Known manufacturers: Mayer, Jackson, Shenango, Caribe, Sterling, Scammell, McNicol, Homer Laughlin, Syracuse Howard Johnson's is a U.S. chain of restaurants and hotels that was founded in 1925 by Howard Deering Johnson (1897-1992) when he borrowed $2,000 to buy a small corner drugstore in Wollaston, Massachusetts. It sold candy, newspapers and

Known manufacturers: Greenwood, Mayer, Shenango, Grindley, Syracuse, Homer Laughlin Look alikes: Ohio Commercial Company   The authority on all things Horn & Hardart – except seemingly its china – is the book by Marianne Hardart and Lorraine Diehl, "The Automat: The History, Recipes and Allure of Horn & Hardart's Masterpiece."