The Utilitarian Transformed
Topic: Oddities
The Utilitarian Transformed
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.
Huh?
Topic: Oddities
They must be friends… 
It's 1958 in Hollywood
Topic: Oddities
Just off Sunset Boulevard, parked next to the Directors Guild - this seems to be a 1958 Rambler American in original condition. The paint is new but the color scheme is correct. American Motors Corporation (AMC) made Ramblers from 1958 and 1969. The American was their second try - a Rambler compact had been sold under the Nash and Hudson Motors name in 1954 and 1955. But this was all new for 1958, or at least the body style was. They produced this for two years before making something bigger and far different as a Rambler American. You can credit this first generation to the company president, George W. Romney, and the Eisenhower Recession of 1958. People suddenly wanted smaller cars, or so the thinking went. It was available only as a two-door sedan 1958, but they moved 30,640 of them. In 1959 they sold 91,491 units, having added a two-door station wagon. In 1960, they added a four-door sedan and hit 120,603 units. Then they changed it all. The recession was over.
George Romney resigned to become governor of Michigan, the company reversed course and tried to turn itself into a full-line imitation of the Big Three. That didn't work out and by the late seventies they were looking for a partner to bail them out - and that would be France's Renault in 1979. The arrangement lasted until March 1987, when American Motors was purchased by the Chrysler Corporation, and they discontinued the use of the AMC and Renault brand names in the United States. The Jeep line was continued. The Rambler American was no more.
But there's one in Hollywood.
Remember 1958? Here are selected events -
- January 1 - Treaty of Rome founding the European Union is implemented
- January 8 - Fourteen-year-old year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship
- January 31 - The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit
- February 1 - Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic
- February 17 - Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare the patron saint of television
- March 11 - A B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atomic bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Its conventional explosives destroy a house and injure several people, but no nuclear fission occurs. Oops.
- March 17 - The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite
- March 27 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union
- April 4 - The daughter of the actress Lana Turner stabs her mother's gangster lover to death out here (this was eventually ruled self-defense)
- May 13 - During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators
- June 1 - Charles De Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months
- July 15 - In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government there
- August 3 - The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) became the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water
- October 4 - BOAC uses the new Comet jet to become the first airline to fly jet passengers across the Atlantic
- December 9 - The John Birch Society is founded in Newport Beach, California, by Robert Welch, a retired candy manufacturer
- December 21 - General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes
Top movies of the year, in descending order of box office receipts - - Touch of Evil
- Vertigo
- Thunder Road
- House on Haunted Hill
- Nazarin
- Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
- Auntie Mame
- The Barbarian and the Geisha
- Bell, Book and Candle
- The Big Country
- Big Deal on Madonna Street
- Bonjour Tristesse
- The Brain from Planet Arous
The top then hits of 1958, in descending order - - Tequila - The Champs
- Johnnie B. Goode - Chuck Berry
- At the Hop - Danny & the Juniors
- Get a Job - The Silhouettes
- Twilight Time - The Platters
- It's All In the Game - Tommy Edwards
- Do You Want To Dance - Bobby Freeman
- Sweet Little Sixteen - Chuck Berry
- Rockin' Robin - Bobby Day
- Tears On My Pillow - Little Anthony and the Imperials
And more than thirty thousand Americans were driving Rambler Americans like this one.
Not Just Paris - Another Russian Submarine
Topic: Oddities
Not Just Paris - Another Russian Submarine
In last weekend's Just Above Sunset, Our Man in Paris, Ric Erickson, editor of MetropoleParis, told us of the odd Russian submarine in the middle of Paris, with pictures and everything. It was just sitting in the round pond at the Tuileries gardens - really.
Every major city should have a Russian submarine. In Long Beach, docked next to the actual Queen Mary, there's our Russian submarine - Russian Attack Submarine 'Scorpion' b-427 - and it's real too (to the right, the aft torpedo room) - - Russian Designator: Project 641
- NATO Designator: Foxtrot-Class
- Manufacturer's Number: b-427
- Built: 1972
- Decommissioned: 1994
- Length: 299 feet, 6 inches
- Beam: 24 feet, 7 inches
- Draft: 20 feet
- Displacement: 1,952 tons surfaced, 2,475 tons submerged
- Built: Sudomekh Shipyard, Leningrad
- Construction: 3/8 inch outer light hull comprising ballast tanks. 7/8 inch QT28 Nickel Steel pressure hull.
- Complement: 12 officers, 10 midshipmen, 56 seamen
- Maximum Diving Depth: 985 feet
- Speed: 16 knots surfaced, 15 knots submerged, 9 knots snorkeling
- Range: 20,000 miles surfaced at 8 knots 11,000 miles snorkeling 380 miles submerged at 2 knots
- Endurance: 3 - 5 days submerged
- Propulsion: 3 x Kolomna 2D42M diesel engines, 2,000 hp each. 3 x electric motors; 2 with 1,350 hp and 1 with 2,700 hp. 1 x auxiliary motor with 180 hp. 3 x propeller shafts, each with 6 bladed propellers.
- Torpedoes: 22 maximum
- Radar: Surface search: Snoop Tray; I band.
- Sonar: Herkules medium-frequency active/passive. Feniks passive search/attack.
Click on the link for more information on our sub. You'll find a full photo tour in this weekend's Just Above Sunset, which should be online Sunday morning.
Long Beach, through the sub's periscope -
The Mystery Man on Sunset Boulevard
Topic: Oddities
The Mystery Man on Sunset Boulevard
