phillips of the legendary Sun Studios. The first Holiday Inn, which had been built in , was sold in and torn down in the s to make room for a funeral home. In , Wilson retired after a heart attack and bypass surgery. He left a living legacy with the creation of the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management at the University of Memphis, with the first students admitted in August Students can learn the industry in an on-site, full-service hotel.
Wilson died on February 12, , at his Memphis home. For additional information: Bly, Laura. May 24, Wilson, Kemmons, with Robert Kerr. Honor or memorial gifts are an everlasting way to pay tribute to someone who has touched your life.
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