Al Copeland, flamboyant founder of Popeyes fried chicken chain, dies at 64

[cbayer]

Al Copeland, who became rich selling spicy fried chicken and notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, died Sunday at a clinic near Munich, Germany. He was 64.

After growing up in New Orleans, Copeland sold his car at age 18 for enough money to open his own one-man doughnut shop. He went on to spend 10 modestly successful years in the doughnut business.

The opening of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in New Orleans in 1966, however, caught Copeland's eye. Inspired by KFC's success, Copeland in 1971 used his doughnut profits to open a restaurant, Chicken on the Run. ("So fast you get your chicken before you get your change.")

After six months, Chicken on the Run was still losing money. In a last-ditch effort, Copeland chose a spicier Louisiana Cajun-style recipe and reopened the restaurant under the name Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken

In its third week of operation, Copeland's revived chicken restaurant broke the profit barrier.

His hobbies included racing powerboats, touring New Orleans in Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis, and outfitting his Lake Pontchartrain home with lavish Christmas decorations, including half a million lights and a three-storey-tall snowman. The display drew a lawsuit in 1983 from neighbours who said the resulting traffic held them hostage in their own homes.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQv0F8DhApua05-U1Fs8YX8P0aAQ

He was a nut, but I do love me some Popeye's Fried Chicken.

[lost-in-nj]

1. Popeyes rocks...

I prefer KFC
but Popeyes is in the mall

nom nom




lost

[cbayer]

2. If you ever get to Louisisana or southern MS

try Popeye's there.

You will discard KFC like an old shoe.

cb

[Capn Sunshine]

3. I did some work for Copeland In the 80's

He tried to get me to stay there in Jefferson ( NO burb I guess) and work there , and I tried to get him to move his offices to Universal City where I was located. Copelands of New Orleans was like a very cool TGI Fridays, it would have been HUGE , but he always had a $$ flow issue. But yeah he was nucking futs.
I got a Lamborghini ride from him once that seriously turned my hair grey.

I'll never forget staying in one of his hotels , I got back to my room and there was a threesome going on in my bed. No one I knew.

I took my suitcase and went to the front desk and complained, the guy says " Oh yeah, that's just the whores, they have keys to ALL the rooms"

New Orleans is a strange and wonderful place.

[cbayer]

4. Indeed NOLA is a very strange and wonderful place.

He had a very public feud with Anne Rice at one point because she objected to a new restaurant he opened. It was dubbed the "The King of Lights vs. the Queen of Darkness."

She took out an ad criticizing him, and then......


"Copeland responded in the newspaper with a two-page open letter to Rice, complete with before and after photographs of the former Mercedes-Benz dealership, saying, "Anne, if I didn't take your rude, unwarranted personal attack so seriously, I might be amused."

In a postscript to his ad, the founder of Popeyes Chicken added: "See you in court. In the meantime, I'm putting a little extra garlic in the food at Straya, keeping a crucifix under my pillow and carrying a wooden stake for good luck."

[yellowcanine]

5. Let me guess. His arteries totally clogged up from eating the product.

[cbayer]

6. No, he had cancer of the salivary glands.

I am not sure he even ate his own product.

Not good for you. Not good at all. But unbelievably tasty.

[kwassa]

7. didn't he start and run the Copelands restaurants, too? New Orleans food.

one here locally in Maryland.

[Capn Sunshine]

8. That's the guy

I really appreciated the concept and operations of that place, as someone who has done restaurants as investments for years.

[cbayer]

9. Yep, the very same.

Like a Cajun flavored Olive Garden.

[kwassa]

13. I hate to say it, but I agree with you.

Like underwhelming corporate version of an ethnic cuisine. I tried it twice.

[cbayer]

10. yummy and cheap too

[JVS]

11. This is a shock to the nation. Here's some funeral footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZD5UHxx_84

Not only are the people deeply grieved, they're so shocked that they're now speaking in Serbo-Croatian.

[cbayer]

12. I knew Al Copeland, and, you sir, are no Al Copeland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU