William Procter

popular name: Samuel Colt

date_of_death: January 10, 1862

age: 47

cause_of_death: Complications of gout

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Samuel Colt was an inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now Colt's Manufacturing Company) in Hartford, Connecticut and made the mass production of revolvers commercially viable. Colt's first two business ventures were producing firearms in Paterson, New Jersey, and making underwater mines; both ended in disappointment. His business affairs improved rapidly after 1847, when the Texas Rangers ordered 1,000 revolvers during the American war with Mexico. Later, his firearms were used widely during the settling of the western frontier. Colt's success came from his sophisticated manufacturing methods such as the use of interchangeable parts which helped him become one of the first to use the assembly line efficiently. Moreover, his innovative use of art, celebrity endorsements, and corporate gifts to promote his wares made him a pioneer of advertising, product placement, and mass marketing. Colt died in 1862 as one of the wealthiest men in America worth in excess of $440 million in today's money.

popular name: Howard Johnson

date_of_death: June 20, 1972

age: 75

cause_of_death: Heart failure

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Howard Johnson was an American entrepreneur, businessman, and the founder of an American chain of restaurants and motels under one company of the same name, Howard Johnson's. For three years he sold cigars,. and then in 1924, when he was 27, he assumed the debts, liquidated the business and bought a run‐down drugstore near the Wollaston railroad station. It had a soda fountain, candy and tobacco counter and newspaper stand, and Mr. Johnson soon had the place bringing in $30,000 a year with a staff of 75 boys delivering papers. Still, it was not until he bought the ice‐cream recipe of an elderly German pushcart vendor that the business took off. The peddler's secret was in doubling the butterfat content of the commercial ice cream and in using natural, instead of synthetic, flavoring. By 1928 the gross from ice cream sold at the Store and at several beach stands nearby reached $240,000, and seven years later Mr. Johnson had 25 restaurants beside Massachusetts highways. Between 1961 and 1979 revenues for the company grew every year. The Howard Johnson Company continued to expand, growing to over 1,000 restaurants and over 500 motor lodges in 42 states and Canada.

popular name: Charles Revson

date_of_death: August 24, 1975

age: 68

cause_of_death: Pancreatic cancer

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Charles Revson was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was best known as a pioneering cosmetics industry executive who, with brother Joseph Revson along with a chemist, Charles Lachman (who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name) created and managed Revlon through five decades. Notoriously difficult and brilliant, Revson was the visionary behind the growth of Revlon, which he had started with his brother. Among his business innovations were “matching lips and fingertips.” Before Revson decreed it, no one had thought of coordinating the two by color. In fact, there weren’t many shades available to women until he promoted a wide spectrum of reds, pinks, and oranges with exotic and provocative names. Revson also pioneered perfumes driven by personality—Norell, which he named after the fashion designer, is considered to be the first great American scent—and he ushered in the idea of the supermodel by offering ­Lauren Hutton an unprecedented $200,000-a-year exclusive deal in 1973, marking the beginning of huge cosmetics contracts. Today Revlon gross sales are approaching $2.0 billion dollars.