Modified On March 24, 2008
From his obituary in the International Herald Tribune:
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.
The founder of the Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken chain had been diagnosed shortly before Thanksgiving with a malignant salivary gland tumor. His death was announced by his spokeswoman, Kit Wohl.
What they don’t mention in his obit is that he pumped a bunch of cash into the Improv in Melrose and started the wild expansion of the Improvisation chain.
From a June 1999 interview on Bnet.com, with Budd Friedman:
I have been doing this for 36 years and the day-to-day stuff is a pain in the ass. 1 still am involved in booking acts at gaming venues; I still book the cruises I go on. I’ll be there and still maintain an office at Melrose. But we’re finalizing a deal with a New Orleans restaurateur, Al Copeland, to run the Melrose club. He runs a series of family-style restaurants in Louisiana and Alabama, 40 of them. called Copeland’s, and a higher-level chain called Straya. He will be my chief franchisee and he wants to open two clubs a year around the country.
From our coverage of the Just For Laughs Festival on June 22, 1999 (our third ever dispatch from the JFL):
MONTREAL–The buzz here (or one of the many buzzes) is that Budd is opening a colossal chain of comedy clubs in the not-too-distant-future. He’ll do it in partnership with a fellow by the name of Al Copeland. You’ve never heard of him, but you may have heard of his chain of restaurants called Copeland’s.
This guy Copeland throws a mean party. In the ballroom near the back of the Delta, Messrs Copeland and Freidman threw a New Orleans-themed party to let everyone know about this little venture. At least, we think that’s what is was for. The food was great–lots of blackened this and creole that. And the booze was free as well. Everyone was there: We spotted Andy Kindler for the first time. We’re thinking of pissing him off so that he’ll mention us in his State of the Industry address on Saturday afternoon…stay tuned.
Copeland’s death was sudden. His illness only lasted for just over 100 days. It is reasonable to speculate as to what his passing might mean to the chain.
From the Al Copeland Investments website, is this paragraph from his profile (which seems to have been written in 2002 or so and not updated since):
In 1999, Al took an ownership position in three Improv Comedy Clubs located in the Los Angeles, California area (Hollywood, Brea and Irvine) and has since opened additional clubs in Baltimore. MD and Ontario, CA. Plans are proceeding with opening clubs in Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, San Jose and the Newport/Cincinnati area, in 2002, with even more to come across the US in 2003!
From his Wikipedia profile, which contains an update sentence referring to his death:
Copeland owns several restaurant chains, including Copeland’s, Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro, Amor deBrazil, and Sweet Fire & Ice, as well as the Improv comedy clubs located in California and Pittsburgh, PA, and three hotels, one of which is in New Orleans.