This also just in from Jim Korkis:

["A few minutes after the ribbon was cut to open the first Marriott hotel in January 1957, the phone rang in the freshly painted lobby. The caller asked young Bill Marriott if the Marriotts would like to buy the new forty-eight room Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. When consulted, Bill's dad replied, 'Heavens, no! We probably won't be able to make this one work.'"
--from the book "The Spirit to Serve: Marriott's Way" by J.W. Marriott, Jr. and Kathi Ann Brown (Harper Business 1997)]