Many of us turn to music in our time of need. It comforts, delights, and soothes a sad soul. Not only is ice cream supremely delicious, but it also makes us feel good. It’s one of, if not the top comfort foods of choice.
It’s what a 20-something-year-old Howard Johnson turned to in his time of need in the 1920s. Only that choice didn’t so much enlarge his waistline as it enlarged his wallet.
You see, Johnson’s father died in 1921, passing on his tobacco business as well as his debts to his son. Johnson, however, didn’t wish to keep rolling tobacco. Instead, he opened a little shop in 1925 that sold newspapers, and, you guessed it, ice cream outside of Boston in Quincy, Massachusetts.
He took the recipe, some say it was a family recipe, some say that it came from a German vendor, and he doubled the butterfat content. The result was heaven in a cone or a cup.
Johnson made 28 flavors, all hand-churned in his basement, and opened ice cream stands along the beach. It was profitable, really profitable. Legend has it that he sold 14,000 cones from one stand in one day. He paid off his debts and started expanding the business into other stores.
He added some food too, like hamburgers, frankfurters, and fried clams. Just a few years later, in 1929, he opened his first sit-down restaurant, also in Quincy.
As the stock market crashed and the Great Depression got underway, business slowed obviously. But Johnson somehow kept his restaurant afloat. In fact, he spun a brand new novel idea.
He believed the automobile would change the way Americans lived, how they traveled, how they ate. What if he could duplicate his restaurant in another location? What if he could provide the exact same experience to patrons, the same look, the same feel, the same food?
Thus, the modern restaurant franchise was born. Johnson enlisted the help of Reginald Sprague, who provided the money and the time to get things rolling with a second sit-down restaurant.
He sold the rights to his name, his logo, and shipped all the same food products to the new Howard Johnson’s, which opened in 1935. The business model was successful. By 1940, there were 135 company-owned and franchised restaurants up and down the East Coast. They even landed a deal to be the featured restaurant along the new Pennsylvania Turnpike in several service plazas.
By 1954, there were 400 restaurants. His goal was to offer good food at sensible prices, and his building design, once unique, became more ubiquitous along the highways.
Howard Johnson’s had a bright orange slanted roof that framed plate glass windows, and with the weather vane on top, they were easy to spot from a distance. And inside, they were all the same too.
He was strict about uniformity and advertising. The logo of nursery rhyme fame, Simple Simon and Pieman, showcased a child and his dog, seemingly excited about a baker’s delivery. It marketed the notion that they were family-friendly. The logo appeared on the dinnerware and was lit up in neon lights outside.
The children’s menu was also nursery rhyme-themed. Kids could order the Jack and Jill, the Jack Horner lunch, or the Three Bears Bait. The adult fare was more grown-up though. Menu items included a variety of steaks, chops, fish, spaghetti, frankfurts, three-decker sandwiches, and of course, the signature fried clams. There were also baked goods, pies, and those 28 flavors of ice cream.
Johnson was a known perfectionist and a stickler for details. This, of course, led to his incredible success. Johnson would show up in his restaurants unannounced to make sure that the location was living up to his standards.
Once at a franchise in Ohio, an employee caught Johnson in the freezer. He called the police, unaware of who he was. Johnson told the responding officer, “I’m Howard Johnson.” The officer replied, “And I’m Christopher Columbus.”
In the early 1950s, Johnson began to think about complementing his successful chain with lodging. So in 1954, he franchised his first motor lodge in Savannah, Georgia. Now well-versed in the franchising formula, the motels quickly spread.
Johnson turned the reins over to his 26-year-old son, Howard Brennan Johnson, in 1959. Under his leadership, the Howard Johnson brand thrived even more. The company went public in 1961. At this point, there were 605 restaurants, 265 of them were company-owned, 340 of them were franchised. There were also 88 franchised motor lodges in 32 states and in the Bahamas.
By 1975, those numbers increased to more than 1,000 restaurants and more than 500 motor lodges in 42 states and Canada. But due in large part to the oil embargo in 1974, traffic decreased, Americans’ travel habits shifted, and so did their spending.
Add to that the rise of fast food, and Howard Johnson’s sales plummeted. Howard B. Johnson sold the company in 1979 for $630 million. Marriott purchased it in 1985. Franchise locations slowly closed in the years that followed, and today Wyndham owns the remaining hotels.
Howard Johnson Legacy
Howard Johnson’s is remembered for revolutionizing the way Americans eat. They were the largest restaurant chain in the 60s and 70s. And while the company did not have a fairy tale ending, we remember the storied times of long ago, enjoying some ice cream and a formica table under the orange roof.
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