Image Via Google Maps
The story of “Dead Man’s Curve”, released December 4 1963 and made famous in the Jan & Dean song, ironically came true near this site on April 12, 1966, just nine days after his 25th birthday when singer Jan Berry had a near-fatal car accident here. Jan was on his way to a business meeting when he crashed his Corvette into a truck parked on Whittier Drive. He was in a coma for almost two months and it left him permanently disabled.
Jan & Dean were key figures in the early 1960s surf-and-hot-rod music scene. Their hits “Surf City”, “Little Old Lady From Pasadena”, and “Dead Man’s Curve” embodied California youth car culture.
Dead Man’s Curve
Sunset Blvd and Whittier Drive
Beverly Hills CA 90210
I would Love for my HUSBAND TO SEE THE MOVIE AS WELL AS I WOLUD LOVE TO SEE IT AGAIN
. I LOVE THE MOVIE
Youtube it. I saw it on there.
I’m going there this weekend.
“Won’t come back from Dead Man’s Curve.”
George Vreeland Hill
Snopes has an excellent article on Dead Man’s Curve. The “real” one is on Sunset Blvd at Charing Cross Rd and it claimed many victims who were eastbound on Sunset, including Mel Blanc. However Berry in his song relocated the curve well east of its actual location, simply because the street names on that part of Sunset were more familiar (Doheny etc). This is where all or at least most of the confusion started about its actual location.