The Curse of James Dean's Car: Unlocking the Secrets of his Last Ride...
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- Опубликовано: 2 янв 2023
- Was James Dean's car cursed? Join me as I discover more about James Dean and his car with a very fascinating name.
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"I don't even notice that I'm distracted!" That's the thing about being distracted 😂
One of the things i love about this show is how sarcastically suspenseful the music is
I'm from the central coast which isn't far from where James Dean died. That highway is still dangerous and sometimes known as blood alley. The road hasn't been improved nearly enough to match the growing population in the region. Also there is a gas station located near where he died between Bakersfield and Paso Robles that has a large cut-out of him
Yeah, Hwy.46 is still dangerous, especially if there’s any Tule fog. Even form this video, if I didn’t know it, I wouldn’t get that it’s a narrow two lane highway with irrigation ditches on both sides for much of it. I think for all the times I’ve driven it, it would have freaked me out even more to know it was the road James Dean died on.
Very important point! I drove on highway 46 with my dad in high school and saw where the accident was. I remember noticing how windy the highway was.
Simon was close; it was actually Montgomery Clift who was in a horrific car accident on Mulholland Drive. Elizabeth Taylor saved his life, but he was never the same physically or mentally and he died a couple years later
I did not know that thanks
He died 10 years later, as the crash was in 1956 and he died in '66, it's crazy to see how old he got immediately after the accident, he looked 10, 12 years older.
@@fernandomaron87 Ikr? He basically drank himself to death to cope with the trauma.
@@TheSadlerandrea Yeah, really sad demise for one of the best actors of his generation.
Yeah Liz apparently put her fingers down his throat and got some broken teeth out
Oooh you should do one on 'The 27 Club' ie, the spooky phenomenon of musicians & actors perishing at that age. I'd mistakenly thought James Dean was a member, but he's a few years shy. There's got to be a rational explanation for so many celebrities meeting the reaper at the same age, so it'd be interesting to see you debunk it.
I mean, realistically, it's just that when you're young you're more reckless and because it was a lot of big names, more people took notice, but let's just say my superstitious ass was very happy to turn 28, even though I'm just a regular civilian.
Tons of artists die younger but they haven't been in the public eye or produced a large enough body of work for many people to notice. Any other age is just a number, so there's a tonof confirmation bias.
That sounds interesting on the surface, but if there was an episode it would likely go like this:
Here's a list of a dozen celebrities that died at 27.
Here's a list of hundreds that have died at every other age.
Confirmation bias.
It's a common age for people to get famous enough for (a) their death to be front-page news, (b) to have the connections and money to get into the really FUN drugs and fast cars, and mid-20s is when depression and other mental health problems are likely to start popping up, in these cases probably made worse by the stresses of fame and partying. Apparently 56 is a much more common age for musicians to die.
I feel like he's covered this on one of his channels in the past.
It’s amazing how much car safety has improved. Crumple zones may destroy the car but I’d rather have those forces absorbed in by the car and not my family.
And for the longest time the car industry fought it tooth and nail! They insisted "safety doesn't sell!"
Some people love their car more than their family. 🤷🏻
@@slcpunk2740 🤣some days I’m in that category 🤣
@@slcpunk2740 absolutely… hopefully someone on DTU sees this… Simon, if you convicted of 3 speeding offenses within 18 months in NYS, they take your license for a year. Might want to make sure there isn’t something like that in Prague
@@slcpunk2740 A
Sir Alec Guiness: That car will kill you.
James Dean: If it strikes me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
I don't know why this doesn't have more likes
@@danielarnold8344 it’s not the comment they’re looking for.
@@MorganHorse I see what you did there. XD
@@tubensalat1453 🙃
Turn off the comments, this wins. End of story.
Sir Alec Guinness had just started his Jedi training a month before the meeting - which explains it.
What I love about Simon's channels is that they cover topics which I remember learning surface level information on as a kid but with much higher quality and in-depth coverage.
thanks :)
My experience is very similar with a tiny difference: What I love about Simon's channels is that they cover topics which I remember learning surface level information on as 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀 with much higher quality and in-depth coverage.
Not quite sure about that, I watch cuz the man is awesome, he simply covers a ton of material I’m mostly aware of. That’s not a bad thing, I don’t mind the refreshers. But, this was covered in an episode of Supernatural 🤪
The Ford frame was steel and the car weighed over 3000 lbs, that was what protected Turnupseed and his passenger and why Dean and his passenger got crushed and tossed. The Spyder was aluminum and 1200 lbs...Like a heavyweight boxer vs. featherweight.
More like throwing an egg at a refrigerator.
@@willmfrank Or that.
There’s nothing profound about a young man showing you a sleek sports car and your reaction being, “that thing will kill you inside of a week, dude.” Such a thing has been said countless times, and been correct at least some of those times.
Similar to "you'll shoot your eye out" from A Christmas Story.
@@Not-Great-at-Gaming yep
They said people wouldn't even get the first payment on their Shelby ac cobras. So definitely a common thing to say about small sports cars
@@stephenluttrell8958 are you related to Marcus?
Not even just young people. I'm Simon's age, bought a motorcycle a couple years ago, and got the same response from some friends.
Li'l bastard is also the name on Bart Simpson's slingshot, during the opening credits to The Simpsons...
I didn't know this. I'll now look out for it
A couple of things:
Bill Hickman, Dean's friend and the first one on scene at the crash, went on to have a long career as a stuntman in Hollywood, and was, in fact, the driver of the black Dodge Charger in the Steve McQueen movie 'Bullit'.
Rolf Wutherich, Dean's passenger in 'Little Bastard', reported that Dean's last words were, 'That guys gotta see us!'
And lastly, George Barris was a liar. Allegedly.
And Rolf Wutherich later died in another car crash in Germany
Indeed he did! He crashed while driving drunk in 1981.
Talk about car accidents: a guy hit my 2006 Ford Taurus in 2021, incurring some minor damage to the left front fender. It could likely have been pounded out. The guy who hit me was so terrified of reporting the accident to his insurance that he offered me $500 to not call the police. I negotiated him up to $1000, thinking I'd made a good deal. Until I took it to my body shop, where I was told a replacement fender would cost $1500. I pocketed the grand and lived with the dent. It's my wife's car now; still has the dent.
So one fender for a 16-year-old Ford cost $1500. By comparison, £9K for multiple body repairs to a presumably late-model Volvo sounds like a bargain.
I was in an accident in which my vehicle was totaled and I was injured. I got the maximum amount from the party at fault and from my own insurance and it was only $30,000, which did not pay for the surgery I needed or a new vehicle. So now I walk and have to live with a shoulder whose ligaments have been completely ripped off of the rest of my torso. But God bless America (partial sarcasm since I do love my country but this part about it is fucked).
Feels like we haven't seen one of these since last year!
It's hardly surprising Simon hasn't seen a James Dean movie, since there are only three of them...
Thank you, Katy and team for making Simon’s videos well written and edited.
Never saw a James Jean movie till about 20 years ago. He was a truly talented actor who upstaged everyone on the same scene he was in naturally. I think this added to his iconic status, not just because he died young and on top of his career. Although that stuff definitely helped.
Two suggestions:
1)The death of Gloria Ramirez, often dubbed the ‘toxic woman’.
2)The various occult things that we know of that the Nazis were into. A few episodes have touched on a few of them, but an episode focused on the weird occult stuff they were researching or believed would be interesting.
Hopefully the former (a well known case that will likely get a lot of views) will make up for the almost certain demonetisation of the second, so Simon’s capitalist heart won’t be too sad.
Just call them Nasties or Nutsies; you'll be fine...Allegedly.
Geo Fact: the wreck occurred on Highway 46 exactly where it crosses the San Andreas Fault, the plate boundary between North America and the Pacific Plate. That section, known as the Parkfield Section, experiences regular “small” 6.0-6.4 quakes about every 25 years, and is sparsely populated, thus not too worrying. I thought you all should know.
Monty Clift had his accident on Mulholland Drive in 1956. He was the biggest influence on James Dean.
Myths like this, the Hope diamond and the bricks from the building where the St. Valentines day massacre took place are all great things for Simon and his writers to have fun with.
Do a dead at 27 club video, I know a few but would be interesting. Cheers
Heck yeah, that would be awesome
What's puzzling for me about the James Dean death, is the fact that some people say he broke his neck at the right moment of the impact, while others say he died in the ambulance, and the ambulance driver said he dropped him at the hospital still alive. I tend to believe he died at the crash, or the photos wouldn't have him fully covered on a white sheet if he was still alive i believe. The whole thing is very intriguing.
In the US, seat belts were finally in all cars in 1968. Well past Dean’s death. Also, cars were heavy, with more metal than today. They hit hard! I bet that little sports car was no match for the typical steel behemoths of the ‘50s.
"He'd be 80 today...that's what happens when you die young"...yes, when you die young you don't get old. That kind of astute observation and keen insight is why I watch this channel.
J D Wetherspoon originates from JD, a character in The Dukes of Hazzard, and Wetherspoon, the surname of one of Martin's teachers in New Zealand, who had told him that he would not amount to anything.
"that's what happens when you die young" gave me a good chuckle, excellent deduction Simon.
Google says that most cars didn't have seatbelts in the 50s. They weren't required in the states until 1968.
One thing to remember about cars in the 50's and 60's is that it wasn't required for cars to have them installed, and it was even later when people were required to actually wear them. The first federal law requiring seat belts to be installed in all new cars didn't go into effect until 1968. The first law requiring people to wear seat belts wasn't until 1984.
When I was in middle school a classmate was in a car accident. He survived but suffered traumatic brain injury and was paralyzed. In high-school two classmates were in a car accident. The driver lived, the passenger didn't. Both were wearing seatbelts. The passenger's cause of death was her heart dislodged.
So I know of 1 case of death by car accident.
My first girlfriend's little brother died on his prom night, killed himself, and his girl.
And it was a heavy car, 1985 Ford Fairmont.
Simon, if you haven't see a James Dean movie may I suggest "Giant". Great performance by Dean and starring superstars Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. One of my all time favorite movies.
Fascinating tangent Simon.
I inherited my mother's legendary heavy foot, so it's a good thing I drive a 5-speed car with a 1.2 liter engine or I'd have a bunch of speeding tickets, too.
The Bonny and Clyde car death car is still around I bet it would be more useful for gruesome item collectors if it still has some james dean flesh on the car.
Been hoping for one of these recently! Feels like it's been a minute
cool, will lookout for more again.....
The thing that always got me are the similarities between James Dean and little bastard and Paul Walker and the CGT he died in.
They need to release that interview. I can't think of more of a cautionary tale than "the life you save, might be mine".
The safety spot thing he did? It is released I have it on dvd
I'm surprised there was no mention of the supposed Vampira curse. She was extremely hurt by the negative tabloid attention following Dean's death according to her niece's excellent book, Glamour Ghoul.
I think the reason that "cursed car" or "murder house" rumors go around even with people who aren't particularly religious or superstitious is because knowing that someone died in a particular place evokes some level of visceral unconscious disgust. And it just gets channeled into these rumors.
Well said 👍👍
Simon- "it's unsafe, there's no 3 point seat belts or airbags!"
Me, in my 80s Jeep pickup- "Airbags?"
Your mention of Bagan's haunted drinks cabinet reminded me of a thing I heard in the 1970's - the dusty bottles in a pub window in Alnwick, Northumberland, the landlord who decided to move them died on the spot, was the story - a quick Google check shows that they're still there- might be a suitable topic for this channel?🤔
How about an episode on premonitions in general?
I guess we now know why Sir Alec Guinness was cast as a Jedi mystic.. Go figure...
James Dean is today a pop icon and representative of the bygone '50s, the birthing of the Beat Generation and rock music. But beyond that. Dean was a genius actor. To see him in "Giant" is to see him mature from young, restless laborer to a jaded, bitter, middle-aged multimillionaire oil magnate, all with a minimum of makeup. It was pure performance, and it was brilliant. It's a tragic shame that he didn't live long enough to even attend the premiere.
I’m Gen Z and I thought he was an adult film star.
@@MorganHorse 🤦🏿♂️
@MorganHorse thats James Deen lmao
@@rach_laze 😂😂
Giant is a masterpiece
The footage of that “PSA” is on the Rebel Without a Cause dvd. NGL, the first time I saw Dean say “Careful how you drive on the highway, the life you save could be mine” I was literally speechless with a dropped jaw and tingling spine for several minutes. I don’t believe in curses or fate or any of that… but that interview is one of the most chilling things I’ve ever given the context of hindsight. (100% recommend that film by the way. Absolutely brilliant and simultaneously dated yet timeless in a way unlike anything else.)
Also, the Monument Mythos stuff about Dean is some of the coolest alternate history unfiction ever made.
1:35 - Chapter 1 - The death of James Dean
8:00 - Chapter 2 - The spooky life of "little bastard"
14:25 - Chapter 3 - The verifables facts
- Chapter 4 -
- Chapter 5 -
- Chapter 6 -
As a Porsche historian, it's less that the car was cursed and more that the 550 Spyder was a hard car to tame even by seasoned drivers. He just wasn't ready for that car. The crash could have been avoided, or at least non-fatal, but he wasn't ready for the 550.
I don't believe Spyder means convertible, but his car was a convertible and most likely didn't have any seat belts or roll bar.
The term "spider" or "spyder," sometimes used in names for convertible models, is said to come from before the automobile era. Some 19th-century lightweight horse-drawn phaetons had a small body and large wooden wheels with thin spokes; they were nicknamed "spiders" because of their appearance; the nickname was transferred to sports cars, although they did not look similar. An alternative explanation for the term, used principally on Italian cars, is simply the Italian transliteration of "speeder" or "speedster", originating in a reporter's crackly telephone call to Italy in 1953 about the Porsche 550 "Speedster" (a car driven by James Dean).
Really interesting thank you 🙏👍👍
Wow, he wasn't even CLOSE!
And it's great that nobody bothers telling him that race cars were almost EXCLUSIVELY 'topless' when the sport began!
F1 cars still are which why they had to add the “halo” to protect the driver’s head
Simon really needs to watch some footage from F1 in the 50s. Theres good reason, there was a 25% death rate among F1 drivers back then!
Simon... Regarding your speeding tickets... Ever heard of speed control?
It has saved me a lot of money...
This is the earliest ive ever been!
Would like to know about the life of the man who caused the accident, is he still alive and how did it affect him in the years after 🧐
I was also curious about that
He died I the 90's my grandpa knew him and worked with his company turnupseed electric I guess he felt incredibly guilty about the accident for the rest of his life and tried not to talk about it much
@@SirSipness interesting lol
@@MelGibson69142 Freeland Wilson
There have been more than just a few (fictional) movies depicting his car as being possessed or cursed or similar...
Li'l Bastard is pretty famous....
Around prom time, the high school I went to would put a trailer out front with a completely totaled car that apparently had been totaled in a drunk driving accident and killed at least one teen. They used it as an example to not drink and drive.
Back in the early 70s, my dad hit around 120mph in his '62 Corvette with my sister and I standing on the front seat. Good times!
This could be me not remembering something correctly, but I seem to recall a school yard rumor that part of the reason "Little Bastard" was haunted was because James Dean replaced the windshield wipers with one's from one of hitlers cars. However that is probably just children making stuff up to make it creepier.
Lol in 23 yrs of researching Dean i've never heard that one 😂
Love your videos!! You should do a video about the “toxic lady” and the whole mystery surrounding her; it’s super interesting!! Keep doing what you’re doing!!
This curse is crazy! part of the body/hood was stolen and has never been recovered! 🚗 Will you please cover the Hell House of Dice Road and the Saginaw County Hauntings! There's FBI documentation of ghosts and the paranormal, and would love to hear your take on it!
Barris is a interesting guy. He is in the middle of a court case where he is suing a company that makes replica Bat mobile's and he is suing a number of other companies who have made Bat mobiles for the Batman movies as he believes he owns the rights to the name "Bat mobile".
No, it's not cursed, we are just bad at driving.....
Yeah the common factor seems more cameras giving tickets as opposed to a police person having to witness you and then stop you.
The common factor is his speeding. If the camera wasn't there he would still be speeding.
@@garyfreeman896 said like a real fascist
@@timothy2935 It said like a true realist.
Im thinking Alec Guinness embellished his meeting with Dean to present a more interesting anecdote in interviews. Its a pretty obvious worry though, young man with fast and flimsy car, I would have a concern in the back of my mind seeing anyone with such a car, especially someone who was known to speed on highways in the past. More common sense than premonition.
7:50 He starred in only three movies in his entire career and still became that much of a legend from them.
(For the ‘I must Google this to see if I can tell him he’s wrong’ pedants in the crowd; I said he _starred_ in three movies. Yes, he was obviously in more, but mostly in small uncredited roles like ‘Youth at soda fountain’ in the movie Has Anybody Seen My Gal when he was still unknown. Hopefully that saves you some time and sphincter clenching energy!! 👍)
Well done Katy! Keep 'em coming!
Fascinating topic😎
Small point… US seat belt laws didn’t show up until the ‘80s and was state by state at that.
He wasn’t killed in the crash
He died in the ambulance after that had a crash. He had broken his neck in the crash but was still alive
I was brought up on many, many classic movies so I have seen James Dean's movies. Worth watching.
Hey Simon! I’m a Gen-Z baby, so I couldn’t give you exacts even if you asked me, but by the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s cars had been improved to a MUCH safer condition than the years before. Some say they’re still some of the safest, depending on the year, make, and model - since in a lot of recent cars, the metal was replaced with plastic
Cars are safer now than they’ve ever been, IIHS posted a video where they crashed a 59 bel aire into an 09 Malibu, it’s shocking.
@@kilroywashere9678 I’m sure by standards they are, but I remember a video showed to me from the 70’s of a car a family friend was working, a 60’s Mercedes’, but the car was T-boned by a drunk driver, nearly ripped in half, and the family of four was all about to walk away, injured but whole. I know the features of today have given us better safety, but I do that putting metal between yourself and another car is important
@@kilroywashere9678 I like your name, though, by the way!
@@HavianEla Metal is safer....sort of. It protects you from being hit, but since it isn't made to crumple, the accident is shorter and harsher to the occupants. The crumple zones and plastic protect you by extending the time of the accident.
Less of your insides hitting what keeps them inside.
@@kilroywashere9678 It's been demonstrated that the engine and transmission were removed from that Bel Aire, thus compromising the structural integrity of the vehicle.
Let me guess, the car was fast, he drove it fast, the end?
that is a good guess?
@@missinanee554 thank you, I'm obvs a genius 🤣
@@hanselmansell7555 Actually, no. The car was fast, yes, but he drove within the speed limit. The other driver did a curvy turn across the opposite lane to cross to a side road without stopping or checking for traffic, despite him having the setting sun in his eyes, and plowed right into Dean's little Porsche. It was 100% the other drivers fault.
@ 21:35 Looks like Hoovie in it!! Hoovie does have a similar silver Porsche though.
The trick to driving a classic car is actually only having fatal accidents, because if you crash an E-Type Jag you will never survive the repair bill
Old cars are actually typically built of more sturdy materials. Eventually physics took the lead when they realized that crumpling provides more safety in a crash than rigid components as it slows your stop
Gods Simon stop with Mulholland, that was Montgomery Clift. James Dean was on a fast road driving into the sunset. Also, no seat belts yet. If you saw the movies he did, you'd understand why he is still remembered
Actually, he had the sun behind him. It was the other driver, who had the sun in his eyes, yet took a curvy turn across the opposite lane without even slowing down to check for traffic. Dean was driving within the speed limit. And yeah, most cars didnt even have seatbelts back then.
Fully agree on the movies!
Rarely are they 'accidents'. There is a reason why cops call them 'collisions'. Usually they are preventable collisions.
“hadn’t died so long ago he could be still be alive today” Funny how not dying would mean you would be alive 😂
Porsche :
Killing famous people since time immemorial
I'm pretty sure seatbelts became mandatory for US cars in 1964. Not sure when it became law to wear them tho
The 550 was a race model
Any do they think it's funny when nobody bothers telling him that when the sport started, pretty much ALL race cars were 'convertibles'? And not really 'convertible' since they were ONLY topless and didn't even have the option of a 'roof'?
When it's an insurance job most body shops will over charge like crazy cuz they can get away with it. I'm in the u.s. but I'm sure it works like that almost everywhere. Human greed is universal.
Original script time: 10min
Add Simon's tangents: 27min
Simon, did you change cars after the kids were born?
I got some speeding tickets in my almost 40 years of driving but always either with cars that had a lower indoor sound level than the standard car I was driving with at the time or with cars that accelerate fast and therefore turn me into aggressive driving mode. Though driving the BMW 7 350 (mark 2) of my in-laws only a few times I collected more speeding tickets with it in app. 4 years than with all other cars combined.
The reason Simon is that every parent has a deeply suppressed but mighty strong urge to end it all any time you're stuck in a car with kids. Happens to the best of us.
“James Dean, James Dean, you bought it sight unseen” when I was young he was the cautionary tale.
The warning (by the Shakespearian actor) seems more like 'Julius Caesar' by Shakespear. The whole "beware the ides of March" warning from a seeress. Or maybe I'm reading too much into this.
13:20 in the United States alone cars are one of the leading cause of death. Infact during both the vietman and Iraq wars automobile accidents killed nearly twice the amount of the conflicts.
I've been to the crash site a few times and one thing that's never mentioned is that it happened almost directly over the San Andreas fault! My name is Bicycle Bob and I approved this message and a former roommate also believed that he died on Mulholland drive.
Cars still kill people, I'm 55 now, but I remember going to the funeral of my first girlfriend's little brother.
Prom night, he hadn't been drinking, but he missed where the road curved hard to the left, and he didn't turn.
Went airborne for about 300 meters, flipped it, and ended up killing himself and his girlfriend.
It was a 1985 Ford Fairmont.
Liz Sheridan (she played Seinfeld's mother on the show) was involved with Dean before he was famous, she wrote a cool book called 'Dizzy and Jimmy'.
The car was probably pissed about being named "Little Bastard"
2:40 If you think that's bonkers, some of the early racers: lakes, dragsters, road race, etc., considered it to be advantageous to be thrown clear of the wreck. Seriously. Of course, this is the same era that saw tobacco consumption as a viable and harmless cure for anxiety.
Where James Dean crashed, there is now a rest stop. There is a bulletin board with newspaper clippings and other related items there.
Sir Alec Guiness predicted the past? Amazing.
YUKI!! Glad we had an F1 gif in this video :)
I fell for dean when i caught rebel without a cause on tv late one night when i was 16. I'm 38 now and still love him, i remember setting up an MSN group called little bastard. Most girls my age had posters of boy bands and modern actors on their walls, i had dean, marilyn monroe, natalie wood and sharon tate 😊
Re: George Barris: a very talented customizer of cars, worked on a great many cars belonging to Hollywood royalty, usually modifying them at the customer's request. Well known as a totally shameless selfpromoter, which is no small compliment in Hollywood. Did indeed design and (partially) build the Batmobile, which was already a Ford/Mercury concept car that was being replaced by something newer. Did have his shop destroyed in a fire, with many cars damaged beyond repair. But, judging from the dates, Dean's 550 was not likely to have been there, and quite a few cars on the premises were not seriously harmed. But George would have inserted Dean's car into that story in seconds flat.
Please note: in those days, fast cars were extremely dangerous; compared to modern cars, they had weak brakes and tricky handling, yet were capable of very high speeds.
( I'm a little younger than Mr. Dean would be today if he had not died, and I am an ancient hotrodder...so this story is very familiar)
Simon, nice job sensing the bogus aspects on first exposure to this tale!
The street names I get, but the fact that Simon knows about the 405 is hilarious. It's a terrible freeway and I avoid it when I can lol.
That vehicle in the Ford was inebriated.. and of course walked away with barely a scratch.