The strangest “things” Lloyd’s has insured
“Normal” people secure “normal” things such as cars, houses or other assets. Celebrities… slightly overdo it and secure their feet, their voices and some other things that if you were experts you wouldn’t like to examine perhaps.
See some of the most strange things that have been insured at the famous market of Lloyd’s of London.
Taste
In 1957, the world-famous flavor critic Egon Ronay wrote and issued the first version of his book titled “Egon Ronay, Guide to British Eateries”. Because his critic could destroy or boost a restaurant, he insured his flavor sensors for over 400,000 dollars.
In the ’40s, managers of Century Fox insured the legs of the actress Betty Grable for over 1 million dollars each. After the purchase of the insurance, Grable would probably have wished to have put an additional condition to protect them from injury while insurers were fighting over who would inspect her legs.
Mustache
During 1985-1994, when he played for the national cricket team of Australia, Merv Hughes bought an insurance contract worth 370,000 dollars for the trademark of his mustache, which in combination with hiw body composition and his amazing performance in golf, made him one of the most famous cricket players in the world.
Hands
Representing the company Cheerio Yo-Yo Company from Canada, the 13-year-old Harvey Lowe won the Yo-yo World Championship in 1932 in London and made a tour in Europe from 1932 until 1935. In fact he was so popular that he gave yo-yo lessons to Prince Edward 8th, Prince of Wales. Lowe was so valuable for Cheerio that his company insured his hands for over 150,000 dollars.
Teeth
From 1967 to 1992, the British comedian and singer Ken Dodd was in the Guinness Book after enjoying the record for the most jokes in the least time (1,500 jokes in three and a half hours). Dodd has sold more than 100,000,000 comical discs and he is famous for his curly hair, a wing feather dusters which he always had with him and his very goofy teeth. His teeth were so valuable for his shows that Dodd insured them for 7,4 million dollars.
Legs (dancing)
In the zenith of his career, Michael Flatley – protagonist of Riverdance and Lord of the dance – insured his legs for the incredible amount of 47 million dollars. Before becoming the most famous Irish dancer – representative of step dance in the world, Flatley, who was from Chicago, was boxer and had even won the Golden Gloves championship in 1975. There is no doubt that he would stun his opponents with his amazing quick and impressive moves.
Comedy
The famous comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello seemed to cooperate extremely well, particularly at their famous act “Who’s on First”. To protect themselves, however, from a possible fight which would end their careers, both comedians purchased an insurance contract worth 250,000 dollars for a period of five years. After 20 years together, the duo split up in 1957 – not because of disagreement, but because the IRS caught them tax evading and thus they were forced to sell many assets, including the rights for many of their films.
Voice
The famous singer Bruce Springsteen, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is known with the nickname “Boss”, but he knew that could very easily lose his reputation if he caught laryngitis. It is precisely for this reason that he insured his distinctive eighties heavy voice for the amount of 6 million dollars. Rod Stewart had also insured his voice and Bob Dylan his vocal chords to protect them from the day that inevitably they would cease to enchant the crowds.
Fingers
Before rock ‘n’ roll, a popular music kind in England in the 1950s was the skiffle, a kind of traditional music with jazz and blues elements which was played with different strange institutions (troughs, jars, kazoos etc.). It was so popular at the time that one of the most important musicians, Chas McDevitt, tried to protect his career by insuring his fingers for $9,300. It wasn’t a fruitful decision though since skiffle was replaced by the most popular rock ‘n’ roll, the washing machine replaced the trough and McCartney replaced McDevitt…
