[5] Longtime Chicago restaurateur Marion W. Isbell (1905–1988) founded the chain in 1953[6] along with a group of investors including Michael Robinson of McAllen, Texas (who later went on to start Rodeway Inns in the early 1960s) and Del Webb of Phoenix (who owned the New York Yankees and went on to establish his own lodging chain, Hiway House, in 1956).

Other original investors of Ramada Inns included Isbell's brother-in-law Bill Helsing; Max Sherman, a produce operator from Chicago dubbed "The Tomato King"; Chicago attorneys Ezra Ressman and Mort Levin; and Frank Lichtenstein and Robert Rosow of San Antonio, Texas.

[citation needed] Early in 1952, Marion W. Isbell received a phone call from his brother-in-law, Bill Helsing.

Bill informed him of a hotel deal in Flagstaff, AZ that he was going to invest in and wanted to know if Marion would be interested in joining him.

Like his contemporary, Holiday Inn hotel-chain founder Kemmons Wilson, Isbell devised the idea of building and operating a chain of roadside motor hotels when, while on a cross-country trip with his wife Ingrid and their three children, he noted the substandard quality of roadside motor courts along US highways at the time.

He had the idea to develop a chain of roadside motor hotels conveniently located along major highways which would provide lodgings with hotel-like quality at near-motel rates plus amenities such as TV, air conditioning, swimming pools, and on-premises restaurants.

From its start in the 1950s until around 1976, Ramada's logo featured a friendly bald innkeeper, dubbed "Uncle Ben".

From 1976 to 1982, the chain's logo was a simple rounded rectangle that read "Ramada Inn" in the original design's gothic Western-style lettering.

By the late 1970s, Ramada ranked as the second-largest hotel chain in the U.S. behind industry leader Holiday Inn.

The Ramada hotels and restaurants were sold for $540 million to New World Development Company and the gaming business which included the Tropicana Las Vegas, Tropicana Atlantic City, and Ramada Express in Laughlin, Nevada, were spun off to a new company called Aztar Corporation.

It underwent extensive renovation at one point but was known locally for its use of the Uncle Ben vintage logo and idiosyncratic abbreviation of the word "kilometre" on its signage.