This Los Angeles advice site clearly mentions the amber traffic light.
http://www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/travelfacts.htm
You may not have been misinformed though - the traffic light system has changed over the years.
This from Wikipedia states the USA used to have a two light red - green system:
As early as 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah, policeman Lester Wire set up the first red-green electric traffic lights. On 5 August 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Based on the design of James Hoge, it had two colors, red and green, and a buzzer to provide a warning for color changes. The first four-way, three-color traffic light was created by police officer William Potts in Detroit in 1920.[1