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.

At the moment John Wayne is pretty huge, though, especially in Orange County. I heard last year he was the top licensed product in the United States. I think that’s because when he first died they didn’t put out much merchandise, but now they’re putting more out there.

What’s so special about the ’50s for you?

All this happened by accident. I don’t know, I was born in ’59 . When I was a kid I played in a band and we played ’50s music. I guess my thing is Elvis. I was always a big Elvis fan all my life.

OK. Elvis vs. Michael Jackson. Discuss.

(Laughs). Oh man, I’m such a huge Elvis fan I hate to compare them, but I did grow up as a Michael Jackson fan. I’m about the same age as Michael Jackson. I was never that much into pop music, but, especially after “Thriller,” he was indisputably the King of Pop. But I’m still 100% Elvis was the best ever.

I also really believe the public pushed both of them into their lifestyles where they had to change with all the paparazzi and they didn’t have normal lives.

OK, you’re Arnold at the “Happy Days” drive-in and you could have anyone over for a private party. Who would it be?

Elvis definitely. I would love to have a party and just hang with him, maybe have a sing-along. And Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. That would be the coolest party.

What’s the greatest ’50s song?

As I said I love everything Elvis, but I’d have to say “Johnny B. Goode.”

Why does the ’50s era endure as a cultural force?

It was a good time, and there was good, clean fun. I always ask customers why “I Love Lucy?” And they say it was the cleanest thing on TV. It was just good, clean entertainment. Whether it was “I Love Lucy” or “Leave it to Beaver.” You don’t get that in today’s market anymore.

I remember when I started out people would say it would die in two years.

And I’d say, “But you don’t understand. It’s the younger generation pushing this. Their parents get them interested with the music and movies and TV.”

Nifty 50’s

Where: Orange County Fair and at Westfield Main Place Mall, 2800 N. Main St., Santa Ana.

Information: (714) 998-8118 or [email protected]

Visit: Lucytreasures.com