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(From the Kingsport, TN News 25 August 1967)
'Just Lark,' He Says
CHICAGO (CST) - To hear
Steve Crane tell the tale, it
was all a lark. With his
fortune made as a stockbroker
at the age of 23, he set out
for the Orient. A detour in
the form of romance ("she
was a cute French actress
who threw me over in three
months for someone else") led
him to Hollywood instead.
Nowadays, as top man in
the restaurant management
firm of Stephen Crane
Associates, he isn't too
sensitive over being better
remembered for his two well
publicized marriages to Lana
Turner than for his short
acting career.
'To be honest, I was a
very poor actor," said the
still-handsome-at-50 Crane in
a recent interview. And,
indeed, "The Cry of the
Werewolf" and "Tonight and
Every Night" won him no
prizes at Columbia Studios.
Today, Crane is the
dispenser of the management
magic behind such enterprises
as the Sheraton-Chicago's Kon
Tiki Ports Restaurant. The
Kon Tiki, which was five years
Old Aug. 6, has become
Chicago's' largest restaurant
in volume, grossing more than
$2,300,000 in 1966.
He operates seven
Polynesian restaurants for the
Sheraton chain. He owns four
more restaurants himself and
expects to make that six by
the end of the year.
"I always get pleasure out
of being a host," said Crane,
as he explained his move into
restaurant management. He
got started when he picked
up Lucy's, a restaurant across
from three major studios in
Hollywood, in 1944.
Later, he learned the
Polynesian business from the
master himself, Don Beach,
who founded the Don the
Beachcomber empire.
(Another early disciple of
Texas-born Beach was Vic
Bergeron, of Trader Vic
fame.)
For the .Sheraton chain,
Crane delivered "a complete
management package." This
includes selection of decor and
management, of the food,
service and business
operations of the restaurant,
For this, Stephen Crane
Associates receives a
percentage of the gross.
Crane .believes the
Polynesian theme, successful
as it still is, has reached
a plateau; and he has chosen
to see whether Italian cuisine
can become the golden wave
of the future.
(At the same time, Trader
Vic has arrived at a .similar
conclusion, but is going to
try Mexican cuisine instead
in his new restaurants.)
Though Italian food has long
been a favorite of many
Americans whose antecedents
are not in Italy, Crane thinks
very little has been done to
make the so-called Italian
restaurants "Italian.""Take the average Italian
restaurant and put pictures
of Scandinavian scenes on the
walls and everyone would
believe it was Scandinavian,"
said Crane. His Stephanino's,
Hollywood, has been an
attempt to achieve genuine
Italian decor, and he is
enthusiastic about opening
similar restaurants elsewhere.
Crane's other projects range
from directing the
construction and operation of
the Jamaican Pavilion at
Expo 67 to assisting the
Southern California Edison Co.
in building Calabassas, a new
city near Thousand Oaks and
Universal City.
His firm has grown steadily,
rising last year to 159th on
he list of food service firms,
with revenues of $12,500,000. •
The son of a Crawfordsville,
Ind., tobacco broker, Crane
originally planned to study
aw, and came to Chicago in
1937 with a partial scholarship
to Northwestern University.
But the need for money led
him into the securities'
Business here and in New
York and to his subsequent
"retirement" at 23.
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