Holiday inns

I never realized that the movie came first. This is from a gentleman named Rich Dean on the Roadside fans list

Kemmons Wilson sold snacks in a Memphis movie theatre as a kid. After years of building up a successful home construction business, he took his family on a trip to Washington DC, having trouble finding motels or hotels that were not only acceptable but didn't charge a small fortune for each kid, he decided to start a motel chain in which there would never be any extra charge for kids if they were in the same room as the parents and so picked the name of Holiday Inn after the popular movie starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

Once he built up Holiday Inn to the point of a few thousand locations worldwide, he sold it and retired but couldn't sit still so embarked on a timeshare project next door to Walt Disney World on 300 acres that he called Orange Lake. Anyone who has stayed at Orange Lake has probably viewed the in house channel showing his life story. Kemmons died a few years ago in his 90's by which time Orange Lake had expanded to 1300 acres with more than 100,000 timeshare owners. After his passing the family bought additonal timeshare locations starting with Lake Geneva WI, Panama City Beach FL and Ascutney VT, then Myrtle Beach SC and Gatlinburg TN. Now they have entered into the affiliation with the present owners of Holiday Inns with the vacation club.