Marriott Corporation

The Marriott Corporation was an American hospitality company that operated from 1927 until 1993. It was founded as The Hot Shoppe and subsequently incorporated as Hot Shoppes, Inc. The company opened its first hotel in 1957, the Marriott Motor Hotel in Arlington County, Virginia (demolished in 1990). The company's first international property was opened in 1969 in Acapulco, Mexico. Hot Shoppes became the Marriott Corporation in 1967, which later split into Marriott International, Inc. and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993.

J. Willard Marriott, who had moved away with his wife Alice and his business partner Hugh Colton in 1927 from Utah to Washington, D.C., operated a curbside stand selling A&W Root Beer in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington at 14th Street and Park Road NW. The root beer stand was soon renamed as The Hot Shoppe after adding Mexican food items to the menu. In 1934, Marriott's business expanded to Baltimore, Maryland, shortly after which the company started its food services division. During the 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.

During 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.