A New Name For An Old Favorite
Stanley Zimmerman Remembered & Honored
The Automobile Driving Museum (ADM) in Los Angeles was created and opened by automobile collector and enthusiast Stanley Zimmerman in 2003. Henceforth, the museum's updated name will reflect the late Mr. Zimmerman's important role in its history and future.
By Doug Stokes
Fri, Aug 13, 2021 12:37 PM PST
Featured image from newly renamed "The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum"
Back in 2003, a new car museum named The Automobile Driving Museum (ADM) was opened in Los Angeles by automobile collector and enthusiast Stanley Zimmerman. He explained the "Driving"-part of the place’s name saying that the museum was dedicated to the importance of touching, sitting in, and actually riding in the cars. The idea was quite novel and quite engaging.
By 2014, visitors to the Automobile Driving Museum recognized that almost everything was wrong. Stanley’s original concept had been strangled by ropes and neglect. Tom Fehn was appointed Director of Preservation in late 2014 and for the next five years he and his staff worked on making the original concept viable.
Today, Zimmerman’s wonderful concept is alive and thriving. The ADM is the only tactile and participatory car museum in the world - its existence has changed the mix of information available to collector car followers.
This year, on the one-year anniversary of Zimmerman’s death and the 89th anniversary of his birth, the ADM Board of Directors reflected on and considered his importance in the foundation and development - and his financial support - of the museum and it’s unique tactile concept. The Board decided that this should be publicly recognized and so, accordingly, on August 12th declared that the ADM shall henceforth be known as "The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum".
It looks like we're going to end up calling this other favorite L.A. auto museum by a "real" name (as we do with The Petersen) - soon we’ll all be saying "See you at the Zimmerman!"...
About The Author
Doug has a long and wide-ranging history in the motoring business. He served five years as the Executive Director of the International Kart Federation, and was the PR guy for the Mickey Thompson's Off-Road Championship Gran Prix. He worked racing PR for both Honda and Suzuki and was a senior PR person on the first Los Angeles (Vintage) Grand Prix. He was also the first PR Manager for Perris Auto Speedway, and spent over 20 years as the VP of Communications at Irwindale Speedway. Stokes is the recipient of the American Autowriters and Broadcaster’s 2005 Chapman Award for Excellence in Public Relations and was honored in 2015 by the Motor Press Guild with their Dean Batchelor Lifetime Achievement Award. “… I’ve also been reviewing automobiles and books for over 20 years, and really enjoy my LA Car assignments.” he added.
