Checking in with Nifty 50’s:

On my way out of the sneak preview of the Orange County Fair last week I saw a booth selling T-shirts, mugs, posters and all sorts of other merchandise emblazoned with the images of pop culture icons like John Wayne, Lucille Ball, the Beatles and one of my favorite movie stars, Marilyn Monroe. I just had to find out more. So this week we check in with Mark Anthony DeNigris, the owner of Nifty 50’s, which has a booth at the Orange County Fair.

Tell us how you started the business.

I started with Nifty 50’s as a restaurant in Anaheim Hills in 1989. I went with the ’50s theme because when I bought it the restaurant, which had been a Neal’s cookies and Muffins, already had a soda-fountain-pink-float look to it. So I thought to myself, ‘I’ll keep the pink there and call it Nifty 50’s.”

Then I started putting up portraits of Marilyn, Elvis, James Dean, Lucy and my customers just started begging to buy them. At first I said no, but there were so many requests I decided I’d just sell them and replace them. So I’d come down to the Orange County Marketplace to buy replacements. After a while I saw the volume just increase. I thought, ‘I should get cups, mugs, collector dolls, plates.’ And people bought those up just as quickly.

Then I started keeping a mailing list for those customers and when I came across what they wanted I’d get it for them. And it grew from there. It was crazy.

At one point an Orange County Marketplace vendor came in and said, “You should sell your merchandise at the Marketplace.” I wasn’t too eager to do it, but I figured why not. I could share a booth. After the first weekend I sold every piece and then I started going out regularly every weekend to the marketplace. What was nice is it was low overhead and I’d see 50,000 people every weekend.

It made me think, “Why work 18 hours a day, seven days a week when you can work two days a week?”

I shut down the restaurant in 1996 and went full-time with the Orange County Marketplace and the Orange County Fair.

Which ’50s icon moves the most product?

This business is completely built on “I Love Lucy.” She sells to every age group. I think it’s because she’s still on TV.

Lucy outsells everyone 10 to one . Everyone assumes Betty Boop or Elvis are up there, but not as much. And they just want Lucy. They make stuff with Lucy and Ricky, but they just want Lucy.