Of Notoriety: New memoir, companion film reveal life and career of the late Bruce White, saga of Star Plaza Theatre

Chicago Tribune

07-05-2025

While on one of his out-of-town trips, Bruce White received an irate call from his father Dean White [hotel and billboard billionaire and visionary founder of Star Plaza Theatre], ordering his son to return immediately back to Merrillville.
'I was in Houston,' Bruce recounted. 'Dad said, 'You get your [expletive] home! Now! If it wasn't for your mother, I'd fire you over the phone. Who in the hell are the Doe-Bee Brothers? Dean demanded, butchering the band's name. He was pretty sure that they had no business playing at HIS theater.'
Bruce, trying to calm his father, explained the Doobie Brothers were one of the biggest rock bands of the day and would be a major draw for the new theater.
Dean grumbled and backed off when a long line formed at the theater box office and the concert sold-out in a flash. Bruce was proved right.'
The above passage is just one of many fascinating, revealing moments among numerous behind-the-scene memories of Northwest Indiana's late ruling prince of hotel properties Bruce White, who died at age 70 after a brief bout with cancer in January 2023. Father Dean died at 93 in 2016 and, at the time of his death, was among the 15 oldest billionaires in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. Matriarch Barbara White died at age 92 in April 2018.
A new 240-page breezy read, juicy hardcover memoir showcasing the life and legacy of Bruce White, as founder of White Lodging and visionary in the hospitality industry, was released this week. Titled 'Hospitalitarian: Bruce White's Legacy' ($44 Spectrum Creative LLC), it was written and compiled with the help of author Kathi Ann Brown, and the book's foreword is written by hospitality legend J.W. 'Bill' Marriott Jr. The paperback version is available for $31, with both editions sold on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble.
In addition to the memoir, I'm told a documentary version of the book is already 'in the can' and will be screened later this summer. The documentary will be narrated by Mike Rowe, the familiar face and vocals of the hit Discovery Channel cable series 'Dirty Jobs.' Any income from the sale of the book or documentary distribution will be matched with donations from White Family foundations. The book and documentary release will coincide with White Lodging's 40th anniversary.
The memoir is summed up perfectly in the featured quote from Bill Marriott, who was a long-time friend of Bruce: 'You couldn't be a Marriott franchisee without knowing and benefiting from the knowledge, insights, and friendship of Bruce White. He wanted us all to win: Marriott, White Lodging, and hundreds of his franchisee peers. If that meant rattling our cages or pushing us to reconsider our policies, so be it. His heart was in the right place, and his integrity was unquestioned.'
I'm told White began working on this memoir shortly after he was diagnosed with cancer and was determined to capture his life story told in his signature brutally honest voice, which comes through whole-heartedly page after page. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put this book down because I was drawn in to discover more about both the man and the myths. Because his health declined so rapidly, Bruce only had one meeting with his author collaborator Ms. Brown, which clocked in at just more than 20 hours of recorded notes, stories and interview questions.
This memoir paints a portrait of Bruce White as a hard-working, relentless perfectionist who was never satisfied with the status quo. As one of Marriott's first franchisees, Bruce built one of the most successful and well-respected hospitality companies from a humble start in Northwest Indiana. From roadside hotels to some of the largest and most experiential urban hotels in the United States, Bruce ultimately developed more than 200 hotels and 60 independently branded restaurants across the country.
He was an inspiration to hospitality entrepreneurs for four decades and introduced innovative concepts like the first 'dual' and 'tri' brand hotels. With his father's backing, Bruce White founded White Lodging in 1985 in Northwest Indiana with a single hotel and built the company into one of the largest and most respected hospitality companies in the United States. Since Bruce's passing, his adult children have taken on a bigger role in the company and steward the values that made White Lodging successful, including serving on the Board of Directors, and such as Conner White serving as Chief Investment Officer.
'We began documenting the company's history and Bruce's entrepreneurial journey to help ensure that every associate at the company – now and in the future – knew about White Lodging's founder and his expectation for the company and our people, including our culture and the relentless pursuit of excellence for each other, our guests and our owners,' said Beth White, Bruce White's widow and wife of 35 years.
'Hospitalitarian,' a term title dreamed up by Bruce White, is written chronologically and starts before Bruce's birth with the influence of the generations before him in their search for the American dream – and ultimately his parents' unexpected move to Shelby, Indiana, where his father Dean White took a fledgling sign company his own father started and transformed it into a booming business he dubbed Whiteco Industries.
In the book, Bruce and others discuss the influence his grandmother had in his life and how growing up in 'The Region' of Northwest Indiana among blue-collar steelworkers and neighborhood pals in Crown Point helped him develop a thick skin and a keen ability to befriend individuals from every background, religion and race.
The memoir includes stories and interviews with friends, family members, early coworkers, and business partners, including Mitch Daniels, former Indiana governor and president emeritus of Purdue University, and Liam Brown, group president of U.S. & Canada at Marriott International.
Today, White Lodging has evolved into one of the country's largest privately held hospitality companies focused exclusively on highly curated urban and lifestyle properties. The company develops, owns, and manages a portfolio of brands in destination-driven markets, including Austin, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Indianapolis and Louisville. With a focus on elevated and experiential service, White Lodging's portfolio consists of approximately 60 premium hotels; a private collection of world-renowned luxury ranches; 50 locally relevant, award-winning restaurants; and 10 market-leading rooftop bars.
Later this month, Bruce's widow Beth White, who is active with the Dean and Barbara White Foundation, will serve as the guest speaker at the 2025 Business & Industry Hall of Fame at 11 a.m., May 29 at Avalon Manor in Merrillville hosted by The Times of NWI and INBusiness Magazine. Bruce White will be honored posthumously.
Bill Wellman, who died at age 97 in 2020, was a longtime executive of Whiteco Industries and region restaurateur. He was hired in 1976 to work with Dean and Bruce White to help develop the Holiday Star Theatre, which opened in 1979 and was later rebranded as Star Plaza Theatre. Wellman's Bridge VU Theater and Wellman's Restaurant on U.S. 30 in Valparaiso had been very successful, and Wellman quickly forged a reputation for booking headlining celebrities such as Joan Bennett, Phyllis Diller, Henny Youngman, Jerry Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Morey Amsterdam.
Wellman's favorite entertainer of all time was Liberace, who would play 14 shows at the Star Plaza in 12 days.
'On 'The Tonight Show,' Johnny Carson once asked Liberace of all his tour dates, where did he earn the most money from sold-out audiences,' Wellman told me.
'Carson thought the answer was going to be someplace in Las Vegas or at Radio City Music Hall (in New York City). To his surprise, Liberace said it was a small theater in Indiana called Star Plaza.'
As Bruce White confirms in his new book, this is a correct calculation based on gross revenue. Liberace, who died at age 67 in 1987, still ranks as the theater's biggest money-making headliner even by today's math.
When Liberace stayed in the penthouse suite overlooking the now long-gone lobby waterfall and indoor swimming pool in the Radisson Hotel, he loved the expansive two-level 'star' apartment living space. It included a full kitchen where he could cook and a formal dining room to entertain and serve his guests. When the newly renovated indoor pool lobby first opened, it featured a considerable financial investment landscape of real palm trees and ferns, along with assorted blooming tropicals trucked up from Florida as described in the new memoir.