An attempted biennial desk clear yields some real bounty here. We came up with a manually typed, affable letter sent by Hemmings Nation Northwest citizen Al Hanson, of Eugene, Oregon. Back in the 1950s, it turns out, Al was patrolling the broad byways of Los Angeles, armed with his Argus C3 rangefinder camera and shooting interesting car stuff.

Here are some samples. As Al explained it, “After World War II, a car salesman by the name of Earl Muntz opened a used car lot at Brand Boulevard and Los Feliz in Glendale, California. This was almost a whole block of cars, and he changed the [used car] business by being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The lot was named Madman Muntz, Used Cars. These are pictures I took on April 3, 1952, of his Muntz automobile on their sales lot on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.”

Remember, Muntz only built 400-some of the Frank Kurtis-designed Jets between 1950 and 1954. Capturing three in one spot, as Al did here, was no small feat. Thanks, Al, great job.

By the way, 8363 Sunset Boulevard is now home to a Starbucks.