April 30, 1992 // The Stolen Bustier Madonna and the L.A. riots.

A black bustier worn by Madonna in "Open Your Heart" video was stolen from Frederick's Of Hollywood's lingerie museum in Los Angeles.

May (6) Frederick's Of Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA offers a $1,000 reward for the return of Madonna's bustier.

On April 29, 1992, a jury ac­quit­ted four LAPD of­ficers of beat­ing Rodney King. The in­cid­ent, which was caught on video­tape, sparked a na­tion­al de­bate about po­lice brutal­ity and ra­cial inequality (more than two decades before #BlackLivesMatter). The verdict stunned the city, and what followed was four smoldering days of rioting.

It feels frivolous to pivot from the riots — which left 53 dead, 2,000 injured, 11,000 arrested and a billion dollars of damage — to Madonna. And it is. But yesterday — three weeks into my little L.A. adventure — I learned of Madonna’s connection to the riots, which is important in so far as it makes for interesting dinner party fodder.

In April 30th, 1992, the music world faced its greatest tragedy to date: the famed Frederick’s of Hollywood was looted, and Madonna’s black bustier with gold tassels, worn in her video for “Open Your Heart,” was swiped from the celebrity Lingerie Museum. (By the way, “Open Your Heart” is easily one of my top five favourite Madonna songs. A future post will be devoted to the single and its very bizarre video.)

Photo: The Hollywood Reporter

Madonna’s original bustier was never returned (despite a $1,000 reward from Frederick’s), but the Queen of Pop eventually gave the museum a replacement in exchange for a $10,000 donation to an organization that supplied free mammograms to the poor. (By the way, October happens to be National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is one of the highest-rated cancer organizations in the country. Read: donate if you can!)

In May 1992, the New York Times covered the Frederick’s looting in an article called “AFTER THE RIOTS ; Confessions of a Star-Struck Looter.” In it, a man identified as “Jim B.” — a 24-year-old art student from the San Fernando Valley with seemingly no attachment to Rodney King and the subsequent movement — offers a detailed recollection of the mayhem at Frederick’s. ($200,000 worth of women’s undergarments were stolen — 80 percent of the merchandise at the main store — in addition to a handful of one-of-a-kind celebrity items from the museum: the bustier; a pair of Ava Gardner’s bloomers; and a push-up bra worn by the character Peg Bundy in Married…With Children. The store was not burned down.)

As Jim B. recounted to the Times, he knew what he wanted before he stepped foot into the store. “I was after Madonna’s negligee that she would wear live in concert,” he told the newspaper. But it had already been taken. Twist! So Jim B. did what any petty panty thief would do: he settled for the bloomers and the push-up bra.

But wait…another twist: Jim B.’s conscience got the best of him. B. turned over the bloomers and bra to a local priest, Father Bob Fambrini at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Hollywood.

“I broke down,” Jim B. told the Times. “I was in bad shape. It was a very emotional moment. I unzipped the bag full of loot, and I choked up and couldn’t even say anything.”

Father Fambrini, probably very confused when Jimmy first approached him, eventually returned the items on behalf of the world’s worst criminal.

Had he made it to Frederick’s sooner, would Mr. B. have given Madonna’s bustier to Father F? And would Father F. have understood the irony of that situation? (See: Madonna and Catholicism.)

I now leave you with the bustier in all its glory. The bustier as it’s meant to be remembered. Rest in peace, gold tassels. 

source: https://medium.com/one-month-of-madonna/october-4-the-stolen-bustier-50243ec5a17e#.boivo5jmg