Odd Things Insured by Lloyds of London
Check out the rest of our list of odd things insured by Lloyds of London, beginning with the legs of a famous dancer.
6. Legs
During the height of his career, Michael Flatley -- star of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance
-- insured his legs for an unbelievable $47 million. Before becoming
the world's most famous Irish step dancer, the Chicago native trained
as a boxer and won the Golden Gloves Championship in 1975, undoubtedly dazzling his opponents with some extremely fast and fancy footwork.
7. Comedy team
The
famous comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello seemed to work
extremely well together, especially in their famous "Who's on First?"
routine. But to protect against a career-ending argument, they took out
a $250,000 insurance policy over a five-year period. After more than 20
years together, the team split up in 1957 -- not due to a disagreement,
but because the Internal Revenue Service got them for back taxes, which
forced them to sell many of their assets, including the rights to their
many films.
8. Voice
Rock and
Roll Hall of Famer Bruce Springsteen is known to his fans as "The
Boss," but Springsteen knows that he could be demoted to part-time
status with one case of laryngitis. That's why in the 1980s he insured
his famous gravelly voice for $6 million. Rod Stewart has also insured
his throat and Bob Dylan his vocal cords to protect themselves from
that inevitable day when they stop blowin' in the wind.
9. Fingers
Before rock 'n' roll, a popular type of music in England in the 1950s was skiffle, a type of folk music with a jazz
and blues influence played on washboards, jugs, kazoos, and cigar-box
fiddles. It was so big at the time that a washboard player named Chas
McDevitt tried to protect his career by insuring his fingers for
$9,300. It didn't do him much good because skiffle was replaced by rock
'n' roll, washboards by washing machines, and McDevitt by McCartney.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Helen Davies, Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi Stevens, and Steve Theunissen
