Leaving the Light On For You

William Becker was the guy who along with his partner, Paul Greene, developed the Motel 6 chain. He just passed away. Here's a link to his obituary which tells his story: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-becker12may12,1,5882331.story?coll=la-news-obituaries

William Becker
b. May 18, 1921 Pasadena, CA

Sun 28 Taurus; Moon in Libra?; NN 27 Libra

A friendly Venusian kind of guy.

As it says in the article, Becker got the idea for making a cheap, clean motel chain while driving cross country from Santa Barbara, CA to New York in the Summer of 1960. He was a contractor who built cheap homes and he turned around and used his experience to create a 6$ motel room. He and his partner spent 2 years developing ways to cut costs while providing a clean bed for travelers to sleep. The first motel in Santa Barbara, California opened in 1962. Cost cutting ideas: eliminate dresser, replace closets with clothes racks, shower stalls rather than baths with rounded corners so faster to clean, no attached restaurant, no-iron sheets, foam drinking cups, coin operated TV. I love cost cutting ideas but... no God-Damned in room coffee pots, cheap bastards. The idea took off, they had 31 motels by 1967 and lots of other brands copying their idea and getting into the competition.

Becker had Sun in Taurus a very frugal sign. His Sun is unaspected so he may have been very security conscious in this regard. Also unaspected is his Saturn in Virgo. This certainly add a no-frills picture, given to analyzing what works and what doesn't and eliminating the waste. And he's got Mercury in tight conjunction with Mars (8-9 degrees) in Gemini so he was a natural born problem solver. This conjunction is strong because it is apex to both a t-square to Uranus 10 Pisces opposite Jupiter 10 Virgo and a small triangle sextiling Chiron-Neptune trine. He was connected to what was fun and what wasn't, and also, through the Jupiter-Uranus-Mars-Mercury he had a natural affinity with the needs of the every day person. His natal Venus is conjunct his South Node and this may be opposite a Moon-NN conjunction. Just an interesting coinky-dink that Paris Hilton, hotel heiress par none, has this same aspect. It might be an indicator of connections with Hotel, or er um, Motel chains at whatever level.

His transits during the Summer 1960 cross country trip with his kids looks sort of bad. I think he may have been feeling kind of burdened with responsbility. T. NN c. his Saturn. His progressed Sun and Mars were 2 degrees away from his natal Pluto in Cancer. They became exact in 1962 by the time he and his partner opened their first motel. During the trip t. Saturn and Jupiter were close to opposition to natal Pluto as well. Cancer is the sign for motels, Pluto likes to make big changes. These extra aspects really highlighted that for him. I guess he was around Age 39 and was going through his Neptune square and Pluto sextile. He would have a Saturn trine during the planning process, that's a great aspect. The guy had good timing.

I don't know the opening date for the first motel in Santa Barbara. It was 1962 and during the middle of that year his Jupiter-Uranus opposition was strongly aspected. T. Pluto c. n. Jupiter. t. Chiron and t. Jupiter c. n. Uranus. Jupiter-Pluto combinations, are they called the Midas touch for nothing or what? Also, t. Saturn was c. the South Node and opposite natal Neptune-t.NN. And, as I said, before, his progressed Sun and Mars were conjunct natal Pluto in Cancer, a very forceful, powerful aspect and in this case focused into a Cancerian type of activity.

So, William Becker, I hope they've got a nice cloud for you to sleep on up there in Heaven. Rest in Peace.