Television star Ernie Kovacs was killed
in a car accident in Los Angeles during the early morning hours of January 13,
1962.
Kovacs, who had worked for much
of the evening, met Adams at a baby shower given by Billy Wilder for Milton
Berle and his wife, who had recently adopted a newborn baby boy. The couple
left the party in separate cars.
After a lull in a southern California
rainstorm, Kovacs lost control of his Chevrolet Corvair station wagon while
turning quickly and crashed into a power pole at the corner of Wilshire and
Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills. He was thrown halfway out the
passenger side and died almost instantly from chest and head injuries.
A photographer managed to arrive
moments later, and images of Kovacs dead appeared in newspapers across the
United States. An unlit cigar lay on the pavement, inches from his outstretched
arm. Jack Lemmon, who also attended the Berle party, identified Kovacs's body
at the morgue because Adams was too distraught to do so.
His pallbearers were Jack Lemmon,
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billy Wilder, Mervyn LeRoy, and Joe Mikolas.