<VV> 46 years ago today...

[Vairtec Corporation]

On January 13, 1962, ten days before his 43rd birthday, television 
comedian Ernie Kovacs lost control of the 1961 Corvair station wagon 
he was driving during a rainstorrm and crashed into a power pole at 
the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Boulevards.  He died 
within moments from chest and head injuries.

Rumors suggested Kovacs lost control of the car while trying to light 
a cigar.  He may in fact have been attempting to light a cigar, but 
the fact was that Kovacs was a largely irresponsible partier and 
drinker, a known reckless driver, and at the time of the accident he 
had been awake for the better part of several days, and he had been 
drinking throughout that period.

He was driving the Corvair, a car he had purchased for his wife, Edie 
Adams, so that she could use the couple's Roll-Royce that 
evening.  Revisionist historians like to blame the car, and the car 
later received considerable blame for Kovacs' death after Unsafe at 
Any Speed was published. But the sad truth is that Ernie Kovacs -- a 
brilliant comic genius whose television work was pioneering at the 
time and which stands up today -- died as a result of his own 
reckless behavior.  Edie Adams later said as much, dismissing 
attempts to shift  blame to the car.

A sad, sad footnote to our hobby.  Kovacs' career began in Trenton, 
NJ, only a few short miles from where I live.  I think I'll pop the 
Kovacs DVD in the player later today and remind myself again of just 
how imaginative and funny he was.

--Bob