Lum's was an American

family restaurant Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...

chain based in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

with additional locations in several states. It was founded in 1956 in Miami Beach, Florida, by Stuart and Clifford S. Perlman when they purchased Lum's hot dog stand for $10,000. Over the next few years, the Perlman brothers opened three additional Lum's restaurants, for a total of four by 1961. Clifford Perlman, in addition to owning Lum's, had been serving as the president of Southern Wood Industries, Inc., resigned that position to work full-time for Lum's. Under the brothers, Lum's began aggressively expanding and franchising; the signature item was

hot dogs A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a f ...

steamed in

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

. In 1969, Lum's, Inc., was admitted to the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

. Lum's, Inc., purchased Caesars Palace for $60 million in 1969. At that time, Caesars was a 500-room hotel-casino on the

Las Vegas strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city ...

. The food operations of Lum's, Inc., were sold in 1971 to John Y. Brown, then chairman of Kentucky Fried Chicken, along with a group of investors. At the time of sale, the company owned and franchised 400 stores in the continental US, Hawaii,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

, and Europe. Brown sought to improve the menu, and searched America for "the perfect hamburger". In 1971, Brown bought Ollie Gleichenhaus's "Ollie Burger" recipe for $1 million (), along with stock in the new company and a ten-year contract for $50,000 a year to appear as the official spokesperson of the Ollieburger on behalf of Lum's. In 1978, Wienerwald Holdings, A.G., a Swiss holding company and parent of the Wienerwald restaurant chain, under the direction of Friedrich Jahn, purchased the 273

restaurant chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...

from Brown. Wienerwald had overextended itself and was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1982. Two Jahn-controlled Lum's franchises were also forced to close all of their 70 Lum's locations and file for bankruptcy. The original Lum's location closed in 1983. For a time, there was only one Lum's operating, in Bellevue, Nebraska. In 2010 a Lum's opened in

Seekonk, Massachusetts Seekonk is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Massachusetts border with Rhode Island. It was incorporated in 1812 from the western half of Rehoboth. The population was 15,531 at the 2020 census. Until 1862, the town o ...

, but later closed, leaving the Nebraska restaurant as the sole location. The Bellevue location closed on May 28, 2017. The Miami Beach location was still open around 1998. For a time in the 1970s, the company's commercial spokesman was Milton Berle. Lum's makes a cameo appearance in Martin Scorsese's 2019 film ''

The Irishman ''The Irishman'' (subtitled onscreen as ''I Heard You Paint Houses'') is a 2019 American epic gangster film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese and written by Steven Zaillian, based on the 2004 nonfiction book ''I Heard You Paint Hou ...

''.

References

External links

Lum's TV Commercial with Milton BerleThe Daily Meal
11 biggest failed restaurant chains: Lum's {{coord missing, Florida Restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants in Miami Defunct restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 1956 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1982 1956 establishments in Florida Restaurants disestablished in 2017 2017 disestablishments in Nebraska

See also

References

External links