December 9, 1998 Marriott legacy explored in TV special Cable offering on A&E will tell success story of hotel chain's founder J. Willard Marriott Standard-Examiner staff OGDEN - The founder of what would become a multibillion-dollar hotel and food service company had humble beginnings, and TV viewers across the U.S. will become more familiar with J. Willard Marriott tonight. "J.W. Marriott: Host to the World," a one-hour special on the man born in 1900 in Marriott Settlement, premieres on the A&E Network at 6 p.m., with a repeat at 10 p.m. The program is part of the network's "Biography To Go" theme week, featuring businesspeople who hit it big in the fast-food and hospitality industries. Marriott moved east and opened a nine-stool Hot Shoppe restaurant in Washington, D.C., in 1927. That was the beginning of what would become Marriott International, a hotel and food service power which recorded sales of more than $10 billion in 1996. "He is a fine example of someone who grew up in this area and did very well and I think we ought to be proud of him and other people who have done well," said Richard Sadler, a Weber State University professor of history and dean of the College of Social and Behavior Sciences. Marriott Sadler is one of several people interviewed during the program. Others include Marriott sons J.W. Marriott Jr. and Richard Marriott, granddaughter Debbie Harrison, friends Sterling Colton and the Rev. Billy Graham, and a former employee at Marriott's Hot Shoppe restaurant. After the success of the first Hot Shoppe, Marriott soon opened others, pioneered in-flight catering and started a food service business. The first Marriott hotel, in Arlington, Va., opened in 1957. J.W. Marriott Jr. took over as chief executive officer in 1972 and was named chairman of the board following his father's death in 1985. Neither Sadler nor Kathie Gordon, manager of program publicity for the "Biography" series, have seen the Marriott program but Gordon said it probably will contain a bit of Marriott's Utah experience. " 'Biography" always starts with a person's birth and we try to put in as much about the childhood as we can put together," she said. In promotional material for the program, the network described Marriott as being "born into a family of faith and poverty" and that he "had to mature early because the responsibilities of a man were placed on his shoulders as a boy." "I think," Sadler said, "they're talking about the fact that he was involved with his father in farming and ranching. His father had him herd sheep through major parts of the year, thus he was responsible for tending, driving and later selling the sheep." The network also describes Marriott as "a lanky young man from Utah (who) inched his way into corporate America a nickel root beer at a time." Sadler was interviewed for the program about four months ago. He was familiar with Marriott through research he conducted for books written with colleague Richard Roberts. Marriott was a student at Weber College - student body president, in fact -when the institution was a junior college, and later returned to teach. "I told them (the TV crew) about how he came from a very rural life and it was not a very easy economic existence, just like many people living on farms early in this century, and how he put his education to work to do different kinds of things," Sadler said. Other people featured in "Biography To Go" installments this week are Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, McDonald's magnate Ray Kroc, and Dave Thomas of Wendy's. Another episode is an encore presentation of a feature on the Coors family. 479