Ellsworth Milton Statler:
Hotel Man of the Half Century
In 1950, the hotel industry picked the late E. M. Statler as the “Hotel Man of the Half Century.”
By then, Statler had been dead for 22 years, but his impact on the art and science of innkeeping
was so great that no one else even came close. In order to make this selection official, the
magazine Southern Hotel Journal held a contest. Out of one hundred and four hotel executives
polled, one hundred and two named E.M. Statler as the “Hotel Man of the Half Century