When Harry, an aspiring actor at the time, met future wife
Marilyn Lewis, he
confessed to her that he had two goals: to play Hamlet and to start a restaurant called Hamburger Hamlet as a hangout for the
stars. They spent their first date looking for a location. A few days
later she found the perfect spot for the original Hamlet on the Sunset
Strip in Hollywood. Neither could cook, but they opened their first
Hamburger Hamlet in October of 1950 with their savings of $3500. By the
mid-'80s, there were more than a dozen Hamlets, one in nearly every
part of Los Angeles. They sold the chain in 1997 for $33 million.