In 1991 FAI owned and operated about two-thirds of the 110 remaining Howard Johnsons restaurants, but the company did seemingly little to actively promote or refresh Howard Johnsons while the surrounding environment became increasingly competitive. I stopped all expansion, and once you stop, you know how hard it is to get the monster going again, an opportunity which was in the best interests of the Howard Johnson shareholders. [ Final Seven Howard Johnsons Restaurants, late 2005: Bangor, ME, Waterbury, CT, Millington, MD, Bay City, MD, Asbury Park, NJ, Lake George, NY, and Lake Placid, NY ]. At its peak the company was adding a new restaurant every nine days. In this business there are three rules to remember: Location, location, and location. During the shows dinner break, crowds of influential Bostonians made their way to the restaurant. Johnson acquired the clam strips via an exclusive distribution agreement with the Soffron Brothers Clam Company in Ipswitch, Massachusetts. With the introduction of this new line of hotels HJIs chief executive claimed We want to double the size of Howard Johnson in the next three years. The expansion was worldwide; in 1998 HJI announced plans to open new hotels in eight European countries and it secured a master franchise agreement to develop hotels in China. [ Howard Johnsons original 28 ice cream flavors: Banana, Black Raspberry, Burgundy Cherry, Butter Pecan, Buttercrunch, Butterscotch, Caramel Fudge, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Coffee, Frozen Pudding, Fruit Salad, Fudge Ripple, Lemon Stick, Macaroon, Maple Walnut, Mocha Chip, Orange-Pineapple,Peach, Peanut Brittle, Pecan Brittle, Peppermint Stick, Pineapple, Pistachio, Strawberry, Strawberry Ripple, Vanilla. LaRock re-opened the Howard Johnsons restaurant on a seasonal basis in January 2015, briefly increasing the number of open Howard Johnson restaurants back to three. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) Valerie . One former executive said HoJo always seemed to have ideas to upgrade the restaurants and hotels,but they never wanted to spend the money. Comments from former Howard Johnson chef Jacques Ppin were more critical: Howard B. Johnson lacked his fathers charisma and genius for business. The elder Johnson observed his son's running of the company until his death in 1972 at the age of 75. It was developed in the 1960s and was a completely new idea at the time, a combination of automatic dialing and Direct Distance Dialing. The reclassification allowed the specialty restaurants to serve more liquor. Constant pressure to cut labor costs resulted in working managers who could often be found dishing up ice cream or cashing out guests at the register. Chairman Johnson remarked Weve all got to figure out where the children are going to be moving and what they want in terms of food and lodging. By the end of 1987 PMI had sold 120 of its HoJo properties for $295 million, netting $60 million in the process. By the end of 1987 only 90 of the Marriott-owned Howard Johnsons restaurants remained, and by mid-1991 only 50 Marriott HoJos were still standing. It didnt surprise me that after Howard D. Johnsons death in 1972, his organization lost its raison detre. The desk clerk turned a dial and pressed a bar to connect to any of the hundreds of other Howard Johnson Motor Lodges in the country. This led to a series of cost-cutting measures which only further eroded the brand. Johnson, Sr. had told his son that he should "start at the top of the company and work his way down.".   

In addition to his wife, Howard is survived by his sons, Howard Aaron Johnson and his wife Ashley and Andrew B. Johnson.  He is also survived by his siblings, Stanley, Judy, Marva, Linda and Norma and by many nieces and nephews.  He was predeceased by his brother, Randall Johnson.

A public viewing will be held on Monday, January 18, 2021 from 12:45-1:45 p.m. at the James J. Terry Funeral Home, 736 E. Lancaster Avenue, Downingtown.  Due to the Covid pandemic, the memorial service will be held privately with the family.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Michael J. Despite being tasked with constructing frozen dishes, the chefs treated the role seriously and genuinely improved the quality of meals. Ground Round eventually went public in 1991 and then was purchased by private equity in 1997. The iconic restaurant chain that defined Americana by introducing twenty-eight flavors of ice cream, "tendersweet" clam strips, grilled "frankforts," and more. New refrigerated glass cases displayed various treats. The Last Howard Johnson's in the Universe - Eater Johnsons idea was to do for motels what he did for restaurants: Offer a consistent quality product that would look and feel the same in one state and another. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted Ironically his chain of motor lodges was an important part of the early success of the Interstate System, which had federal legislation written specifically to prohibit service plazas on the new highways. It also considered discontinuing the orange roof, as HoJos then-president Eric Pfeffer declared, As we change with the times, weve got to show the newness.. Despite facing countless obstacles and trying nearly a dozen failed spin-offs and sub-brands, Howard Brennan Johnson led the company from $200 million to $650 million in revenues, grew the number of restaurants by 25%, and grew the number of motels by more than 40%. Christian Dior was hired to design the uniforms. Marriotts plan to eliminate and convert all of the Howard Johnsons restaurants was met with resistance from many of the franchisees, who had much invested in the Howard Johnson brand and (among other things) did not want to incur the expense of a new brand remodel. In a complex transaction, Marriott outright purchased Howard Johnson Company (sans Ground Round) from Imperial for $314 million dollars. He launched concepts such as HoJos Campgrounds, 3 Penny Inns, Deli Baker Ice Cream Maker, and Chatts Restaurants, however these failed and only furthered the companys demise. The Ice Cream Club of Boynton Beach, Florida, produced Howard Johnsons bulk restaurant ice cream while Fieldbrook Farms of Dunkirk, New York produced the retail pints and quarts. ISBN: 9781474619240. One chink in the Howard Johnson armor was its dependence upon cars and the highway for 85% of its revenue. The only thing that could derail Howard Johnsons rise to the top was international war. Howard Johnson Motor Lodges featured fresh linens daily and boasted modern facilities with large guest rooms that offered air conditioning, televisions, and full bathrooms with tub and shower, at the time considered luxuries outside of the city. After four years of unsuccessfully trying to turn Howard Johnsons around, Imperial decided to sell. (For comparison, present-day chain Chipotle, who allocates more than the industry average to purchasing its fresh food, spends 35%). Then in 1974 a singer-actress was raped at knifepoint in a N.Y. Howard Johnson Lodge; she sued the chain and won a $2.5 million settlement at the time one of the largest settlements of its kind, and one that reformed hotel security. Howard Deering Johnson's son, Howard Brennan Johnson, took over the hotels and restaurants from his father in 1959, and by the early 1970s there were over 700 Howard Johnson locations. Today all have closed, except one. ]. Remembering Howard Johnson's | Local News | thesunchronicle.com Segregation in a Dover, Delaware Howard Johnsons restaurant sparked an international crisis in 1957 when it refused service to the finance minister of Ghana. We made fresh stock in a quantity requiring 3,000 pounds of veal bones for each batch, and we daily boned 1,000 turkeys and made 10 tons of frankfurters. Ppin worked for the company in its Queens Village commissary until 1970. The owner of the Bangor, Maine, location didnt believe the HoJo name brought much traffic or resonated with the younger crowd. This double-barrel method of selling products to the franchisees was another Howard Johnson innovation, but prior to 1979 it was without regulation. Jan Howard at inflated prices. He was 75 years old and lived at 812 Fifth. He was born in Goessel, Kansas on December 23, 1936, the son of Wayne and Maxine (Kiddoo) Johnson. Inflation spiked to 11% while gas prices quadrupled in 1974, which resulted in fewer Americans traveling and dining out. Everything from the menu development to the supervision budgets (which ensured timely and consistent service at each location) experienced major cutbacks. University High School Honor Roll | The Spokesman-Review The turnpike deals from 1940 helped grow the Howard Johnsons chain by nearly 50% in one year. How it worked: A special Rapid Reservations telephone was located in the gatehouse of every motor lodge. Howard Brennan - Wikipedia Joseph Brennan Obituary - Waltham , Massachusetts - Joyce Funeral Home Brennan paints upbeat picture of Maine in speech, and Burger King taking over 4 Howard Johnson's . La Mancha was an investment group run by New York banker David Kushner, who wanted to re-establish the brand but not only to serve nostalgia. Kushner announced intentions to save the restaurant chain and resurrect the food brand by way of re-introducing HoJo coffee, HoJo ice cream, and an expanded frozen food product line to stores. In the late 1940s the chain was westward-bound, and began expanding more aggressively into western states. Howard B. Johnson <p><span style="font-size: 20px;"><strong>To view the live stream of the memorial service please <a href="https://www.oneroomstreaming.com/view . He dropped out of grade school and went to work for his fathers cigar company before he was a teenager. Fortunate timing played a role as few companies of the era had the capacity to fill and staff the early large-scale hospitality requirements of the burgeoning turnpike system. As Ppin described in a later memoir, I had been in America only eight months when I started working at Howard Johnsons. HoJo Express Inns served a continental breakfast but did not have an orange roof. Once La Mancha Group could stabilize the food menu, the company intended to re-open new Howard Johnson restaurants across the United States. By April 1990 Prime reported a decline in earnings per share of 98 percent. Last year our own 279 stores and restaurants had sales of nearly $79 million, on which we got both the wholesale and the retail profit. Kushner and La Mancha were unresponsive, apparently having walked away from the investment which sent the remnants of the restaurant chain back to Wyndham. California Obituary Project archived newspaper obituaries indexed by county at US GenWeb Archives. CUC was a telephone-based, mail-order shopping club with 30 million members. A History of Howard Johnson's - Google Books Existing locations were aging and franchisees were either unable or unwilling to remodel. FAI ceased operations in early 2005 and its website was dark by November of that year. Brennan was on his regular jog this morning at Sawnee Mountain when he collapsed suddenly. Prime sold HoJo in May of 1990, and by September of that year filed for Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code. Angela Kathleen Johnson pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, to driving while intoxicated and vehicular maiming. He served in the U.S. Air Force as. Meet Linda and Brad Johnson, Founders of Post & Beam Hospitality Howard Johnson obituary | Documentary films | The Guardian Tuba Virtuoso Howard Johnson Dies At 79 : NPR - NPR.org Rather than own the hotels, HFS would simply purchase licensing rights and then provide marketing, reservation, and other value-added administrative services. Returning GIs, cheap gasoline, the popularity of the car, and a new interstate highway system each played a role. Howard Johnson was a good friend who I met at Decision Data Computer Company. He realized the turnpike offered a relatively captive audience of long-commute drivers who would need a rest but were reluctant to leave the highway. Then in 1985 it spent $235 million to acquire 125 Howard Johnson Motor Lodges from Marriott. [ Related: While a student at the University of Chicago in 1962, Bernie Sanders was an organizer of CORE events. HOWARD JOHNSON OBITUARY Howard B. JOHNSON Age 77, born in Minn. Once it leaves the hands of the original owner, If it ever changes hands, it has to go to something else because the original franchisee had the right to keep the name [only] until they got rid of it. Howard L. Brennan -- A Very Important Eyewitness To History - Google Groups Two former standout Lacey Township High School wrestlers advanced to their respective national tournaments this weekend. Meals were designed by top chefs Johnson plucked from New York Citys finest French restaurants. California Obituaries searchable index of a database of over 250,000 obituaries at Obituary Depot. A sale was pending on the building, which meant it could no longer be a Howard Johnsons. The 1970s kicked off with a series of national negative publicity events for the Howard Johnson Company. You could make money anywhere.. We shared many good memories from our sales trips that our families went on as a result of our achievements at Decis 2017-2023 Tribute Archive. More successful was Howard Johnsons 1969 Ground Round concept, a family casual dining restaurant known for its festive atmosphere. I ate, slept, and thought of nothing but the business.. Four Highland Count football seniors, two from Hillsboro and two from McClain, have been named honorable mention on the 2021 Division IV All-Ohio Football . The Howard Johnsons Rapid Reservation Service (RRS) was a fast, direct method of making instant long distance room reservations from one location to another at no cost to the customer. When someone pointed out to Howard that the company was serving 30 million soft drinks per year and paying someone else to produce them, Johnson decided to make his own cola. As he proceeded, police began broadcasting a description of the shooter based on the eyewitness account of Howard Brennan, a 44-year-old steamfitter who had been watching the presidential. Since sales are expected to reach $200 million in 1966, Johnson says, Weve all got to figure out where the children are going to be moving and what they want in terms of food and lodging. By keeping Howard Johnson restaurants open 24 hours a day, the company will probably add $35 million to annual revenues without much of a capital investment, Johnson said. Hotel franchise owners banded together, and like the restaurant owners formed their own company in attempt to steer their future. Through several moves the younger Johnson modernized the company. Maxine Hirschhorn Obituary (2023) - Newark, NJ - The Star-Ledger obits.nj.com In 1966 the company released HoJo Cola in its restaurants and select supermarkets across the country. "Simple Simon and the Pieman," based on the nursery rhyme, would spend the next 60 years stamped on plates, floors, walls, lamps, you name it. The transition was slow and measured; in 1959 Howard B. Johnson was named as president and chief operating officer. Many of the structures were massive in stature, essentially oversized roadside cathedrals capable of seating hundreds. Bismarck High School has released its second quarter honor rolls. After months of negotiations Marriott allowed FAI perpetual exclusive license to all the recipes and the Howard Johnsons name, and to support and maintain the remaining franchised Howard Johnsons restaurants. The stock tumbled from $23 per share to fifty cents. Johnson adapted his business as a food supplier for the U.S. military.