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Al copeland story – life in the fast lane.

Al Copeland reflects on the art of performance

From our vaults 1997 – Volume 1 Number 2

By: Peter Tasler

In the intensely competitive world of boat racing, as in big business, there is one hard and fast rule – WIN! What distinguishes Al Copeland from the majority of winners, however, is his strong sense of values and ethics. His meteoric rise to fame has earned a great deal of respect from his family, friends and peers. In fact, in his hometown he’s regarded as somewhat of a folk hero.

“I guess what people admire is that I started with nothing and I worked my way up every step of the way to get what I have today,” says Copeland, who was born and raised in New Orleans. “People don’t resent what I have and the way I use it. I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

From his early days, Copeland, the youngest of three brothers, was a man driven by an inner desire to be the best. After his parents divorced, he found himself living with his grandmother in the projects. By the time he reached the 10 th grade, he decided to drop out of school to pursue his fortune.

“I remember working with this fellow at my first job as a soda jerk. He worked like a house on fire. When I asked him why, he replied, ‘Because I’m the best’. Those words did it for me, I knew then and there that I also wanted to be the best.”

In his formative years, Copeland sold baby food and worked at his brother’s doughnut shop. In 1972, he opened his own spicy Cajun-style chicken place, which he later named Popeyes (a la the movie, The French Connection). By the late 80s, he had more than 800 Popeyes and in 1989 he had bought 1400 Church’s Fried Chicken stores. In 1991, due to the crash in the junk bond market he was forced into bankruptcy. He walked out of bankruptcy with an in-perpetuity contract to supply Popeyes and Church’s around the world with spices, batter, red beans and other products through his Diversified Foods Company. He now owns some 20 Copeland’s Famous New Orleans Restaurants and Bars around the country, two Straya California Creole cafes in New Orleans (with another soon to be launched in Baton Rouge) and a new franchise concept, Wrap & Roll (“It’s like a tortilla with a gourmet meal inside.”) Both Straya and Copeland’s are decorated by Al’s wife, Luan, in a lavish art deco-type style he refers to as Nouveau Deco, replete with neon lights and gold panthers. He also has two Landmark Hotels and, last summer, opened the Grand Boutique above Straya on St. Charles St., featuring 44 luxury hotel suites.

The trendy restaurant and hotel are located in an abandoned Mercedes-Benz dealership outside the Garden District, and oddly enough, attracted the anger of vampire novelist Anne Rice, who lives nearby. Rice took out a full-page ad in the Times-Picayune newspaper to express her extreme disapproval of this “hideous” neighborhood intrusion. Copeland responded with a two-page ad of his own, chiding Rice for her ill-mannered attack. The case, which wound up in court, was recently thrown out by the judge.

“The judge said she had the right to freedom of speech,” says Copeland, adding that she did not win in the school of popular opinion. Various polls, including one by the Times-Picayune, showed in favor of the restaurant 3 to 1. All this happened around Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

“It became a big thing in New Orleans here. People had so much fun with it. There were some in the French Quarter dressed like Anne Rice, others like Al Copeland. In Mardi Gras I rode with a big wooden stake and a cross around my neck.”

Copeland, a self-confessed workaholic, is a strong believer in family togetherness, which he admits is often a very difficult thing to do “when you work the way I work. Family is very important to me. I believe in God, go to church on Sundays and I believe in right and wrong.”

Copeland’s strong penchant for family togetherness prompted him to buy a 22-acre property in Mandeville, a suburb of New Orleans, which he hopes to soon turn into an exclusive family compound, complete with houses for his children, its own private marina, stables, helicopter pad and a mansion that, every Christmas, will display his famed one million lights.

The fashionable man with the trademark black T-shirt, ostrich-skin cowboy boots and solid gold hoop earring is also an incurable romantic. On Valentine’s day 1991 he formally married his third wife (and former receptionist) Luan Hunter. The gala wedding took place at the New Orleans Museum of Art, with music provided by Kool & The Gang and Latoya Jackson. Outside, a helicopter showered the happy couple with thousands of rose petals.

Each year since then, the Copelands renew their wedding vows.

“The year before last it was on Laguna Negal Beach in California – on horseback,” explains Copeland. “Last year, we went to a place just outside Gatlinburg. There’s a place called Copeland’s Creek where, believe it or not, they first started running moonshine in the 30s. We had a shotgun wedding in a little cabin there because Luan was pregnant.”

Copeland has five children – two boys and three girls – from his previous marriages, ranging in ages from 17 to 30. All of his children work with him in his family business. “The oldest Al Jr., is doing a good job running the business,” says the proud father-to-be of a baby boy who will be born on February 2, 1998, Al’s birthday.

While Copeland still keeps close watch over his business ventures, he admits he does find more time to indulge in his recreational pursuits, one of which is boating – with the emphasis on speed. Copeland first discovered his love for power boating in the late 70s, when, on a quest for something that would enhance fun and relaxation on Sundays (“I worked every other day of the week,”), he bought a metal-flake speedboat with Oldsmobile engines.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but the fellow who solid it to me later told me it was the fastest boat on Lake Ponchartrain. The first time I had it out, two or three guys came out to race me right away. I won. The boat did 80 mph. Everybody was really impressed by the speed. That was real fast in those days. I was the fastest boat on the lake.”

A constant stream of challenges – and losses – led Copeland to indulge in a bigger boat, a deep-V powered by Gale Banks turbocharged motors. “The somebody beat me in that, and I realized that the next way to get any speed was to get a race boat, so I went to Don Aronow and I bought my first Cigarette . It was 37-1/2 feet. I put those Gale Banks motors in it. I never really intended to go offshore racing in it. I just wanted to be the fastest boat on the lake.”

But, as most performance boaters will attest, the need for speed, is a heady attraction and Copeland soon found himself with newly hired mechanic and throttleman Bill Sirois, getting deeper into the wild world of offshore racing. His first APBA race in California in 1980 was in a rented production Scarab called Pure Insanity.

“I decided to go in as a rookie. In those days they made rookies start 10 seconds behind the pack. I had never been on the ocean in my life. My friend Stan Ware, who has been my navigator throughout my whole career, and I went out partying the night before the practice run.”

“The next day the swells on the ocean were so big that the boat would jump clean out of the water, come back down to the bottom and knock the hell out of you, you’d think your brains had fallen out. I swore then that I could never again drink the night before a race, and I never did for 11 years after that.”

Copeland did, however, come away from his first race with a second-place win, finishing 10 seconds behind the leader – and without power steering, no mean feat!

“Winning that trophy gave me an incredible sense of victory,” Copeland recalls. From that point on, Copeland was hooked, even though he lost the next event, racing against top champions like Betty Cook. “My new Cigarette was the first out of the gate. Then they blew by us like we were tied to a post.”

Each year following, Copeland experimented with bigger and better motors and different boats, moving from a 30’ Flight Cat that was the first to do 100 mph on Mercury’s Lake X testing ground to the first Super Boat ever built.

Copeland went on to become unbeatable, racking up a World Championship in 1985 and six consecutive U.S. Championships. “We had the winningest team in racing history,” says Copeland with pride in his accomplishments. “During that period of time we broke every speed record there was, including the Miami to New York V-bottom record, a run of about 1140 miles in 20 hours and 42 minutes.”

A near fatal snowmobile accident in Lake Tahoe forced Copeland to take a long, hard look at his racing career.

“I was running about 100 mph when it flipped me. I went through three trees and landed up on my head just missing a pile of rocks. I broke my femur bone and both bones in my forearm. I wound up with a spinal cord injury as a result. I was in the hospital for about a month, in a wheelchair about three months and spent 45 days with a cane. The doctors told me if I went racing again and I twisted my neck in a certain way, I could cripple myself for life. That was a price I didn’t want to pay.”

Instead Copeland turned his attention to building turbine race boats. “I still wanted to have the fastest boats in the world, which I do.”

Howard Arneson built Copeland a 40’ Skater which runs 166 mph. He also recently completed a 46’ Skater which was a 17-month long project.

“We had it running at 159 mph on Lake Ponchartrain and Scotty (Barnhardt) my crew chief said that day we would clock 160. As soon as he did, one of the motors went out. As I pulled back the throttles before the boat calmed down and settled down in the water, we could see smoke coming into the cockpit. We lifted the hatch. The halon system had gone off. We hit the fire with three extinguishers, but it was like spitting on a fire. We had to jump into the cold water and just watched the boat burn. After all the time and energy it took to build it, it took only two minutes to destroy. I remember thinking to myself that I had just seen the Titanic the night before.”

Copeland has just completed the acquisition of a new 46’ Skater which he will start to build immediately. He still has his 40’ Skater, which he says he also brings to local poker runs. “They’re a lot of fun. Of course, my boat’s always the first one to get to the card stop, but that doesn’t really matter, does it. As far as luck goes, I never really win.”

Copeland, who still stays in top shape working out in his fully equipped home gym, also participates in another kind of poker run, where participants ride a unique, specially built motorcycle called a Boss Hoss.

“My wife gave me a Boss Hoss for my birthday a few years back. The stock bike has a 350 cu in, 345 hp V-8 Corvette motor that does 0 to 50 in 1.5 seconds,” says Copeland. “My own bike has a 383 cu in engine with 450 hp and nitrous oxide for another 150 horses. They’re fine, fast and all-American.”

Copeland’s admiration for those motorcycle led him to buy the Boss Hoss dealership for the state, where he’s currently building a 600 hp model equipped with an automatic transmission. He also takes his motorcycles on tour at various events throughout the country, from Gatlinburg to Daytona to Sturgis. Recently, he showed up with boats – including the opulent 120-foot yact, the Cajun Princess (complete with Jacuzzis and mirrored bedrooms) – an eleven Boss Hoss motorcycles at the Biloxi races in Mississippi. While the boats are trailered, the motorcycles are transported in a custom Freightliner rig that, on occasion, also holds his royal blue Lamborghini Diablo. (His other driving car is a 600SL Sport V-12 Mercedes convertible).

“I went through that stage in life where I collected cars quite extensively,” explains Copeland, adding that he used to own about 50 cars. “I sold most of those off over the years. Now the only ones I’ve got left are a Lamborghini Countach, and a ’62 Cadillac convertible … I stick mainly to cars I like to drive because it’s no fun if you can’t really drive them and enjoy them.”

These words strike very close to the heart of the philosophy that is behind the professional and personal success of Al Copeland. As he puts it, “If I can’t play with it and have fun with it, I don’t want it anymore.”

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Phenomenon – The World’s Fastest Boat

April 1, 2012 by Aditya Sharma Leave a Comment

Its the Veyron of the speed boat world. The fastest propelled boat of the world, Phenomenon is currently owned by Al Copeland and according to them it was made for one reason only – to break the record of the fastest propelled boat of the world at 220.5 miles per hour. Engineered to accelerate upto a top speed speed of more than 250 miles per hour and strength-wise sustain a speed of 300 miles per hour. Built by exceptionally talented engineers from NASA, US Naval Engineers, Boeing and professional speed boat builders no stone was left unturned in making the World’s Fastest Boat . Having an 4 engines each running at 15500 RPM and producing 3000 horsepower the boat reaches mind boggling speeds thanks to its cutting edge aerodynamics and 12000 horses worth of raw power.

keysnewsonline.com  reports : It is a father’s dream completed by his son and history in the making. On the eve of the final day of racing at the 29th annual Key West World Championships, Al Copeland Jr. unveiled the Phenomenon — a 56-foot long boat, 13-and-a-half foot wide, with four turbine engines and 11,000 horsepower — that was built for one reason: To break the world’s propelled speedboat record. The prototypical vessel that was created by his father, Al Copeland Sr. — a former driver and owner of the Popeyes Offshores race team from 1980-90 — some five years ago finally came to fruition on Saturday night when the next generation of powerboat was revealed to the racing community. A mix between a boat and an airplane, with an aerodynamic Canard wing between the boats’ two pontoons, Copeland said his father truly would have been proud to have seen his blueprint come to life.

Unfortunately, about two years into the project the elder Copeland was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), which is an aggressive type of skin cancer that forms on or just under the skin. Just eight months later he died of the disease. At the time of his death his son said he had but two goals he wanted to accomplish: One to find a cure for the rare cancer, and two to finish the boat in order to break the world record.

“That just shows how important it was to him,” Copeland said of completing the Phenomenon. “And we knew that as a family.” Despite not being able to obtain either goal, his son picked up where his father left off and took on the task of fulfilling his wishes 20 months ago, even though he knew little of what had been accomplished on the prototype powerboat. ”I’m the executor of the estate and the oldest child, so I took the project under my wing,” said Copeland, who is CEO of Al Copeland investments. “I was running the businesses and didn’t know anything about it. I had to learn all the names and all the associations and where we’d been with the project.”Out of the gate, Copeland said he believed it would take only three to six months to finish the boat. However, he said that every step they took there was a new complication that arose time after time. ”It’s a monumental task to complete it,” said Copeland. “The project was in shambles when I got my hand around it. We had to change some players and do some things to try and get it completed. Anybody that’s ever built a prototype, with all the newest technologies, can relate.”

But Copeland never gave up and continued to build the vessel, somewhat scaling back from his father’s original idea, until they created the Phenomenon they have today. ”I was always over optimistic,” said Copeland. “After every meeting I hoped everybody knew what they were going to do and were going to do what they needed to do and we were going to get the results we are supposed to get. But not so much and I had to pull back from some of the design where he wanted to take the boat.” Nevertheless, the boat was completed, designed from a strength point of view to run 300 mph. Weighing 26,000 pounds, the vessel has yet to enter the water, but on Saturday night, in front of the entire race family that has grown to appreciate the innovation of the Copeland family, the magnificent craft was the center piece for a celebration in Key West. The Phenomenon will now tentatively attempt to break the record, which stands at an average speed of 227 mph set by a hydroplane boat, in January off the Sarasota coast. With Copeland driving, along with throttle man Scott Burnhardt, the team hopes to average 240 mph across a pair of one-mile stretches.

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Al Copeland, a Restaurateur Known for Spice and Speed, Dies at 64

By Douglas Martin

• March 25, 2008

Al Copeland, a poor boy from New Orleans who marshaled gumption, perspicacity and a fiery fried chicken recipe to emerge as a flamboyant multimillionaire with fast speedboats and successive business empires, died Sunday in Germany near Munich. He was 64.

The cause was a malignant salivary gland tumor, Kit Wohl, his spokeswoman, said.

Mr. Copeland opened his first fried chicken stand in 1971 with the chipper slogan, “So fast you get your chicken before you get your change.” The restaurant failed. He retreated to his kitchen to fiddle with his recipe.

Mr. Copeland added more than a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and a few more secret Cajun-inspired hot spices, changed the name to Popeyes (he said he was too poor to afford an apostrophe) and by the end of the 1980s owned or franchised more than 800 of the restaurants.

The name Popeye did not come from the spinach-eating cartoon character but from the hard-nosed film detective Popeye Doyle in “The French Connection.” Mr. Copeland liked to say he loved speed and other ways of taking spectacular chances. According to The Los Angeles Times in 1997, he once told a restaurant critic, “If you’ve got a dream, you might as well dream big.”

And lose big. Mr. Copeland by 1989 owned the third biggest fried chicken chain in the United States, and borrowed heavily to buy the second-biggest, now called Church’s Chicken. It was too much debt. He soon sought bankruptcy protection.

He lost Church’s and all but a handful of Popeyes stores, but not his recipes and a lucrative contract to supply seasonings to the new owner until 2025. He went on to open restaurants bearing his surname, as well as others featuring California cuisine, wrap sandwiches and cheesecake.

His flamboyant lifestyle never lost speed, and stood out even in a city of eccentrics like New Orleans. In 2002, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans called him Louisiana’s homegrown Liberace. His gaudy Christmas decorations, with more than a million lights, drew crowds to his home and a lawsuit from the neighbors. His ever-more-elaborate weddings involved touches like thousands of rose petals falling from his company helicopter.

He set speed records piloting his 50-foot speedboat and collected Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis and custom Jaguars. He got into a fistfight with a business rival, and had a war of words with the writer Anne Rice, best known for her romantic tales of vampires, who also lived in New Orleans.

“Gothic versus Gauche,” cracked a New Orleans bar owner, Bud Whalen, in an interview with The Los Angeles Times.

Alvin Charles Copeland was born on Feb. 2, 1944. His father left home shortly after Al, the youngest of three brothers, was born. His mother struggled to provide for them, and a grandmother and great aunt helped rear them, The Times-Picayune reported. The family ended up at a public housing project, relying on welfare. “I never forget being poor,” Mr. Copeland told The Los Angeles Times. “I know what it is, and I don’t want it.”

At 16, he dropped out of high school and got a job as a soda jerk. Two years later, he opened a Tastee Donut franchise, a gift from his brothers for the first of his four weddings.

Inspired by the opening of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in New Orleans, he opened his own restaurant, Chicken on the Run, in 1971. In addition to vivifying the recipe during his sabbatical, Mr. Copeland also came up with recipes for dirty rice and hand-rolled biscuits.

When it reopened in 1972, the restaurant was first named Popeyes Mighty Good Fried Chicken. After 13 months, and the opening of a second store, “mighty good” became “famous.”

Mr. Copeland tried to diversify into riverboat gambling, but lost the license competition to another New Orleans businessman. When the two were given adjacent tables in a steakhouse in 2001, a brawl erupted. Mr. Copeland’s rival and two sons were charged with battery. Mr. Copeland was not charged.

His Copeland’s casual restaurant chain, offering New Orleans-style cuisine, achieved more success. It features several unique cocktails, including the Crash and Burn — a large cocktail for two to three people.

Aside from mounting his annual barrage of Christmas decorations, Mr. Copeland is best known locally for his marriages, all four of which ended in divorce. Some thought the most spectacular wedding was the third, with the heart-shaped fireworks: “Al, I’ll love you forever, Luan.”

Others treasure the memory of the last, for which Mr. Copeland transformed his mansion in Metairie, La., into a Disney castle with 10,000 white roses; a snow machine; and four Christmas trees spinning upside down.

More quietly, Mr. Copeland established the Alvin C. Copeland Endowed Chair of Franchising at Louisiana State University. He also underwrote Christmas gifts for 1,000 needy children each year.

Mr. Copeland is survived by his sons, Alvin Jr., Christopher, Alex, Chandler and Chaz; his daughters, Bonnie Copeland, Alisha Copeland, Charlotte Womac and Cassidy Copeland; and 13 grandchildren.

Mr. Copeland’s dispute with Ms. Rice involved his opening a restaurant in a former car dealership, a site from which her most popular vampire, Lestat, had disappeared. She called the cumulative effect of Mr. Copeland’s metallic palm trees, golden statues of panthers and neon lights “a monstrosity.” He countered that he would put a little more garlic in the food at the restaurant to fend off vampires.

Mr. Copeland planned for his death by building a family tomb for 14 caskets, with four fluted columns and a bronze double door.

clock This article was published more than  35 years ago

THE FAST MAN AND THE SEA

Businessman charles marks decides to try superboat racing _ and pulls a shocking upset.

Who is this guy?

Charles E. Marks, a mild-mannered businessman, sits in his sedate

Dupont Circle office quietly explaining how he ramrodded his 48-foot,

$750,000 "superboat" through six-foot seas at 100 mph for a thundering

upset victory in the Trump Castle Grand National Powerboat Championship

in Atlantic City. More than 300,000 spectators crowded the boardwalks

and beaches a weekend ago to watch Marks humble Popeye's Famous Fried

Chicken mogul Al Copeland, swaggering multimillionaire king of the

national superboat circuit, and third-place finisher Don Johnson of

"Miami Vice."

Everyone was stunned.

Not only was it Marks' first race, but in the time-honored and

largely forgotten tradition of Gentleman Sportsman, he'd never even been

in the boat before.

"Everyone said, 'You have to be crazy,' but it's just a feeling you

have," says Marks. "I lay it back to that Dirty Harry movie where Clint

Eastwood says that a man must know his own limitations, and as long as

you function within those parameters, and don't kid yourself about what

you can and can't do, then things will normally work out fine."

Marks studied it, figured he could do it -- then got in the boat and

"A formidable competitor," national champion Copeland had to

"I thought he was cocky," zillionaire developer Donald Trump told

one newspaper. "He's not cocky -- he's good."

Marks had issued his challenge to Copeland in a press conference

with Trump in August aboard the Trump Princess. "You beat Copeland, you

beat everybody," he said at the time. "There's no sense in my fighting

my way up through the ranks when I can start out on top."

He'd wanted to bet Copeland $250,000 ("what the hell -- a town

house") but the chicken and biscuit man -- no fool -- turned him down.

Besides, there's an American Powerboat Association rule against betting.

APBA spokesman Joe Albertson called Marks' surprise victory "a good

thing. Mr. Marks brings more competition to the class."

Marks himself, softly aglow with victory, coyly maintains it's no

big deal. "It's not like I've accomplished something I couldn't or

shouldn't have. I only did what I knew all along that I was capable of,

the boat was capable of."

Thoughtfully, he squares some papers on his desk.

He adds quietly: "I try to say that in a positive tone, so it

doesn't sound egotistical."

He allows himself a little smile.

A little chuckle.

The race -- 157 1/2 miles around a 31-mile course with a medical

emergency ship stationed every two miles -- was hair-raising. A record

93 powerboats, arranged into different classes of which the superboat

class was the largest and most spectacular, started at staggered times.

In his class, Marks -- as a rookie -- was required to start 100

yards behind everyone else. As it turned out, he couldn't get his boat

up on plane immediately, probably because it was weighted down with 600

gallons of high-octane jet aviation fuel, and so he ended up starting

four minutes -- five or six miles -- behind everyone else.

But once Marks got going, his new Cougar catamaran -- with its four

Gentry American Eagle turbocharged 850-horsepower engines, its space-age

safety cockpit and the protective canopy from a British Harrier jet

fighter -- was so powerful and handled the rough seas so well that he

was able to catch up with the pack and then move into second place

behind Copeland. Because superboats have a phenomenal breakdown rate

(Miami Herald boating writer Eric Sharp describes the races as "like

running a car uphill all day at 90 mph"), Marks based his strategy on

forcing Copeland to overstrain his engines.

"We hung in second and pushed him, and on the last lap we made our

move," he recalls in his quiet, analytical way. "It was up in deep

water, and my boat runs better in the rough water, and we passed him. He

blew two engines trying to catch us and then I blew an engine trying to

keep ahead of him."

Then it started getting hairy.

"We came around the last marker and we're 10 miles from the finish

line and the whole cockpit is filling up with smoke and I'm telling my

throttleman, 'Forget it -- we're going for it! We can't stop!' And all

the while we're running I'm thinking, 'Where are the fire extinguishers,

how can I get to the fire extinguishers, when do I want to bail out of

this boat, because I don't know if it's going to catch on fire or not.

Will I be able to get out in time?' And I'm crossing the finish line

coughing up this black smoke, thinking about those type of things.

"Not excited, not exhilarated, but just trying to figure out my next

Quintessence of Cool.

Copeland, who has been known to show up at races in his luxury yacht

with several of his superboats and hot cars on hand -- just in case he

should need them -- and his Popeye's helicopter hovering overhead, tends

to pooh-pooh the significance of Marks' victory. "I led the entire race

until I blew a motor seven miles before the end, when he passed me. My

{season} record is four wins, four seconds and a fourth. I've lost five

races this year, so what's the big deal?"

Copeland says "I have no doubt in my mind" that he'll cream Marks in

the Offshore World Cup Championships in Key West Nov. 8 through 14.

Marks may not be able to enter the race because of an APBA rule that a

driver must make at least three starts on the annual circuit to qualify

for the cup race.

Marks, sure he'll beat Copeland again, is trying to find a way

around the rule. "I just got off the phone with Cougar Marine in

England," he says. "If they'll sponsor the boat as a foreign entry, then

I can drive. They're trying to work it out."

Nobody on the circuit had ever heard of Marks before the August

press conference. He was just a raw beginner who owned a 66-foot Cheoy

Lee motor yacht and a couple of Cigarette boats he liked to use to zip

up and down the Intercoastal to Miami and back, a small-time Washington

millionaire who made his bucks on government computer and microfilm

contracts through the company he started in 1969, Automated Datatron

Inc. Marks, who has generally steered clear of Washington's social and

political circuits, seemed like just another successful but low-profile

guy with a house in Potomac, five kids, a 27-year marriage and a yen for

He'd honed that yen building and drag-racing cars as a kid in rural

Maryland, the third of 13 children of a supervisor at an Army ordnance

depot who ran a dry-cleaning shop on the side. The father had instilled

in the youth a spirit of entrepreneurship, a capacity for relentless

hard work and -- strangely, perhaps -- the "fascination with speed" that

still grips him.

"I still strive to fill my father's shoes -- that fascination with

getting ahead," says Marks, now 48. "I now have a Lamborghini with a top

speed of 180. I have a Lotus Turbo also, and before that I had a Jaguar.

God knows how many Corvettes I've had. And oh yeah, had a Ferrari."

Every so often, he says, he'll ease the Lamborghini to 140 mph on the

way up I-270 to Frederick, sort of like pinching himself to make sure

he's still alive.

After high school, Marks served in the Air Force in the late '50s,

worked in various jobs when he got out, then decided to study business

at the University of Maryland. He graduated in 1969 and started

Automated Datatron while working full time as a computer operator for

the federal government. Then he wanted to go to graduate school "because

the president of the United States at that time was making $100,000 a

year and I was a GS-5, and if he was the ultimate boss in the

government, there was no way I'd ever earn more money than him."

So, since he wanted to make megabucks, Marks applied to graduate

business schools "trying to get this free education." When New York

University turned him down, "I went back and said someone had made a

mistake because I was turned down." He was referred to the dean and, he

says, proceeded to talk him into accepting him and giving him a

scholarship.

But as he plowed through the paperwork, word came that Automated

Datatron had won its first government contract -- data entry for the

D.C. Board of Elections. Marks drove back to Washington, stayed up all

night and met with officials the next morning. "That afternoon I had

four keypunch machines, and I've been at it ever since. To this day I

regret the fact that I never apologized or told the people {at the

university} that I wasn't coming. It was out of character."

Now, he says, his firm has 450 employees doing, among other things,

"facilities management" for the Department of Labor; microfilming for

the U.S. Navy, Government Printing Office and Federal Aviation

Administration; and, in Oklahoma City, computer simulation training for

air traffic control candidates. Along the way, Marks married the former

Helen Marie Young, and his winning superboat is named Eric's Reality for

their firstborn son.

Before getting into big-time, big-money superboat racing, Marks went

through a process of self-analysis. For one thing, he knew he would be

the first black to enter that world -- but he just isn't the kind of guy

to give a damn about that. "Ninety-nine percent of the people involved

in boating are white," he says. "I oftentimes feel like a fly in

buttermilk, the 'only one there' type of thing, but it's a hell of a lot

of fun out there on that water, man."

Another consideration was what Copeland calls a "cloud" hanging over

the sport because of the association of fast boats with drug-running.

One former powerboat champion is being held without bond in Miami on

drug smuggling charges; another two-time national superboat champion

pleaded guilty to drug charges in 1986; and the 1987 daylight gunfire

slaying of Don Aronow, the famed Miami boat builder who created the

Cigarettes and other marvels, was widely thought to be drug-related. As

Miami Herald writer Sharp put it, the sport is having trouble shaking

its image as "an ego trip for rich guys and a way for drug dealers to

kill time."

But Marks says businessmen like Copeland and himself, who are and

must remain "squeaky, squeaky, squeaky clean," are bringing a "good guy"

image back to the sport. Copeland says "the APBA and their good efforts"

are weeding out the druggies.

The macho element, however -- the crazy Death-Facing pure stark

wacko machismo of it all -- remains firmly intact. It is, in fact, along

with the basic American fascination with bigger and better and more

complicated machines, what this sport is all about.

"It's combat, it's man against the sea," says Dr. Matthew Houghton,

the APBA's medical and safety director. "Man's most basic instinct is to

beat the ocean, and that's what these guys are doing. It's the epitome

of speed, endurance and navigation."

"I've seen guys finish a race with their kidney blown out," says

Sharp, who in addition to writing about the sport participated in it

until he sustained a back injury that has dry-docked him for life.

"Back when the speeds were 70 mph there was no problem, but suddenly

when they went up over 100 mph, if the driver made a mistake, you'd

stuff the bow underwater. We've killed four or five in the past three

years in stuffing accidents."

Thus the need for "safety pod" cockpits protected by jet aircraft

According to Houghton, "When you impact the water at 100 mph it's

the same as hitting a brick wall at 60. These guys are crazy." Houghton

was behind the moves to station medical boats along the race courses,

strengthen the cockpits and improve the restraint systems inside them.

Even if a driver isn't thrown out, Houghton says, there is "bruising,

straining, spraining, banging and bumping" in racing one of these boats.

"They beat their bodies up over a 150-mile race ... We are guessing that

up to 15 to 20 times the force of gravity is being absorbed, which may

be more than the military has experienced in some of their sled and

centrifuge testing."

Nevertheless, Marks decided to go ahead and get into the sport. He'd

been out sailing with a friend and found that to be "like watching paint

dry." He bought the Cheoy Lee only to be disappointed at its 25 mph top

speed, and even his first Cigarette, which went 50 mph, was almost

immediately boring.

"Then I got the second Cigarette and I went through six different

sets of engines. The boat was designed to go 65 and I was running it at

80, and after that there was nowhere else for me to go. I guess that's

the long and short of why I got into superboat racing."

Out on the ocean in his Cigarette, he remembers how he used to

"pretend to be racing. I'm out here running up the Intercoastal, you

know, thinking to myself, 'I'm {world superboat cup holder} Tom Gentry.'

But all my life I've always been me. Why was I stepping out of this mode

and pretending to be someone else? So I said, 'Boom -- that's it!' And

just like that ... I decided that I was going to go into superboat

racing, because the playtime was over."

Or maybe just beginning.

He bought the big Cougar cat six months ago. Trump Castle spokesman

Dennis Gorski describes it as "one of the most expensive boats ever

produced. Obviously a commitment of that type is in the millions. That

kind of infusion of money and spirit is good for the sport -- it adds

another dimension to the superboat class." Actually, says Marks, if he

can't get a backer to pick up the tab for his estimated $750,000 annual

running expenses, he'll probably have to drop out of the sport.

Marks hired one of powerboat racing's best old pros, Bobby Moore,

for the all-important job as "throttleman." The throttleman controls

speed, trim and other essentials while the Gentleman Sportsman "driver"

aims the boat down the course. Moore "splashed the boat in the water" --

launched it -- just two weeks before the Trump race.

"When he set me down in the cockpit for the race, it was the first

time I'd ever been in the cat," says Marks. But he wasn't worried

because, as he learned to do in the business world, "I play a lot of

what-if games, and once I've resolved all the what-ifs ..."

So what was the biggest what-if here?

"What if I turn the thing too damn fast?" He worried about that

because "when you turn the corner with a cat, you have to turn it just a

little and then the opposite direction, because if you hold the turn the

boat will spin around on you, and at 100 mph you don't have much

No, indeedy.

Anyway, once he got the hang of it, he was okay. He took the turns

wide and gentle for the first two laps and "by the third lap, I started

taking 'em tight." Then he moved up behind Copeland.

More than the speed itself, Marks says, it was the thought process

he went through, the triumph of mind and calculation, that was thrilling

"I'm not a cocky person," he says. "I try to tell my kids that you

don't want to go through life showing off because the only way you can

show off is to have an audience, and when you have an audience then

you're more concerned with watching the audience than watching what

you're doing."

Likewise, "I don't think I'd want to carry the burden knowingly of

being a role model. That's not what I set out to do. There were a lot of

blacks down at the races, they were just totally happy because a brother

had won. And if I could create the image that -- not that I won the race

-- but that I busted my ass to get where I am, and they would be willing

to follow me along those lines, then I'm happy."

Of course, he isn't on top yet. Copeland is still national champion,

and Gentry holds the world cup.

Marks smiles.

"I think I have to prove that Atlantic City wasn't a fluke," he says

in his quiet way.

News & Events

A Promise Kept: The Al Copeland story Pt. 2

• Al Copeland Foundation
• December 10, 2021

By Nancy Parker Published: May. 16, 2019 at 10:11 PM CDT

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) – When you visit Al Copeland Jr.’s test kitchen, you know Al Sr. is still his motivation.

“This is him,” Copeland said pointing to a picture of his dad in surrounded by children. “My brother Chris, sister Ally, he’s teaching them how to fry chicken,” Al Copeland Jr. said.

Al Copeland Sr. was not just a father to his oldest son, he was a friend.

He worked side by side for 16 years with his father, and was best man at his last wedding.

Doctors diagnosed the Popeye’s founder with an aggressive form of skin cancer in October 2007. The fight was too much for him.

“Merkel Cell is a very very deadly cancer, it’s a very fast growing cancer. A nine month guaranteed terminal cancer. He only lived six,” the younger Copeland said.

Al Copeland battled the cancer with the strongest chemotherapy doctors could prescribe.

“He ended up in CCU and ICU and ended up being incubated for three weeks,” he said.

Chemo was the only option in 2008. The family traveled overseas for his treatment.

“We ended up going to Frankfurt to get treated and back to Munich to get stronger. He ended up dying in Munich unfortunately.”

Al Copeland died March 23, 2008. It was Easter Sunday.

The Chicken King’s life was over, but the search for a cure wasn’t. The Al Copeland Foundation was born.

“Right off, we didn’t take a breath. We went right at it. During that time of doing research we found doctors in Seattle were leading the charge in Merkel Cell and the University of Pittsburgh was the only place doing research on it. So I said we got to fund local, we have to get this local. That is when I hooked up with LSU Health Science Center,” he said.

The Al Copeland Foundation teamed up with LSU researchers in 2011. Scientists at the Stanley Scott Cancer Center have focused on the prevention and treatment of cancer for almost 30 years.

Dr. Augusto Ochoa is the director.

“At the time this program was open, the prognosis for Merkel Cell was dismal,” Ochoa said.

Copeland said first his foundation funded an endowed chair on Neuroendocrine Cancer.

“It’s a gland cancer that was more widespread than Merkel Cell. Doctor Ochoa was connected to the chair.”

Dr. Ochoa said there was a program on Immunotherapy being studied at LSU.

“But we never focused on Merkel Cell Carcinoma until the Copeland Foundation, Al and his sisters, came and said we made a promise to our father that we’d work to find a cure for this cancer,” Ochoa said.

Immunotherapy uses the immune system to fight cancer cells. The Immune System is vigilant in your body to find affected cells or abnormal cells. The doctor said abnormal cells have a stop sign, so the immune system says I’m not going to kill the cell it’s normal. Medicines called Check Point Inhibitors cover those stop signs and allow the Immune System to attack cancerous cells.

Copeland said he found out the Immunotherapy was having tremendous success with these types of cancers.

“That expanded us the opportunity to start clinical trials.”

The National Cancer Institute invited LSU to enroll patients in the Immunotherapy clinical trial in October 2016.

“Once we opened clinical trials, I knew we were rolling!” Copeland said. “We knew we had something good here.”

Ironically, the same month, LSU Medical School Professor Emeritus Dr. Alfonso Vargas was diagnosed with advanced stage Merkle Cell Carcinoma.

“They found tumors in my maxillary sinuses and in my throat,” he said.

He was thinking about how much time he may have left. Days or months.

“I knew people died. In Louisiana it was Al Copeland Sr.,” Vargas said.

Then, he heard from Dr. Ochoa about the clinical trial. He was eligible, and may have been the only shot he had to beat the cancer.

“Through HIPAA Laws, I had no idea who the patient was and the patient agreed for us to meet. When I met him I knew him, my mother knew him, and my daughter knew him!”

Dr. Vargas had treated one of Copeland’s daughters years ago.

Copeland was in the treatment room when Vargas received his second dose of medication. He prayed it would give Dr. Vargas more years with his wife, sons and grandchildren.

“He called me and said I just finished my first scan, three months later, and they can’t find the tumors,” Dr. Ochoa said smiling. “We were extremely pleased. Dr. Vargas is still tumor free.”

The FDA granted approval for this Check Point Inhibitor for Merkle Cell Carcinoma at the end of 2018.

“Today we have 13 trials open from Breast Cancer to Kidney Cancer to Bladder Cancer, Colon Cancer, and so forth. We have two patients cancer free from the bladder trial today. Now we have three patients saved from the clinical program,” Copeland said.

He said to be a part of saving a life is a lifetime achievement award.

“To save three lives and to be in position to save more lives, it’s incredible how that feels.”

If the treatments would have been available in 2008, his father could have possibly survived.

“To be able to deliver that promise to my dad is amazing. Our family feels like we’ve delivered something to him. We delivered the promise and I feel fulfilled about that.”

If you would like to learn more about the Al Copeland Foundation’s work visit their  website .

Original story

Copyright 2019 WVUE. All rights reserved.

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Cookbook looks back at dynamic Popeyes founder and his food

This photo provided by Foxglove Communications shows Al Copeland Jr. with his cookbook “Secrets of a Tastemaker: Al Copeland, The Cookbook.” (Sam Hanna/Foxglove Communications via AP)

FILE - Popeyes founder Al Copeland holds a piece of his fried chicken outside one of his 34 fast food outlets in New Orleans on June 20, 1979. A new book, “Secrets of a Tastemaker: Al Copeland, The Cookbook,” released last month, helped mark the 50th anniversary of Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - A chicken sandwich is displayed at a Popeyes fast food restaurant in Kyle, Texas, on Aug. 22, 2019. A new book, “Secrets of a Tastemaker: Al Copeland, The Cookbook,” released last month, helped mark the 50th anniversary of Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

This photo provided by Foxglove Communications shows posing . Al Copeland Jr. with his cookbook “Secrets of a Tastemaker: Al Copeland, The Cookbook.” Louisiana is known for delivering food with big, bold flavor. The same can be said for the founder of the Popeyes fried chicken empire who put spicy chicken, red beans and dirty rice on the map and whose story is outlined in a new book _ “Secrets of a Tastemaker: Al Copeland, The Cookbook.” Copeland’s son, Al Copeland Jr., said he and the book’s authors, Chris Rose and Kit Wohl, tried to capture the “real life and times of Al Copeland.” (Sam Hanna/Foxglove Communications via AP)

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana is known for delivering food with big, bold flavor. The same can be said for the founder of the Popeyes fried chicken empire, who put spicy chicken, red beans and dirty rice on the national map and whose story is outlined in a new book, “Secrets of a Tastemaker: Al Copeland, The Cookbook.”

Copeland’s son Al Copeland Jr. said he and authors Chris Rose and Kit Wohl tried to capture the “real life and times of Al Copeland” in the book released last month.

The elder Copeland, who died in 2008, made his mark in business with his restaurants , but was also known for philanthropic endeavors — including “Secret Santa” missions to thousands of children in metro New Orleans and the extravagant Christmas light display at his home. For a time, he even had a successful offshore powerboat racing career.

“Some people thought he was flashy and flamboyant, and he was,” his son said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But what they didn’t know was that everything that was his was yours — whether that was a Lamborghini or just welcoming you into his home. He was very much a man who enjoyed seeing people happy.”

Copeland built — and eventually lost — the Popeyes fried chicken empire. His first restaurant opened 50 years ago, in 1972, in the New Orleans suburb of Arabi. The “Love That Chicken” jingle, still used in commercials today, debuted in 1980.

The book recounts Copeland’s boldness in cooking, and includes recipes — though not those associated with Popeyes, his son said. Readers can get a glimpse, he said, into the kind of food Al Copeland used in Copeland’s, the casual dining restaurant chain venture he started in 1983.

The book includes dishes served at the Copeland family table, including corn and crab bisque, crawfish bread, ricochet catfish, crawfish eggplant au gratin, and pork tenderloin CP3, named for then-New Orleans Hornets star guard Chris Paul.

“What runs throughout the book ... is the story of the American dream,” Copeland Jr. said. “This book is about a guy who didn’t have much of anything, not much of an education and he was living in a world that wouldn’t give him much of a shot.”

By 1989, there were 700 Popeyes franchises in the United States and abroad, and Copeland leveraged those assets to buy the Church’s Fried Chicken chain. That move gave him control over 2,000 chicken restaurants. But the success was short-lived: A little more than two years later, the merged company had amassed more than $400 million in debt and, in 1991, Copeland filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for Al Copeland Enterprises.

In May 1992, the bankruptcy court awarded Copeland’s creditors total control of his chicken empire under a new name, America’s Favorite Chicken Company. Copeland did retain ownership of the Popeyes recipes and the manufacturing company that made the seasonings, according to the book.

“Although he was not operating Popeyes, the company could not operate — not even exist — without him,” the book reads. “That ruling reinforced Al’s longtime belief that he should always have a back door, an alternative plan for change.”

In 2017, Restaurant Brands International Inc. acquired Popeyes.

Liz Williams, founder of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans, said Copeland was known for being bold, in thought and business.

“He has done almost more than any other chef to get the city’s most authentic flavors to people everywhere,” she said. “I think of him as an ambassador for New Orleans ... because wherever there’s a Popeyes, then you have the chance to get a piece of New Orleans.”

The September book launch helped mark the 50th anniversary of Popeyes. Copeland Jr. said the fried chicken franchise was founded when he was 9 years old so he’s had a “chance to experience the whole ride from the poorer times to the exciting times.”

“This project is bringing back a lifetime of memories and it’s a way for my father’s legacy to live on,” he said.