Published September 14, 2025 | Updated June 2, 2026

The southwest corner of 12th and Jackson Street in the Old Market is the home to one of the district’s iconic businesses: Hollywood Candy. The site on which it sits is steeped in history. It is where William and Rachel Snowden built the city’s first home as well as the St. Nicholas Hotel. Also known as the Claim House, it was the city’s first.

The building at 1209 Jackson Street that currently stands on the site was built in 1904 and later rebuilt due to a fire. Its builder, Fairmont Creamery, was founded in Fairmont, Nebraska in 1884 and became a pioneer in the milk industry as it was one of the first to give farmers their own hand cream-separators and to offer milk can pickup.

The business grew rapidly and 20 years later relocated to Omaha. It changed its name to Fairmont Foods in 1948 and expanded its product line to include frozen foods, cheese, and poultry. The company was, at one time, a part of the Fortune 500 (one of the 500 largest companies in the country). The Omaha facility was shut down in 1982 after the company moved to Houston, Texas in 1975.

The property was purchased by Patrick Venditte in 1996. That year it operated as a haunted house called The Asylum in which visitors had to escape through a maze of scary rooms. Actors of the Omaha Theater Company for Young People played the “insane” inmates that haunted the building. The basement of the building continued to operate as a haunted house, including the Carnival of Terror and currently the Dungeon of the Damned.

Around 2002, Bernie Venditte turned it into the Fairmont Antique Mall & Mercantile. The antique mall sold everything from jewelry to mid-century furniture from dozens of vendors. In 2009, he and his partner Ray Swiercek, both retired police officers, retired from the business.

Entrepreneur Larry Richling, who founded the Keystone Group and owned Hollywood Diner in addition to many other businesses, bought the building with the intent to turn it into office space. He pivoted and instead opened Fairmont Antique & Mercantile, Omaha’s Ultimate Store (FAMOUS). Among those businesses was Hollywood Candy, which he opened in 2007 at 501 S. 13th Street. He relocated the business to this larger building, which also served as the offices for his Keystone Group. The new endeavor was designed as a nostalgia center and tourist attraction that supplemented the antique mall by adding a candy store, casual restaurant, movie theater, and later an arcade.

He acquired the soda fountain from Cris’ Rexall Drug at 50th and Dodge Streets and vinyl stools from Tiner’s Drive-in, a popular 1960s teen hangout. Other repurposed items included benches from Ranch Bowl, a ten-cent-per-ride mechanical horse from Phillips Department Store, a 1931 popcorn truck with a peanut grinder, a pink Cadillac, a 1970s-era telephone booth, life-sized plastic statues of the Blues Brothers, and the marquee from the Cinema Center movie theater.

The deck on the east side of the building was constructed to allow customers to walk up to a takeout window and order White Castle burgers or Nathan’s hot dogs, or to rent multi-seated, four-wheeled bicycles. He also added a small movie theater where classic movies were played.

Larry also used the building to display his PEZ dispenser collection, which was considered to be one of the largest and most valuable in the world. He owned nearly everyone produced and distributed nationwide as well as several others that were never released to consumers. He even went so far as to contract with a company to produce 25,000 special-edition Husker PEZ dispensers that were only available at Hollywood Candy.

Due to the success of the downtown store, he opened two more: one in Oak View Mall and another in Westroads Mall. He even considered further expansion before closing the mall stores by 2010. Even after his Hollywood Diners closed, the original store continued to thrive.

The store has seen its share of famous customers, including Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. Following the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in 2018, Bill Gates filmed an episode of his video blog alongside Warren Buffett. Musician Jack White of the White Stripes even performed a secret solo show here in 2012.

Larry sold the store around 2021 in order to retire, at which point he sold his massive film memorabilia collection at auction. He was quoted as saying, “I just don’t want to see it all become irrelevant again.” He passed away just a year later.

Its new owners were partners Aaron Wojtkiewicz, Jim Kristl, and Bob and Heather Czerwinski, who also own the nearby Downtown Omaha Oasis. Rumors persisted that the store would close, prompting Kristl to respond that they would never let an iconic store like Hollywood Candy close. They set out to improve it by reviving the dining area, named Hollywood Diner, and added boozy milkshakes and slushies alongside its food offerings, which include burgers, hot dogs, chicken strips, Orsi’s pizza, and more.

In 2025, the Omaha Choice Awards named Hollywood Candy the Best Candy/Sweets Store. Building on its longevity and popularity, the store will expand yet again, this time to Eppley Airfield after it finishes its expansion.

The Snowdens couldn’t have imagined what this site would become, be it a pioneer creamery or a combination candy store, antique store, ice cream parlor, theater, and arcade. We can thank Richling for the unusual about-face.

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More pictures

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• https://history.nebraska.gov/fairmont-foods-company/
• https://www.kfrxfm.com/hollywood-candy-gets-a-second-chance/