calsfoundation@cals.org
April 17, 2011
On August 1, 1952, Mississippi County native Charles Kemmons Wilson opened the first of four new-style hotels in Memphis, Tennessee. Named Holiday Inn after a 1942 Bing Crosby movie, the hotels were designed to provide inexpensive quality boarding for traveling families. The first unit, shown here at 4941 Summer Avenue in Memphis, provided such amenities as air-conditioning and a free swimming pool.