Brad Johnson, actor. Other credits include “The Outer Limits” (the 2000-ish revival), several appearances on “CSI: Original Recipe”, and “The Robinsons: Lost in Space”.
The last Howard Johnson’s. But there’s a quibble:
The Lake George, N.Y., location is closed, and the property is up for lease, listing agent Bill Moon of Exit Realty Empire Associates confirmed. However, Moon said, for the last several years, the restaurant wasn’t operated as a “traditional Howard Johnson’s experience.”
“It was a local lessee that was running a restaurant out of the Howard Johnson’s building,” he said.
Apparently, there’s a Kindle edition of The Oranging of America and Other Stories by Max Apple. (The titular story is about Howard Johnson and his personal assistant. It is a fun collection. Affiliate link.)
Ten Restaurants That Changed America by Paul Freedman. HoJo’s was one of them.
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pépin. Mr. Pépin worked for HoJo’s in the early 1960s.
“Eat My Globe” interview with Mr. Pépin, which is notable for the following:
…But the dish that everybody loved was the fried clams from Howard Johnson’s.
Brad Johnson was only 62. I will be that age this month. Seems like that is getting to be young, in todays world. Growing up, once you hit your 60’s you were on the downside of your days. Now, at my age, I still feel like I have a lot of years on my frame to go.
I look to the obits in my local paper and nearly everyone makes it to the mid 80’s unless they are taken by cancer or the like. With modern medicine, they are able to keep people in better health via meds and testing to watch out for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and things like that.
And who my age can’t remember the Howard Johnson’s that dotted much of the landscape.