Popeye's jobs to Copeland's Cheescake Bistro
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/al_copeland_dies_in_german... Al Copeland dies in Munich, Germany by John Pope, The Times-Picayune Sunday March 23, 2008, 3:42 PM Al Copeland, a hard-charging, high-living entrepreneur who built an empire on spicy fried chicken and fluffy white biscuits, died Sunday in Munich, Germany, of complications from cancer treatment. He was 64. He had gone to Munich for treatment of his illness, which had been diagnosed in November, said Kit Wohl, his spokeswoman. 1989 photoChicken king Al Copeland Born in poverty, Mr. Copeland burst onto the scene in 1972, when he opened his first Popeyes fried-chicken stand, in Arabi. It was the start of a franchise that, under his leadership, had 700 outlets, not only in the United States but also in Puerto Rico, Panama and Kuwait. The money he earned led to public displays of opulence such as speedboats, which he displayed in a glass-walled showroom along Interstate 10 when he wasn't racing them; a Lamborghini sports car parked outside his corporate headquarters; and, of course, his massive Christmas displays, which required sheriff's deputies to direct the traffic outside his _meta_irie home. There also were two over-the-top weddings with such touches as fireworks and a model of Cinderella's pumpkin coach. These weddings ended in equally spectacular divorces; the divorce proceedings from his third wife wound up bringing down the original judge hearing the case as part of a massive federal investigation of courthouse corruption. During Carnival, Mr. Copeland not only sponsored parade floats in Jefferson Parish but also rode, said Peter Ricchiuti, a Tulane University finance professor who saw Mr. Copeland in one such procession. Ricchiuti said he overheard this exchange between two other spectators: One man dismissed the spectacle as an indication of new money, but the other man replied, If I had money, that's what I'd do. Not even bankruptcy
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