Irving Shulman

Irving Shulman was a great showman

Off-price clothing chain Daffy's will be a bit less "daffy" with the passing of the man who gave the chain its name, Irving Shulman. Shulman, who died Friday at the age of 96, was a merchant clown prince who knew that to sell merchandise you first had to draw a crowd.

After he opened his first Daffy Dan's Bargain Town in Elizabeth in 1961, he combined showmanship with salesmanship to promote his store. He attached a giant U.S. Navy balloon to the roof. Newark Airport complained that it was interfering with flights, but it got shoppers in the door. He placed a mannequin on the roof, poised as if about to jump, and the crowds came  until the police shut down that stunt. In 1964 he advertised "topless bathing suits" to merchandize a seemingly worthless shipment of bathing suit bottoms. And to emphasize that you can always get it for less at Daffy's, he sold silver dollars for 88 cents.

"I had a lot of fun at that store," Shulman said in a 2005 Record interview. He used to "lie awake at night trying to think of ways to get free publicity," he said, and he kept on doing that almost until he died. The chain got a plug on the mob series "The Sopranos," and a contestant on "The Apprentice" said his jacket was from Daffy's.

In 2005, Shulman helped his daughter, and corporate successor, Marcia Wilson, launch a $500,000 ad campaign featuring a trio of stylish mannequins, and he planned to pose them in surprise locations around New York City and surrounding suburbs.

The original Daffy Dan's in Elizabeth evolved into a chain with an emphasis on off-price designer clothing. The company has 17 stores in three states, a warehouse and corporate headquarters in Secaucus, and a buying office in Florence, Italy. It plans to open two stores this year, in Times Square and in the Bronx.

Born in Russia, Shulman came to the United States at age 6. He grew up in Rahway, where he sold clothes door to door after school. After serving in the Army in World War II, he and his brother opened a store in Hoboken in 1946. The store was named Mickey Finn's for the "knock-out" bargains it carried.

For his Daffy Dan's Bargain Town store in Elizabeth, Shulman would spend the first part of the week hunting for bargains in New York's garment district, and then sell his finds on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. "He was basically a one-man show," his daughter said in a statement. "On weekends and during school vacations he would bring my brothers and me to work, sharing his love of the business."

The company shortened its name to Daffy's and began to expand in the 1980s. Marcia Wilson became president in the 1980s and led the company her father founded into the 21st century. Daffy's this month hired its first outside chief executive officer, Caryn Lerner, to succeed Wilson, who now is the company's chairwoman. Lerner was brought on to further expand the chain.

Even after Shulman handed over the day-to-day operations to his daughter, he continued to be involved in the business. On the way home to his Upper East Side residence, he would stop at one of Daffy's Manhattan stores and work the sales floor, where he would brag about the "big sales" he rang up, a company representative said.

In 2006, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO), which honors contributions made by immigrants to America. He was married for 58 years to Shirley Weinstock, who died in 2000. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by two sons, Dr. Robert Shulman of Houston, and Michael Shulman of Austin, Texas; eight grandchildren grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

E-mail: verdon@northjersey.com