Couple Had Inflated Expectation

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Danny and Bambi Bremgartner once had to blow up 1,000 balloons for a drop on the Dr. Phil show after getting a 9 p.m. call for a 5 a.m. show.

The couple stayed up all night to fill the order.

That’s what they do for a living. The Bremgartners advertise themselves as certified “balloon artists” and they run a company called Aah-Inspiring Balloons out of their Long Beach home. In recent years, they’ve become balloon artists to the stars, as their inflated plastic sculptures have appeared in more than 130 movies and TV shows including the 2008 Academy Awards.

“Who’d have thought you could make money doing balloons?” asks Bambi Bremgartner, 53.

The idea took root in 1995 after Danny, now 64, retired after a restructuring at Southern California Edison Co., where he’d worked for 26 years. Looking around for something to do, the husband-and-wife team attended an entrepreneurship show at the Long Beach Convention Center and heard an exhibitor talking about balloons.

“We thought a while and decided to go for it,” Danny recalled.

Beginning with orders from co-workers at the mortgage office where Bambi worked as a loan closer, the couple soon progressed to providing decorations for company parties. Assignments from other corporations ensued until Bambi finally quit her day job to do balloon work full time.

The Bremgartners broke into show business nine years ago when their niece married an actor in the “Ally McBeal” show. Aah-Inspiring Balloons did the wedding, a director attended and – pop! – they were in.

Since then, the company has supplied balloon sculptures to shows such as “Friends, “The West Wing,” “Desperate Housewives,” and movies such as “Legally Blonde II” and “Fat Albert.” They also got the balloon orders for the 2008 Oscar ceremonies – one of their bouquets graced the stage during a scene from “Enchanted.”

The process always begins with sketches of the intended designs, ranging from simple arches to models of Elvis. The couple then creates aluminum frames to which they shape and attach balloons of various sizes and colors, and inflated with air, nitrogen or helium. The balloon sculptures have sold for prices ranging from $100 for four bouquets to as much as $21,000 for 50 12-foot-tall columns. Revenue is about $200,000 a year.

“It’s a lot of work and you get your fingers sore,” Danny admits, “but it’s just so much fun.”

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