Part 4: Interior desecrations

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Do you go to a diner in search of that “real 1950s experience”? If you went to a diner in 1955, do you honestly believe you would have found 45-rpm records hanging on the wall?

Please explain how an old gas pump effectively markets a restaurant. The clutter of hanging paper ornaments, 45-rpm records, and large window decals of burgers and sneakers only obscure the pristine interior of this 1950s O'Mahony.

Do you think a life-size cardboard cutout of James Dean or Betty Boop would have greeted you at the door? Do you believe that the owner who just invested the equivalent of $1 million in 1955 would take a brand-new epitome of restaurant style, durability, and efficiency and turn it into a museum for cheap ephemera?

	Here's the "real 1950s experience." The above photo shows a brand new 1950s Fodero diner soon after installation. Below, a new 1950s Kullman, also freshly placed in service. Note the absence of "stuff" in both places. In fact, most conspicuous in the Kullman are the array of desserts, something that makes far more money for the owners than any poster of Marilyn Monroe. (Both photos courtesy Richard J.S. Gutman and the Culinary Museum at Johnson & Wales University.)

Anyone with a copy of Richard Gutman’s American Diner Then and Now has a ready reference guide to what customers usually experienced in a diner during the 1950s. Visitors to his exhibit at the Johnson & Wales Culinary Archive in Rhode Island can see breathtaking 3-D slides of diner interiors taken right after construction. Photographs showing the interiors of some popular and mainstream operations in major metropolitan areas reveal that owners typically kept their diners mostly free of clutter, save for a few potted plants and maybe a poster advertising a local event. Given the degree of style and quality built into their hard-won, expensive restaurants, any serious owner would have considered it unprofessional to embellish the atmosphere with dust-gathering gewgaws.

It's regrettable to see operators take near-pristine vintage diners and make them more “fifties.” And when a diner requires more extensive restoration or renovation, it's vulnerable to all kinds of nightmares. It's not uncommon to see the broad applications of checkerboard patterns, loud colors, too many colors, glittery vinyl, and/or the use of neon as primary interior lighting.

Such excess, to put it bluntly, is not authentic. Color photos of diners taken soon after their construction show typically muted color schemes. In fact, common color schemes in the fifties combined coral with charcoal gray or made use of other conservative hues such as sea-foam green, maroon, blue, and mauve (not Pepto-Bismol pink). Tabletops complemented the upholstery, and in the latter half of 1950s, laminate surfaces with wood-grain patterns made their first appearances. In other words, the idea of “theme” in a diner is actually anathema to the whole concept. You wouldn’t replace the hood ornament of a Rolls Royce with a bowling trophy. You don’t pour ketchup on filet mignon. And you don’t plaster ephemera or gaudy decor on something as timeless as a real diner.

The point is this: If you really want to open up a 1950s-themed malt shoppe, complete with poodle-skirted waitresses and white-capped soda jerks and you want to display your collection of old radios and collection of golden oldies on seven-inch vinyl, you don’t need to wreck a diner to do it.

Owners and operators will often explain that they decorate the interior of their diner for their customers and to give the place atmosphere. But truly, nothing makes a better diner atmosphere than good food served by people proud of their work. Job satisfaction and quality product creates customer satisfaction.

Next: Renovation realities