June 16, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before the 1950s, family road trips meant unreliable motels and tired parents hopping from place to place. After one frustrating trip, Kemmons Wilson decided to change that. He created Holiday Inn—the first family-friendly, standardized hotel chain in America. His son, Kemmons Wilson Jr., shares the story of how it all began.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
And we continue with our American stories, and now it's
time for our American Dreamers series, which is sponsored by
the great folks at the Job Creators Network, and they
work hard to help small businesses grow into bigger ones
by fighting for public policies that effectuate such things. And
today we bring you the story of someone who likely
you don't know, and his name is Kevins Wilson, but
(00:35):
you definitely know the iconic brand that he brought us.
Here's his son, Kevins Wilson Junior, with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
In nineteen fifty one, we took a family vacation to Washington,
DC and we had a big station wagon and my
father was going up there. I think you know again
this is a dual family vacation business trip. My two brothers,
(01:04):
two sisters all piled in the car, no air condition
and want a funny store. We had a luggage rack
on top, and part way through the trip a suitcase
flew off and my brother Bob said, Hey Dad. He said,
(01:25):
don't bother me, I'm driving and Dad be quiet, and
they just kept driving. Hey Dad, I need to be quiet.
So we get to some I guess the next casseling
station and he looked up like, what is wrong?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Where is this?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So my brother Bob said, well, I was trying to
tell you that the suitcase fell off. So we drove
back and our clothes were all over the road.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
They had tar all over them.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Back in those days, you know, the road had a
lot of tar, and so we basically had to throw
them away and buy some news.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But the real story there was that.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Back in those days they were mostly sole proprietor and
mom and pop motel cabana cabin owners that had motel
type rooms. Now the big cities had the aristocratic downtown
hotels that were very expensive, so you would the situations
(02:33):
was such that you actually had to go in and
inspect a room before you agreed to stay there. And
that was for a lot of reasons. You know, you
wanted to see how big it was, was it clean.
I remember I was six at the time, sitting in
the car. My dad would walk up to the little
(02:54):
office and then he and the manager may walk out
to see a amma, and then many times he just
walked straight back to the car and said, hey, it's
it wasn't big enough, or it's too dirty, and we're
gonna have to just keep driving and in the back
of those he didn't know how far the next place was.
(03:16):
So and anyway, we finally got to a place. Of
course is children we all wanted to stay at. One
had a swimming pool because it was the summer, it
was hot. But we got to this one property and
my dad went and looked at the room and came
back and said, okay, kids, this is good. So we
all piled into one single room, and my brothers and
(03:39):
sisters we had sleeping bags, so we slept in the
sleeping bags. And the deal he had made with the
hotel owner was the room would cost six dollars. So
the next morning he goes to check out and the
guy charged him sixteen dollars. And he said, wait a minute, now,
(04:00):
you know we agreed yesterday it's six dollars.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, why is it sixteen?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
He said, well, I charged two dollars extra for every child,
and of course there were five of us, so the
six dollars turns into sixteen.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And that was the spark that was in my father.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Said when he said, you know, this is just not fair.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
We didn't use any more water or towels or linens
or and the guy said, well, buddy, that's the way
it is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And he realized at that moment that this was a
huge untapped market, and he made a determination then that
he was going to come back to Memphis and build
a chain of hotels. And he told my mother that
day that he was going back to Memphis to build
four hundred hotels across the country, mostly a day's drive
(04:58):
from one another. They said, furthermore, they're all gonna have
some standardization. They're all gonna be the same size, they're
all gonna be clean. We're gonna have a restaurant and everyone.
We're gonna have a lounge in everyone. We have a
swimming pool on everyone. We'll have a get in Bible
and everyone. You know, we're gonna have a pastor on call.
(05:21):
We're gonna have a doctor on call. Because he felt
like just a normal guy, and you know, if I
like this, I think everybody ought to like this. And
so my mother laughed at him, and obviously they gave
him great incentive to prove it wrong. So sure enough,
(05:44):
he came back to Memphis and he started. He was
a frustrated architect. He loved drawing, so he went to
a guy named Eddie Bluestein. He was a draftsman, not
technically an architect, and my father knew exactly what he
wanted in a hotel, and one of the reasons for
(06:06):
that was he had the background in construction, so he
knew that lumber comes in twelve foot lengths and carpet
comes in twelve foot lengths and wet. So it's not
surprising that the room that he designed was twelve foot
and with because that.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Was the lumber. You didn't have to cut the lumber.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You know, if it was thirteen feet, you'd have to
add some if it's eleven, you'd have to subtract something.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
And really, even today.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
That's still the standard size running you know, you'll find
some a little bigger, something a little smaller. But he
really set that in motion. So Eddie Bluestein drew the
plan that my dad told him. And you know all
architecture plans, on the bottom left or bottom right.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
They have the name of the project.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And just so happens that he had watched the movie
Holiday Inn the night before, and so he drew on
the plans Holiday ind and he brought him to my
dad the next day and my dad said, this is
great I like it, He said, what in the world
is this on the plants?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
He said, well, I don't know, he said, it was.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Just I saw the movie. I liked the name, and
he said, you know, any I like that too, And
so sure enough, that's how it happened. And one of
the things that really kind of has always impressed me
in a sense was it may tell you a little
bit about my dad's ego that mister Hilton called his
(07:47):
Hilton Ends Hilton's, and mister Merritt calls his Marriotts, and
Dad he was happy with hally End's. And you know,
probably thirty years later, after the company was sold, they
became the Promised Company proo in us.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Promise was how they pronounced it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And Dad had long since retired, and we found out
that they paid a half a million dollars for some
thank time to come up with that name.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And here eighty Bluestain, you know, gives him iconic name.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And you're listening to Kemmens Wilson Junior tell the story
of his dad. And by the way, so many of
our American dreamers' stories are just this story, an ordinary
guy trying to solve a problem. Here he is checking
in a hotel and not even knowing he's going to
get and then he finally picks when he likes on
this trip and finds out he's being charged ten extra
(08:44):
bucks two dollars an extra kid meant something, and he
said that's not fair. And then he went home and
he designed a business to solve a problem. Standardization, same size, seam, cleanliness,
a pool in everyone, a Bible and everyone, a pastor
on call, a doctor on call. In other words, what
he'd want for his own family. When we come back
more of this remarkable American story and American dreamers story,
(09:07):
the story of Holiday Inn and the story of one
guy trying to solve a problem for his family and families,
particularly working class families across this great country. Our story
continues here on our American stories, and we continue with
(09:54):
our American stories and with the story of Holiday Inn
and its founder. Let's return to a his son, Kemmens
Wilson Junior, on the story of his dad and the
iconic brand he created.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Somebody asked my dad one time, why did you decide
on sort of the market for holiday inns, which is
really you know, moderate price, you know, family or you know,
rather than be upscale or whatever, and my dad would
always say that there's more people in the middle than
(10:27):
they are at the top.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
One of the interesting things.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
That my father wanted to do too, was to make
a statement with the sign. And he had a friend
named Harold Bolton who was in the side business, and
he and Harold designed this what some would call iconic,
some would call gaudy, huge neon sign with the error
(10:52):
pointing to wherever the hotel was. And my dad felt that,
you know, that was important. If you could see the sign,
you knew what it was. And the sign had a
little marquee on it where you could change the message
out every day, you know, like buffet tonight or kids
stay free. And that was one of the gifts that
(11:16):
my dad said he wanted to a gift to the industry,
and that is that kids stay free if they stay in.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
The same room with their parents.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
And he sort of forced all the other hotel change
to kind of do that at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
But y'all, you certainly seen.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Especially back in those days, just about every hotel the
motel had a vacancy no vacancy sign. He did not
want that. He wanted that totally eliminated because He wanted
a person to stop, to actually get out of the car,
come in to the hotel, and if they didn't have
(11:54):
a room at that particular hotel, the desk clerk was
to call around to all the other hotels and find
that person to room because he felt that he could win.
While he may lose a customer for that night, he
may win a customer for the rest of his life.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So he builds this one.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Successful hotel in Memphis, and he went and built three more.
Now this was way before the interstate system. So he
built him on the north, south, east, and west entries
into town. So if you were coming to Memphis, Tennessee,
you had to pass a Holiday Inn. And they were
(12:37):
all done very well. And so he went to build
number five and the banker said, hey, you're tapped out.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You know, you're out of credit. We can't lend you
any more money.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And so his dream of the hotels across the country
was jeopardized. I cannot even build the fifth holiday in
much less.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
The four hundredth. What are we going to do?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And that's when he sat down and came up with
the theory of franchising, where they would license a person
and that person had to adhere to a certain stead
of standards and if you didn't, they could take your
license away.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So he started the franchise business.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Even today, you know, it's about eighty percent franchise and
about twenty percent company owned, so to speak. You know,
one of the things he was most proud of in
all his life was he said that he's created a
lot of millionaires, and he really had. I mean, at
one time when the sixties they were building, a hotel
(13:49):
was opening every two and a half days, and I
think a room was opening every twenty minutes or something.
So it was incredibly explosive. And then when the interstate
system hit, you know, the timing was you know, perfect
and right. And my father probably personally inspected every holiday insight,
(14:15):
I don't know, maybe the first five hundred of them. Well,
one of the funny things was early on in holiday ends,
they didn't have much representation in the west coast. It
was mostly in the south. When it started growing, it
you know, went northeast in a little midwest, but not
much on the coast. So street and so Dad got
(14:39):
a call from Ray Kroc, the founder McDonald's, and McDonald's
was flourishing at the time they were still young. He
had bought it from McDonald Brothers, and he had visions of,
you know, how do I expand that business? And Holiday
Inns was already actively and the franchise business. So Dad
(15:03):
was really excited when Roy Croc said, I'd like to
come to Memphice and talk to you about getting a
hally En franchise. And so he did, and of course
they you know, rolled out the red carpet and I
gave him all the franchise agreements, explained everything to him
about the ins and outs of it, and of course
(15:25):
they would say, look, you know, we sure you know,
I hope you got some sites out there that you know,
he talked about, all I can build a hally In
here and put a McDonald's here, and so they thought, look,
we may have hit the jackpot. And so he goes
back to California and it just goes silent, and there's.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
No dialogue, no nothing. He never calls back.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
My father calls him, and everybody in the organization is
trying to get a hold of him, and they literally
found out really all he wanted was the actual franchise agreement,
so they could I mean, I'm sure they didn't copy
it verbatim, but you know they get white out to
(16:10):
Holly End and put McDonald's in there. But obviously we
know the history of that. So we joke around and
we say, well, my dad gave Ray Crock his start,
where's the account of me? And you know, jumping back,
you know, the biggest success for Holi Ends, in my mind,
was the standardization that nobody until that time, everything, every
(16:35):
hotel room place was different. By standardizing this and as
you expand, people knew exactly what to expect when they
went to.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
A holiday end.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
They didn't have to go in and look at the room,
you know, they just went in, checked in, went to
their room. And there was a great advertisement years ago
they said the best surprises, no surprise, stayed hauled in
And that was really to me, captured the essence of
what he did.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Well, you know, I think about he told us one day.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Long after this, we were quiz name about kind of
growing up and stuff, and he said he and his
mother ate bread and beans for an entire year back
then the deep deep depression. Her husband, my dad's father
died when he was nine months old, so he was
(17:37):
completely raised by his mother. She got a job as
a bookkeeper just to kind of, you know, have some
money to come in.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
But you know, he had to.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Drop out of high school when he was in his
senior year, and he had to drop out because his
mother had gotten terminated her job. So he was basically
the breadwinter. He had to go hustle. But what she did,
she was his biggest encourager, his barnabus. She told him
(18:16):
that there was nothing in the world he couldn't do.
I mean, she absolutely adored him, he could do no wrong.
And again, I mean you know she was she was
the one whispering in his ear, you know, you can
do it when the world says no way, you can
do this. And really her her life, you know, became
(18:40):
his life. And you know today we would call her
a helicopter mom right that she was just.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
All over him.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But I you know, I'm sure she saw in him
a leader, someone who could make things happen, someone who's
aggressive and can be successful. So she just underminded that
with daily you can do it. Hang in there, there's
nothing you can't do.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So it was.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
That springboarded him into his life of having confidence and
being able to just be successful and the thought of
not even graduating from high school and going on to
be the founder and CEO of one of the largest
(19:36):
iconic companies in the world is.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Just amazing to me.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And great job is always to Alex for all the
work he does on these pieces. And a special thanks
to Kevins Wilson Junior for sharing the story of his
father and what a story it is. And by the way,
for more of this great American story, make sure to
pick up Kemmen's book Half Luck. In half brings the
Kemmens Wilson home and story, a father son's story, a
(20:03):
family story, and a working class family turning well hard
work into success. Here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories, and now it's
time for our American Dreamers series, which is sponsored by
the great folks at the Job Creators Network, and they
work hard to help small businesses grow into bigger ones
by fighting for public policies that effectuate such things. And
today we bring you the story of someone who likely
you don't know, and his name is Kevins Wilson, but
(00:35):
you definitely know the iconic brand that he brought us.
Here's his son, Kevins Wilson Junior, with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
In nineteen fifty one, we took a family vacation to Washington,
DC and we had a big station wagon and my
father was going up there. I think you know again
this is a dual family vacation business trip. My two brothers,
(01:04):
two sisters all piled in the car, no air condition
and want a funny store. We had a luggage rack
on top, and part way through the trip a suitcase
flew off and my brother Bob said, Hey Dad. He said,
(01:25):
don't bother me, I'm driving and Dad be quiet, and
they just kept driving. Hey Dad, I need to be quiet.
So we get to some I guess the next casseling
station and he looked up like, what is wrong?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Where is this?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So my brother Bob said, well, I was trying to
tell you that the suitcase fell off. So we drove
back and our clothes were all over the road.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
They had tar all over them.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Back in those days, you know, the road had a
lot of tar, and so we basically had to throw
them away and buy some news.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
But the real story there was that.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Back in those days they were mostly sole proprietor and
mom and pop motel cabana cabin owners that had motel
type rooms. Now the big cities had the aristocratic downtown
hotels that were very expensive, so you would the situations
(02:33):
was such that you actually had to go in and
inspect a room before you agreed to stay there. And
that was for a lot of reasons. You know, you
wanted to see how big it was, was it clean.
I remember I was six at the time, sitting in
the car. My dad would walk up to the little
(02:54):
office and then he and the manager may walk out
to see a amma, and then many times he just
walked straight back to the car and said, hey, it's
it wasn't big enough, or it's too dirty, and we're
gonna have to just keep driving and in the back
of those he didn't know how far the next place was.
(03:16):
So and anyway, we finally got to a place. Of
course is children we all wanted to stay at. One
had a swimming pool because it was the summer, it
was hot. But we got to this one property and
my dad went and looked at the room and came
back and said, okay, kids, this is good. So we
all piled into one single room, and my brothers and
(03:39):
sisters we had sleeping bags, so we slept in the
sleeping bags. And the deal he had made with the
hotel owner was the room would cost six dollars. So
the next morning he goes to check out and the
guy charged him sixteen dollars. And he said, wait a minute, now,
(04:00):
you know we agreed yesterday it's six dollars.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, why is it sixteen?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
He said, well, I charged two dollars extra for every child,
and of course there were five of us, so the
six dollars turns into sixteen.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And that was the spark that was in my father.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Said when he said, you know, this is just not fair.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
We didn't use any more water or towels or linens
or and the guy said, well, buddy, that's the way
it is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And he realized at that moment that this was a
huge untapped market, and he made a determination then that
he was going to come back to Memphis and build
a chain of hotels. And he told my mother that
day that he was going back to Memphis to build
four hundred hotels across the country, mostly a day's drive
(04:58):
from one another. They said, furthermore, they're all gonna have
some standardization. They're all gonna be the same size, they're
all gonna be clean. We're gonna have a restaurant and everyone.
We're gonna have a lounge in everyone. We have a
swimming pool on everyone. We'll have a get in Bible
and everyone. You know, we're gonna have a pastor on call.
(05:21):
We're gonna have a doctor on call. Because he felt
like just a normal guy, and you know, if I
like this, I think everybody ought to like this. And
so my mother laughed at him, and obviously they gave
him great incentive to prove it wrong. So sure enough,
(05:44):
he came back to Memphis and he started. He was
a frustrated architect. He loved drawing, so he went to
a guy named Eddie Bluestein. He was a draftsman, not
technically an architect, and my father knew exactly what he
wanted in a hotel, and one of the reasons for
(06:06):
that was he had the background in construction, so he
knew that lumber comes in twelve foot lengths and carpet
comes in twelve foot lengths and wet. So it's not
surprising that the room that he designed was twelve foot
and with because that.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Was the lumber. You didn't have to cut the lumber.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You know, if it was thirteen feet, you'd have to
add some if it's eleven, you'd have to subtract something.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
And really, even today.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
That's still the standard size running you know, you'll find
some a little bigger, something a little smaller. But he
really set that in motion. So Eddie Bluestein drew the
plan that my dad told him. And you know all
architecture plans, on the bottom left or bottom right.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
They have the name of the project.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
And just so happens that he had watched the movie
Holiday Inn the night before, and so he drew on
the plans Holiday ind and he brought him to my
dad the next day and my dad said, this is
great I like it, He said, what in the world
is this on the plants?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
He said, well, I don't know, he said, it was.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Just I saw the movie. I liked the name, and
he said, you know, any I like that too, And
so sure enough, that's how it happened. And one of
the things that really kind of has always impressed me
in a sense was it may tell you a little
bit about my dad's ego that mister Hilton called his
(07:47):
Hilton Ends Hilton's, and mister Merritt calls his Marriotts, and
Dad he was happy with hally End's. And you know,
probably thirty years later, after the company was sold, they
became the Promised Company proo in us.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Promise was how they pronounced it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And Dad had long since retired, and we found out
that they paid a half a million dollars for some
thank time to come up with that name.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
And here eighty Bluestain, you know, gives him iconic name.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And you're listening to Kemmens Wilson Junior tell the story
of his dad. And by the way, so many of
our American dreamers' stories are just this story, an ordinary
guy trying to solve a problem. Here he is checking
in a hotel and not even knowing he's going to
get and then he finally picks when he likes on
this trip and finds out he's being charged ten extra
(08:44):
bucks two dollars an extra kid meant something, and he
said that's not fair. And then he went home and
he designed a business to solve a problem. Standardization, same size, seam, cleanliness,
a pool in everyone, a Bible and everyone, a pastor
on call, a doctor on call. In other words, what
he'd want for his own family. When we come back
more of this remarkable American story and American dreamers story,
(09:07):
the story of Holiday Inn and the story of one
guy trying to solve a problem for his family and families,
particularly working class families across this great country. Our story
continues here on our American stories, and we continue with
(09:54):
our American stories and with the story of Holiday Inn
and its founder. Let's return to a his son, Kemmens
Wilson Junior, on the story of his dad and the
iconic brand he created.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Somebody asked my dad one time, why did you decide
on sort of the market for holiday inns, which is
really you know, moderate price, you know, family or you know,
rather than be upscale or whatever, and my dad would
always say that there's more people in the middle than
(10:27):
they are at the top.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
One of the interesting things.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
That my father wanted to do too, was to make
a statement with the sign. And he had a friend
named Harold Bolton who was in the side business, and
he and Harold designed this what some would call iconic,
some would call gaudy, huge neon sign with the error
(10:52):
pointing to wherever the hotel was. And my dad felt that,
you know, that was important. If you could see the sign,
you knew what it was. And the sign had a
little marquee on it where you could change the message
out every day, you know, like buffet tonight or kids
stay free. And that was one of the gifts that
(11:16):
my dad said he wanted to a gift to the industry,
and that is that kids stay free if they stay in.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
The same room with their parents.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
And he sort of forced all the other hotel change
to kind of do that at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
But y'all, you certainly seen.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Especially back in those days, just about every hotel the
motel had a vacancy no vacancy sign. He did not
want that. He wanted that totally eliminated because He wanted
a person to stop, to actually get out of the car,
come in to the hotel, and if they didn't have
(11:54):
a room at that particular hotel, the desk clerk was
to call around to all the other hotels and find
that person to room because he felt that he could win.
While he may lose a customer for that night, he
may win a customer for the rest of his life.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So he builds this one.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Successful hotel in Memphis, and he went and built three more.
Now this was way before the interstate system. So he
built him on the north, south, east, and west entries
into town. So if you were coming to Memphis, Tennessee,
you had to pass a Holiday Inn. And they were
(12:37):
all done very well. And so he went to build
number five and the banker said, hey, you're tapped out.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You know, you're out of credit. We can't lend you
any more money.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And so his dream of the hotels across the country
was jeopardized. I cannot even build the fifth holiday in
much less.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
The four hundredth. What are we going to do?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
And that's when he sat down and came up with
the theory of franchising, where they would license a person
and that person had to adhere to a certain stead
of standards and if you didn't, they could take your
license away.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
So he started the franchise business.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Even today, you know, it's about eighty percent franchise and
about twenty percent company owned, so to speak. You know,
one of the things he was most proud of in
all his life was he said that he's created a
lot of millionaires, and he really had. I mean, at
one time when the sixties they were building, a hotel
(13:49):
was opening every two and a half days, and I
think a room was opening every twenty minutes or something.
So it was incredibly explosive. And then when the interstate
system hit, you know, the timing was you know, perfect
and right. And my father probably personally inspected every holiday insight,
(14:15):
I don't know, maybe the first five hundred of them. Well,
one of the funny things was early on in holiday ends,
they didn't have much representation in the west coast. It
was mostly in the south. When it started growing, it
you know, went northeast in a little midwest, but not
much on the coast. So street and so Dad got
(14:39):
a call from Ray Kroc, the founder McDonald's, and McDonald's
was flourishing at the time they were still young. He
had bought it from McDonald Brothers, and he had visions of,
you know, how do I expand that business? And Holiday
Inns was already actively and the franchise business. So Dad
(15:03):
was really excited when Roy Croc said, I'd like to
come to Memphice and talk to you about getting a
hally En franchise. And so he did, and of course
they you know, rolled out the red carpet and I
gave him all the franchise agreements, explained everything to him
about the ins and outs of it, and of course
(15:25):
they would say, look, you know, we sure you know,
I hope you got some sites out there that you know,
he talked about, all I can build a hally In
here and put a McDonald's here, and so they thought, look,
we may have hit the jackpot. And so he goes
back to California and it just goes silent, and there's.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
No dialogue, no nothing. He never calls back.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
My father calls him, and everybody in the organization is
trying to get a hold of him, and they literally
found out really all he wanted was the actual franchise agreement,
so they could I mean, I'm sure they didn't copy
it verbatim, but you know they get white out to
(16:10):
Holly End and put McDonald's in there. But obviously we
know the history of that. So we joke around and
we say, well, my dad gave Ray Crock his start,
where's the account of me? And you know, jumping back,
you know, the biggest success for Holi Ends, in my mind,
was the standardization that nobody until that time, everything, every
(16:35):
hotel room place was different. By standardizing this and as
you expand, people knew exactly what to expect when they
went to.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
A holiday end.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
They didn't have to go in and look at the room,
you know, they just went in, checked in, went to
their room. And there was a great advertisement years ago
they said the best surprises, no surprise, stayed hauled in
And that was really to me, captured the essence of
what he did.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Well, you know, I think about he told us one day.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Long after this, we were quiz name about kind of
growing up and stuff, and he said he and his
mother ate bread and beans for an entire year back
then the deep deep depression. Her husband, my dad's father
died when he was nine months old, so he was
(17:37):
completely raised by his mother. She got a job as
a bookkeeper just to kind of, you know, have some
money to come in.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
But you know, he had to.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Drop out of high school when he was in his
senior year, and he had to drop out because his
mother had gotten terminated her job. So he was basically
the breadwinter. He had to go hustle. But what she did,
she was his biggest encourager, his barnabus. She told him
(18:16):
that there was nothing in the world he couldn't do.
I mean, she absolutely adored him, he could do no wrong.
And again, I mean you know she was she was
the one whispering in his ear, you know, you can
do it when the world says no way, you can
do this. And really her her life, you know, became
(18:40):
his life. And you know today we would call her
a helicopter mom right that she was just.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
All over him.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But I you know, I'm sure she saw in him
a leader, someone who could make things happen, someone who's
aggressive and can be successful. So she just underminded that
with daily you can do it. Hang in there, there's
nothing you can't do.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
So it was.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
That springboarded him into his life of having confidence and
being able to just be successful and the thought of
not even graduating from high school and going on to
be the founder and CEO of one of the largest
(19:36):
iconic companies in the world is.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Just amazing to me.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And great job is always to Alex for all the
work he does on these pieces. And a special thanks
to Kevins Wilson Junior for sharing the story of his
father and what a story it is. And by the way,
for more of this great American story, make sure to
pick up Kemmen's book Half Luck. In half brings the
Kemmens Wilson home and story, a father son's story, a
(20:03):
family story, and a working class family turning well hard
work into success. Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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