Al Copeland, fried chicken king, dead at 64
NEW ORLEANS - Al Copeland, who became rich selling spicy fried chicken and notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, died yesterday at a clinic near Munich, Germany. He was 64.
NEW ORLEANS - Al Copeland, who became rich selling spicy fried chicken and notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, died yesterday at a clinic near Munich, Germany. He was 64.
The founder of the Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken chain had been diagnosed shortly before Thanksgiving with a malignant salivary gland tumor.
After growing up in New Orleans, Copeland sold his car at age 18 to open a doughnut shop. The opening of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in New Orleans in 1966, however, caught his eye. 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 losing money. Copeland chose a spicier Louisiana Cajun-style recipe and reopened the restaurant under the name Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken, after Popeye Doyle, Gene Hackman's character in "The French Connection."
In its third week of operation, Copeland's revived chicken restaurant broke the profit barrier.
Franchising began in 1976. *
- Associated Press