When you stay in a North American hotel you expect clean sheets, blackout curtains, room service, a Bible and ice machines. That last item is courtesy of Kemmons Wilson, founder of the Holiday Inn chain. In the early 1950s, he took his family on a road trip from their Memphis home to Washington, DC, and along the way he was appalled by the poor quality of motels they encountered, so Kemmons got busy. He named the business after a 1942 Christmas movie and one of the many innovations he insisted on was ice machines on every floor. Before that, hotels charged high prices to bring frozen H2O to your door - an outrage, he figured. As you might imagine, there’s more to the story.
© 2024 John Oliver
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