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The American Diner Museum: A RoadsideOnline investigative report
The American Diner Museum incorporated in 1996 with the mission to "to celebrate the culture and preserve the colorful history of this unique American institution."
In that time, it has amassed an amazing collection of artifacts while it has alienated just about every diner operator, industry player, and preservationist that has made its acquaintance.
How has its founder Daniel Zilka, become the pariah of the diner preservation community?
Below you will find reports from the investigation we began back in 2003, just before the American Diner Museum opted to make itself a private entity, ending its membership program that brought with it considerable money, energy, and talent into the organization.
This is an ongoing investigation.
Hope runs out: The American Diner Museum unloads its follies
- Created on Friday, 08 July 2011 12:00
- Published on Friday, 08 July 2011 12:00
Diner Museum diner blowout sale underway!
As regular readers know, this website has for the past ten years kept a close, critical eye upon the doings of the American Diner Museum and its founder and sometimes director, Daniel Zilka. We last reported in depth back in 2005 after the then-public organization staged its last known members meeting, where Mr. Zilka issued a manifesto in response to our on-going investigations. Since that time, Mr. Zilka has seen fit to privatize his "museum," eliminating any pretense of transparency, and has largely conducted his business out of the public eye. This despite the fact that the museum's members went to great strides donating time, money, and energy building up something they truly believed in.
Apparently, this public closure took place sometime in 2004, not long after the museum's then-vice-president Quentin Sanford invited this reporter to the next scheduled meeting. The intent of the invite was to dispel concerns that the ADM was operating as a private club without public accountability. It is now seven years since that invite but we've heard nothing since. Presumably the meeting came and went. In records obtained by RoadsideOnline, we discerned that the agenda of this meeting must have included a bylaw change that put an end to outside membership (and invites to unwanted journalists.)
Read more: Hope runs out: The American Diner Museum unloads its follies