Led Zeppelin Robbed of $200,000

Led Zeppelin had greater than $200,000 in money stolen on July 29, 1973, from a safety-deposit field at their New York City lodge.

Hardly a crippling loss, seeing as the way it got here close to the tip of a tour that grossed greater than $4 million. But it was virtually an indication that the legendary group’s profession had peaked, and extra troubles had been on the best way.

Starting on May 4, Led Zeppelin started tearing their manner throughout the U.S. on their most formidable tour ever. By the tip of the run, greater than 30 cities in 20-plus states (plus Vancouver) had been systematically conquered by Zeppelin’s high-decibel onslaught. Along the best way, decades-old attendance data had been shattered, new box-office high-watermarks had been set, and numerous minds had been blown by the sheer, devastating energy of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham firing on all cylinders.

To commemorate and capitalize on this success, Led Zeppelin’s administration crew determined to shoot footage of the tour’s closing three-night stand at New York’s Madison Square Garden. And despite the fact that it took three years and a few authorized maneuvering, the performances would ultimately arrive in film theaters and file shops as 1976’s The Song Remains the Same.

But how did $200,000 mysteriously vanish from the band’s not-so-safe-deposit field on the luxurious Drake Hotel someday between the second and third concert events? According to tour supervisor Richard Cole, all the cash was accounted for when he checked the field round 1AM on July 29, nevertheless it was nowhere to be discovered when he subsequent opened it round 7:30PM.

Neither police nor lodge detectives might discover proof that the field had been forcibly tampered with, and Zeppelin’s administration appeared virtually reticent to press the matter additional, given the nebulous origins of the huge quantity of money concerned. According to newspaper accounts from the interval, Cole informed detectives that the cash in query was proceeds from the present tour and was stored readily available as a result of the band had “a lot of expenses to pay.”

The theft has by no means been solved. Whoever took it a minimum of left the 5 passports contained in the field, so the band might make its manner again to England and recuperate from the lengthy trek throughout the states. Led Zeppelin might have gone residence a bit poorer than they anticipated to, however the reality behind the 40-year-old thriller might need been far more expensive than $200,000.

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