America has a car culture. At the center is Michigan. We are forever cemented into car history. And there’s no better place to see this than at the Gilmore Car Museum. What started as a hobby soon turned into a mission. A mission now shared by hundreds of people. Ken Fischang shares that mission with us.
Show Notes:
Gilmore Car Museum Website
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Address:
6865 Hickory Road,
Hickory Corners, MI 49060
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Transcript:
Cliff Duvernois: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. And for today’s show, there probably isn’t a man on the planet, including yours, truly who hasn’t dreamed of owning a classic car, something that you take out on those really sunny days, you cruise around town, you got your radio plan, got the QD sitting next to you in the car. Well Michigan’s place in the automotive history.
It’s not surprising that a car museum was. Was created to showcase these beautiful classic cars. And that’s where today’s guest comes in. Ladies and gentlemen, please. Welcome to the show, the director of commercial operations for the Gilmore car museum, Ken . Ken, how are you?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:01:07] Great. Thank you, cliff. Thanks so much for having me on today.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:01:10] Excellent. So tell us a little bit about where you’re from.
Where did you grow up?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:01:15] Well, I’m originally from Amherst, Massachusetts, and, and then our family had a fairly primitive camp up on a Lake in New Hampshire. And so I spent summers there right up until I was 19. we did move to Indiana and went to school there and also went to Purdue university there. and that’s when I first fell in love.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:01:40] Really? What was it about pure Michigan that made you fall in love?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:01:45] Well, it’s, you know, if you’ve been down to the around Lafayette, Indiana, it’s pretty flat. We were used to mountains and the beauty of new England. And when we came up here, It really reminded us of Maine and in parts of New Hampshire with the rolling Hills, the crystal clear lakes, the ski resorts. and so we just pretty much fell in love with, you know, at a young, when I was at a young age, cause I was, loved to ski.
And so we’d bring the whole family up here and I have some wonderful, wonderful, memorable family trips and times and, and Michigan.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:02:23] Excellent. Now, where did you wind to going to college at.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:02:27] I went to Purdue university and double majored in restaurant, hotel management and foreign language. and it, you know, at the time, and today it’s still one of the top schools for restaurant hotel and institutional management.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:02:43] What was it about getting into the, you know, the restaurant hotel business that, that appealed to you?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:02:50] I started cooking when I was, probably around six, my mom didn’t like baking salads. So, I started with salads and graduated to meatloaf and, and just found that I had a real love for serving, serving and preparing meals, as well as a real love for, the whole hospitality industry. When I was, I think, 11 years old.
Our folks took me and my little brother on a trip across the country. And we were in San Francisco and we’d been staying in hotels and eating and great meals and going, seeing attractions and just having a wonderful time. And we were at fisherman’s Wharf at a restaurant called Alioto’s and. Very formal.
And I remember the tuxedo waiter coming over and said a little boy, would you like to see the, the children’s menu? And I said, no, I would like, I would prefer the adult menu please. And I kind of looked at my mom and I said, yeah. And she said, bring him what he wants. And so when I looked at the menu, And I, you know, looking out the window at the golden gate bridge and the sun sparkling off the water, and I thought, wow, this is really a cool thing.
And I ordered, abalone steak, and the waiter was mortified. He couldn’t believe that I was ordering something like that when he says, are you sure you don’t want a little boy, a hamburger or hot dog? I said, don’t sir, please bring me the abalone steak. I ate that it, it just, here I was this kind of precocious 10 or 11 year old.
And I remember turning to my folks and saying, when I grow up, I want to be in the hotel and restaurant business, and I’ve never looked back.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:04:25] So after, you know, you graduated from college, where, where did you wind up? where did you wind up working for? Where did you wind up going?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:04:32] Well, I actually started the cooperative education program at Purdue university in, consumer family sciences, which was the school of rock where the school of restaurant hotel management was. And I. Yeah. I had looked at Marriott Hilton and Hyatt, and I really felt that Hyatt was the most innovative with the, architecture of the hotels, plus with food and beverage.
And so my parents brought me up to Chicago and I interviewed to be the first student in this, Program where you worked a semester, went to school semester, worked this semester and, and they hired me. And so I had a wonderful time. I was able to test out of a lot of classes because of my work experience at the Hyatt Regency, Chicago. And it was such a good gig for me. My boss told me he wanted me to take a year off and be part of the food and beverage opening team for the new tower. So, that Hyatt went from being over a thousand rooms to over 2000 rooms. And, that was, a pretty incredible experience. And I still have many, many friends, to this day, from.
That I worked with there, or that I worked for with Hyatt. And so it was a great experience.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:05:47] Excellent. And now you have, so you’ve got your career at the Hyatt. You’re doing some really cool things. What was it that brought you back to Michigan?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:05:58] Well, I actually, my Hyatt, you know, I left, I worked at both the Hyatt, Regency Chicago in the Hyatt Lincolnwood and my GM and the Lincoln wood was John Pritzker of the Pritzker family that owns Hyatt. And he left to go open the Hyatt long beach and. called me up and said, I want you to be come out here and be part of my team.
And so I went to long beach and then he, John Pritzker left and went to San Francisco Embarcadero and he brought me up to that. and then I made the decision to actually. Leave Hyatt and go to ice, went to Palm Springs and worked for two of, as a director to the large resorts there and Poland, the desert conference center and the Palm Springs convention center from there went to the Pasadena convention and visitors Bureau as director of sales.
And then, from Pasadena ended up coming. Back to Michigan, and, as executive director of discover Kalamazoo, the destination marketing organization for Kalamazoo County. And then I was vice president of the chamber of commerce as well. It’s kind of a dual, dual role, and so fell in love with, back in love with pure Michigan all over again.
And, got to see some great friends like Dave Lorens with, Well, you’ve talked to recently as well, with travel Michigan and, and just fell in love with it. And, and, from there, cliff, I had an opportunity to go out and build another DIA destination marketing organization from the ground up in Sonoma County, California, and North of San Francisco in wine country.
And so I was there for 12 years. But we, the pull back to Michigan happened no eight, because we actually bought a second home here and people in California, as, you know, being, a former, California resident for what, 22 years, I think. Yeah. you know, people in California would look at us funny when I’d say, well, we’re going to me to Michigan for vacation or holiday.
And they, they couldn’t quite figure it out. But once people came to visit us, they realized, wow, this is really a special, special place.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:08:08] it really is. And my experience is being out there. You’re talking to people from different States. Michigan is one of those unique States where when people go on vacation, they go on vacation in Michigan. So when I was in. Southern California. For instance, someone talking about going on vacation, it was, they were heading to Arizona.
They were going to go to Las Vegas. Most people went to Hawaii. I myself, when I went on vacation, I either came back to Michigan to visit with friends and family, or I was on a plane to Europe. One of the two, I never went, I never went on vacation in California. And there’s probably a lot of beautiful places in California.
I just never saw during my time there. So I totally get what you’re saying.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:08:48] Yeah, and California has a lot to offer, but also, you know, I think you reach a point where, especially it has been so stressful for many of our friends that are still living there. due to the drought, the fires, the mudslides, you know, and all of that, has really wreaked havoc on the economy in many different areas there, especially in the fires.
you know, so I, you know, we, we love, love, love, love the time we spent in California, that Michigan was always. Just a wonderful retreat and a great place to come. We know we call Michigan our happy place.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:09:27] I kind of liked that. I think we should put that on t-shirt.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:09:31] Yes, it would probably be a big seller. the other happy place that I call is, is Gilmore car museum. And, it is just such. A community and state treasure, and treasure for this country. It is a spectacular place. And my love affair with cars started at a very early age. my first car was a 1959 Cadillac convertible that I risked from a barnyard and worked as a waiter to, earn enough money to slowly restore it to the point where, I was able to.
Take the grand Marshall of the Christmas parade, in the car, and proudly drove it down main street in Lafayette, on a very cold December, Indiana winter day. but the Gilmore is definitely, it’s just an amazing place. We have over 90 acres over 20 buildings. So during this pandemic, we are kind of the perfect spot.
To be able to socially distance because what is six feet, but the width of a car.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:10:40] Right.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:10:40] So, plus having all of the outside area, where we’ve had, we’ve been able to hold limited attendance, and limited our events and car shows, over since July. and we just, we have a, really, our last event of the season is happening tonight and that’s our weekly Wednesday cruise in where we have live bands and on the, our grill, which we call the grill mowers, open serving dues and burgers and, and Lincoln links and, and, our diner in 1941, diners open serving all made from scratch, authentic 1940s diner food.
and so all of that happened is happening tonight. And we’ve been able to, we’ve had a great group of car enthusiasts that are very respectful of the mass con outdoor areas and, and of course, mask on inside. so we’ve been able to actually, you know, after we were closed for 89 days, we’ve been able to get reopened.
An early June and it’s, it’s been a challenging year, but it’s been a good process, for us to go through. And we’re just delighted. And there’s a lot. We V we have new exhibits too. I should probably wait. You asked me a question. I’m just, I get excited when I talk about the Yanmar car museum.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:12:01] no, and I totally get your excitement because, you know, I’m, I just to take a quick step back. I love that show counting cars on TV and, you know, I, you know, I’m dreaming of the day where I can actually go out and buy my own classic car. So, You know, running across you guys out there, it’s just, you know, it’s awesome.
It’s great. Cause you know, I can see them all the question I got for you is how did you wind up getting involved with the Guild Gilmore car museum?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:12:28] and we moved back to Michigan permanently. we were lucky enough. We had found a really nice piece of property on a Lake and spent about a year or so designing a home. And so, you know, when you, when you sell a house in California, as you probably recall, it’s, it’s, ends up being a pretty good thing to move back to Michigan. And, so, the first thing I did because I fell in love with the museum back, in the, about gosh, probably I think it was 2002. And so first thing I did was go there and say, look, I want to be involved. So I started as a docent. And, worked as a docent and an event volunteer and car show volunteer and, for about a year and a half.
And we had a reorganization at the museum, because we’ve got such incredible growth happening, even during these challenging times. And so I was able, the irony cliff is they brought me in to, to build business and improve. All of the, revenues for the organization on March 9th and on March 15th, we closed 18 a base, but we work from home.
We came up with, we reinvented ourselves. We reinvented our car shows and events. We created drive in concerts. We were the first in Michigan to do a drive in concert. as part of our community comeback event, we did drive in high school graduations for those poor kids that missed sports. Miss their friends, miss prom.
We were, they were able to come, the Delton Kellogg school was able to come to the museum and have their drive and graduation safely. We even did drive in, we’ve done drive in Memorial services because many of the churches can’t hold them. and it was a, you know, a pretty emotional way for people to connect with each other.
so, and we’ve done, we did another concert on nine 11. Both of our driving concerts were sold out and we had a third Bob bluegrass concert that happened on September 19th. So we’re looking to do a series that’s kind of opened the door for us. cause we’re, you know, we know how to do car shows. We know how to do.
events and we have a ballroom at the Gilmore car museum where we do indoor and outdoor weddings. obviously now with limited capacity indoors. so the whole idea of being able to, safely have events and everything is event also a big accomplishment for our team, in our members this year.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:15:14] Sure. W let’s take a step back and talk to me a little bit about the history of the Gilmore car museum. When was it founded? Who founded it? Why were they crazy enough to do it?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:15:26] Well, it’s a great, it’s a great car. A story about car love. Donald Gilmore was the, chairman of the board at, well, it was up John now off within pharmacy and now Pfizer. And he retired in like 1861. And, he came and spent some time at home. And after a few months, his wife Genevieve decided that he really needed to have a hobby, to being so busy.
So she went and bought him a 1920 Pierce area, seven passenger touring car. And he set up a little tent in his driveway and had his friends come over and started learning how to restore this car and believe it or not, that car sits the car that started, it all sits in our pure sero museum on the campus. So he started in, he had this, this property, which had a farm house, a couple barns on it. and so then as his collection expanded. he built what is known as the carriage house on the campus, which is built like a red barn with a silo. And then the Knicks, he realized I’m running out of room. I’ve got to get another barn.
So he found, our Campania barn and it was on a spearmint farm out near Fen Ville, and they made, they supplied Wrigley’s chewing gum with spearmint. And so this is a big, beautiful four story, a barn that was used to, harvest and store spearmint. and he had, he bought the barn and paid to have it disassembled and labeled all the parts, like a giant erector set back in and built on the property.
And so at this point he had 57 cars, right around 1966. And once again, his wife Genevieve stepped in and she said, Don, Why don’t you open this up and share it with people, you know? you know, and so that’s the museum first opened for business in 1966. Now our chair of our board of trustees, Is the grandson of Don Gilmore and bill Parfitt.
And he has had this incredible vision for the property and the museum ever since. And it has grown and expanded. We now have seven partner museums there. You know, which include, Cadillac, LaSalle, Lincoln, Ford model, a Franklin, the first, air cooled engine, Pierce arrow museum and the classic car club of America museum and our new partner that’s moving in in a month and a half is the museum of the horseless carriage.
And that is cars from the brass era, the late 18 hundreds to about 1916.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:18:08] Nice. Nice. Oh my God. That sounds absolutely beautiful. And you said how, how big is, how big is the facility there?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:18:16] well, we have over 20 buildings, and it’s we have about overwhelmed, well, over 200,000 square feet. And actually the classic car club of American museum is under construction. Right now. They’re adding another 10,000 square feet. That’ll be completed in December, with their grand opening for the, the museum, in April.
Once they get all of their re redesigning, the whole facility and it’s one of our largest, partner museums as well. and then we have, like I said, 90 acres, some key anchor buildings around the property. I mean, the property is just beautifully landscaped. we do, we offer, a whole bunch of different types of services.
I mentioned we have a 1941, blue moon diner. That it was moved from Connecticut to here and it serves, it’s open right now through, through November 30th. And then we have a cafe that is inside the main heritage hall that will open, as of December 1st to, March 31st. So plus we have this beautiful 1930s shell gas station, that is a complete functioning gas station of the era.
and that’s a really cool photo op for car enthusiasts that come to the museum for any number of our car shows or events.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:19:33] Yeah, I get what you’re saying about the old style gas stations that show American pickers on there. They are all the time out there picking parts for these old gas stations. And it seems like a lot of car enthusiasts or even hobbyists are very interested in recreating these old style gas stations.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:19:51] Yeah, they are. And, and, the, we had one built on our campus. it is a shell station from. The early 20th century, and it’s fully functioning and kids can even jump up and down on the black tube to make the bell ring, you know, which would call the attendant out. And, and I, you know, it’s just a beautiful, beautiful, facility that is a really popular photo op for many of our car enthusiasts that come to our Wednesday night cruise ins or car show or a car club event at the museum as well.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:20:26] So how many cars do you have there onsite?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:20:28] We have about 400 that are out in all the different galleries and our galleries are actually, done primarily by decade. our main gallery features now a beautiful exhibit, legendary Packard from light bulbs, luxury automobiles. Now, in addition to all the different galleries that we have, including our.
50 sixties, thirties, forties muscle car. there is, we have what we call our, our, storage volts that are large red barns as well. And in there we have approximately 150 cars that we will use to rotate out through periodically through exhibits. So maybe you came to the museum two weeks ago and you come back and there’s going to be.
You know, when I walked around the facility today, there were, three new cars that were in, in several of the galleries that, just had been put in within the last few days.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:21:26] Sweet. So now I got to ask you this question and I’m going to put you on the spot. They’re walking up to you and they say, Ken, you can have any car. under the facility that you want, here’s the keys.
Which one would you take?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:21:39] Well, I guess I kind of feel nostalgic. we have a 1959 Cadillac limousine. That was the limousine for Upjohn that mr. Gilmore rode around in, when he was chairman of the board and president CEO. And I, we had it out on the property for a special event for America’s automotive trust. And I got to hop in it and drive it back to our storage barn.
And I got in that car cliff and I had this flashback of, you know, my first car and how it just felt. so familiar and so wonderful. And, and I’ve long been, I had, I’ve had several other 59 Cadillacs as well. so I, that car is really special and the history that it has, but I wouldn’t want to take it away from the museum, but, that was just a recent experience that came to mind.
And. you know, there’s, we’ve really focused on the story, the storytelling that the American car does, we do have a few foreign cars, in the classic car club of American museum. And then we have a couple of rolls Royces on display with our Duesenbergs. and there’s just so many really cool cars.
It’s, it’s hard to pick, but just my gut is that 59 Cadillac limousine.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:22:59] sorry. Okay. So you’ve got good taste. I’m okay with that. So let’s, let’s take a look away here for a second. So, let’s say somebody is going to be coming out. They want to check out, they want to check out the Gilmore car museum. They want to take a day and head on over there. What would be, what would be your top three recommendations for things for people to see when they come to your facility?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:23:21] Well, we, I can kind of run through like maybe our top five cars, are really pretty outstanding. we have a 1929, dual, Cal and Duesenberg, and. this is a car that, ELL chord and the Duesenberg brothers, partnered Fred and Augie, to create, right about 1928. And these cars were so fast.
they came with a 265 horsepower engine or 320 horsepower if they were supercharged and they were handmade. Incredibly expensive in 1929. this car cost $20,000, which at that time was the equal to 24 Ford model A’s and three or four American homes. So this car is definitely one of our top vehicles.
And then right across from it, we have a new. A car that was donated to the museum, a new, old car. It’s a Smithsonian worthy. It’s a 1902 Thomas and this car has spent most of its life on a small Island off the coast of Maine. So it only has no odometers in 1902, but it only has very few miles on it. it also is only one of two, 1902 thomas’ left in the world.
and it is the finest pre. 19. Oh five, unrestored all original car on the planet. it literally has all the only thing that’s been changed in this car since 1902 is the fluids and the tires.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:24:54] Nice.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:24:55] So then also half has to be in here at the top of the list is our Tucker, 1948 Tucker and waltz blue. It has the lowest mileage Tucker in existence with just 61 miles on it. And, Preston Tucker really, created a beautiful car. unfortunately he wasn’t able to make too many of them because the big three were felt pretty threatened by it. Pretty much put them out of business. but that’s a really special car and a lot of people come in just to see that car. another, we have a pretty spectacular, Columbia, most people don’t realize that electric cars were made in the early 19 hundreds.
and we have a five-pack, passenger touring, all electric, Colombia. That is just an outstanding representation. and that’s, from, 1906. And that car is going to be going to Amelia Island Concourse, coming up. And then another one of my favorites is we have in our main gallery, a special exhibit two Packards, and there’s, a 1908 Packard model, 30 runabout that Don and Genevieve Gilmore bought was one of the, another one of the first cars they bought, in the sixties.
And their good friend, Walt Disney, when he came out to the museum to visit, this is the car that, that Don drove him around yet. And we do have on the campus, the only movie set that Walt Disney ever let leave the studio, in our pedal car barn. And that’s the movie set from the no mobile, including the 1930 rolls rice from the movie So yeah, so those are few. You know, if you’re in the muscle cars in our muscle car gallery, we have a 1967 Shelby GT 500 prototype, and this car has an amazing story. It was, used in a correctional facilities training for mechanics and then junked and the gentlemen found it in a junkyard and spent 10 years restoring it.
This car is one of one. with Carol Shelby being dicks to Henry Ford, probably one of the most popular, well-known people affiliated with automobiles in the world.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:27:07] Yeah. And I think that movie that just recently came out within the past few years are really solidified his place in modern. People’s thinking so.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:27:15] versus Ferrari. Yep. And then another, you know, because the brass era is so important and those are the cars. From late 18 hundreds to 1916. we have a replica of the very first car in 1886 Benz. And the story about how Bertha Benz funded her husband, Carl Ben’s passion to build what he looked at as an alternative to pedaling a bicycle.
and the fact that, that, he built this car in 1886 and then couldn’t figure out how to market it. And, two years later, his wife Bertha loaded her two small sons into the front of this thing and took off on a trip without even telling Carl her husband across Germany, 66 mile trip. Now, remember.
There’s no gas stations. Nobody has seen this, this, this crazy thing, moving sputtering. And, you know, they thought it might be witchcraft or something. And, and so Bertha had to stop at apothecary shops to get fuel. And she, at one point used her hat pen to clear a fuel line, and she was pretty resourceful.
Used her garter belt to do another repair on the car. And so this is a great, great story, and it is all of our cars run in our functional, even the 1886 fence. And so, the other fun thing that we have, you know, and we’re looking forward to being able to do again, once we’re through this pandemic is we have a program called ride the classics at the museum where you can come and pick from about six or seven.
Classic cars from our collection that we’ll take you out for rides around the campus. We have over three miles of paved roads, on our historic campus. So that’s another really cool thing to be able to do.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:29:04] Wow. I bet you that’s insanely popular,
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:29:07] Well, not this year, we can’t do it, but yes, in past years, yes, it’s been a very popular thing for people to do. They get the biggest kick and we have everything from cars, from the twenties up to cars from the sixties that we put out.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:29:23] Oh, that’s, that’s totally awesome. And over the next, you know, a couple of months, talk to us a little bit about what, what kind of an exhibit, you know, what kind of exhibits do you have that are, that are going on? That people might be interested in taking a look at it?
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:29:35] Yeah, we have a new exhibit, that opened last month for the movie American graffiti. And the star of the movie was the 1958 Chevy Impala that Ron Howard drove in the movie. Now this was, this was a movie that put many actors that are, you know, became a list actors on, up on the screen for the first time. yeah. And George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola as George Lucas wrote. The story about growing up in 1962 in the town of Modesto, California. And he wanted to film it there, but they couldn’t, they couldn’t get all, everything they needed. So they actually went to Petaluma and Sonoma County, just North of San Francisco and filmed it there, but it was people like Harrison Ford, Suzanne’s summers, and just a slew of folks that were.
In this movie, Ron Howard, as I mentioned, and it really is a coming of age film. It’s probably one of the best car films ever made and they made it for well under a million dollars. It only costs 777,000. And, from that it’s one of the best grossing movies of all time. Plus George Lucas never would have gone on to make star Wars and Coppola would not have gone on to make Tucker or the
Cliff Duvernois: [00:30:55] Father.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:30:57] so it really was a significant piece of film. And so we have, a whole exhibit you’ll walk in and you’ll hear the jukebox playing songs or 1962 with the diner table. And. And then you also have, of course the, the 58 Chevy Impala customized that Ron Howard drove in the movie as well as several other cars that are, ed soul, 56 T-Bird, Mildred, clone hoop, and then some hot rods too, that were part of that whole era, of the late fifties and early sixties.
So that’s a fun exhibit. Now in our Ford model, a museum, we have a new exhibit of model, a first responders. So you’ll go in there, you’ll see an ambulance, you’ll see
Cliff Duvernois: [00:31:42] That is so cool.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:31:43] firetruck, a Patty wagon and police car. as well as every model a, possible in the Cadillac LaSalle museum, we have a new exhibit that just opened last week called early Eldorados.
So it’s. Beautiful. Eldorados from starting with the first Eldorado in 1953, right through 1958. as well as we have some more modern Eldorados from, 1970, 1976 and 1978. As well in that, in that facility. and we do have a special exhibit in our carriage house, that will be here for the month of November.
That’s called women who motor and it celebrates famous women. That have been drivers of cars, designers of cars, cars that were designed for women and some early automotive pioneers. And there were women in the automotive industry. so that there’s quite a bit to be able to come in and see and connect with.
And, we are, we do have plans to, we’re looking at building a new muscle car museum. as well as, obviously I mentioned the museum of the horse was carriage will be coming in a couple of years. They’re going to move into our steam barn, for the next couple of years. And, yeah, so there’s a lot to come and see and, and celebrate at, the North America’s largest car museum.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:33:07] That’s awesome. And if, if anybody’s listening to this episode, they want to connect with you or, you know, learn more about the museum, maybe even stop by to visit, what would be the best way for them to do that.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:33:18] Well, we, you can go to Gilmore car, museum.org. and you can get a list of, you know, you’ll get all the information on there. Also, you can connect with us on Facebook and Instagram, as well. We have a pretty strong social media reach and. and you know, that’s one good thing, but obviously, you know, pick up the phone and call us and ask us questions.
We have, you know, we have a full research library on, on the, on the campus, as well as about 180 dedicated volunteers.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:33:54] Sweet and for our audience, we will make sure to have those links in the show notes down below Ken. It’s been great having you on the show today. Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to talk with us.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:34:05] Well, cliff, my pleasure. And I, once again, you’re going to get a great tour. might be able to talk more about it after you come out. And I give you my, special VIP tour.
Cliff Duvernois: [00:34:19] Actually I’m, I’m, I’m really looking forward to that. And I want to make sure that, that’ll give you guys a lot of love online too, so, we’re definitely gonna make that happen. So thanks again.
Ken Fischang, Gilmore Car Museum: [00:34:27] Well, thank you, Cliff. It’s been a pleasure.