Mid-November in Los Angeles is, often, when you get those incredibly clear days - the deep blue skies and warm, relentless sun, and a light breeze. And you get long shadows by mid-afternoon. The sun is low in the sky. Winter is on the way, the kind we have out here. It may be eighty a few hours after noon, but Orion will work his way up over the Hollywood Sign after midnight, and night is desert cold.

You can see why the movie industry ended up here. The light is good. It's better than good.

The shadows here are on the frieze detailing of the Sunset Tower Hotel, the Zigzag Moderne icon smack in the middle of the Sunset Strip (8358 Sunset Boulevard) - 1929, architect Leland A. Bryant. It's very famous, in a good number of films, and once home to Howard Hughes, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Zasu Pitts, and that famous gangster with the great name, Bugsy Siegel. It seems everyone lived there. The link will tell you more.

I've photographed this building before, as in these recent long shots. Earlier, less polished shots were posted here and here. There may be more. At night the thing is floodlighted and looks like a wedding cake. Photographing that will be a challenge - all evening the Strip is jammed with club goers and kids from all over cruising in their cars, with police everywhere. Walking down with the camera bag and tripod and setting up would be a asking for trouble. This is the "winter series."

In any event, these images provide a sense of how the world was in Hollywood's Golden Age, just before the market crash and the Depression. The world was full of wonder. Then it wasn't.

They never expected this. After extensive research regarding what business owners wanted in a new truck, Chevrolet's designers come up with the new Advanced Design Era truck - and it debuted in 1950. The now completely welded cab was eight inches wider and seven inches longer than before - and this offered their first three-man seat that was fully adjustable. The windows and doors got bigger and there was another new feature - a fresh-air heater/defroster system that brought fresh outside air into the cab and forced used air out through vents at the rear of the cab. Yep, it was modern. And when they came out in 1950 they came with a the 216.5 cubic-inch six that put out 92 horsepower at 3,400 rpm and 176 ft-lbs of torque at 1,500 rpm - not bad for the time. They made these trucks through 1955 and they remained on sale until March 25, 1955, when all-new V-8 pickups were announced. And then they were gone.

But the "hot rod" crowd still loves the Advanced Design Era truck - this is a 1953 3100 pickup, for sale on Sunset Boulevard, late afternoon, Tuesday, November 14, 2006. Chevrolet pickups were number one in sales during every year of the Advance Design Era, and this 1950 3100-series Chevy pickup is one of the most desirable models from that era. But a '53 will do.

This one has been done up in fine style.