American Diner Book

“One nice thing about a diner is that you don’t have to tell anyone-no American at least-what it is. To any person who has been raised in our culture, the diner is something totally familiar, as comfortable as the language we speak or the everyday food that we eat. Anyone who shares American values and American ways of doing things, anyone who can cope with a gas station or operate a gumball machine, can function here. The assumptions, the atmosphere, the protocols, even the words that are said, are all known.”

Richard J.S.Gutman 1979

All of these vintage images printed in the late 70’s are available from the Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, California. www.josephbellows.com