J. Willard Marriott, every mention

An Unlikely Empire | J.W. Marriott Mar 10, 2026 · 204 mentions

• ▶ 0:00 Shane Parrish In 1927, a man from a farming town in Utah opened a nine seat root beer stand in Washington, DC, with 6000 dollars to his name. 9 times in the scene
• ▶ 1:05 Shane Parrish When Bill Marriott was 12 years old, his father pointed at a field of sugar beets baking in the Utah sun. 18 times in the scene
• ▶ 3:58 Shane Parrish After a two-year Mormon mission in the Eastern States, Bill stopped in Washington, D.C. on his way home. 17 times in the scene
• ▶ 5:52 Shane Parrish Around the same time, Bill started visiting an A&W root beer stand in Salt Lake City. 7 times in the scene
• ▶ 7:32 Shane Parrish Bill didn't like that idea. 14 times in the scene
• ▶ 10:38 Shane Parrish He'd been watching the rise of car culture in America. 10 times in the scene
• ▶ 12:24 Shane Parrish Federal spending was actually increasing, and Bill's hot shops were priced perfectly for people stretching a paycheck. 7 times in the scene
• ▶ 14:33 Shane Parrish Bill had already watched his father spend a lifetime working for the bank instead of himself, and now he watched his own savings vanish because he trusted the wrong man. 12 times in the scene
• ▶ 17:28 Shane Parrish Well, Bill listened politely. 22 times in the scene
• ▶ 21:07 Shane Parrish The manager noticed that pilots and passengers kept stopping in to eat before their flights, often enough that he mentioned it to Bill the next time the big tamale came through. 7 times in the scene
• ▶ 22:54 Shane Parrish The draft siphoned off his workforce. 9 times in the scene
• ▶ 25:17 Shane Parrish By the end of the war, Bill was in his mid forties. 18 times in the scene
• ▶ 27:25 Shane Parrish It almost didn't happen because Bill Marriott did not want to get in the hotel business. 4 times in the scene
• ▶ 29:21 Shane Parrish Bill had bought the eight acres years earlier for an office building, but as traffic patterns shifted to serve the newly built airport and the Pentagon, it became obvious this was something much bigger. 6 times in the scene
• ▶ 31:24 Shane Parrish Bill Sr. couldn't sleep. 7 times in the scene
• ▶ 32:46 Shane Parrish One of the most important documents in this story is a letter Bill wrote at four in the morning. 16 times in the scene
• ▶ 36:33 Shane Parrish Bill asked for a vote, and every right hand went up. 8 times in the scene
• ▶ 37:29 Shane Parrish In February, 19, 76, sitting in a reclining chair at the Camelback Inn in Arizona, the first existing hotel as a company ever acquired, Bill reflected on his life with his friend and biographer, Robert O'Brien. 7 times in the scene
• ▶ 38:24 Shane Parrish J. 6 times in the scene