A cardboard standee of Marilyn was stolen from Lola’s Hi/Lo Lounge in Madison, Wisconsin this week, as WMTV reports. However, CCTV footage of two women removing the standee swiftly went viral – and after three days on the lam, it has now been returned by a good Samaritan.
It’s not the first time Marilyn’s likeness has provoked acts of larceny, with standees, statues and murals regularly purloined worldwide. Back in 2014, an Andre De Dienes-inspired mural was stolen from Floyd’s Diner in Victoria, British Columbia. It was found in an alleyway, only to be stolen and retrieved again a year later.
When Floyd’s Diner relocated in 2019, Canadian artist Paul Archer created another Marilyn mural – incidentally, based on the same image as the standee at Lola’s Hi/Lo Lounge. The original photo, celebrating Marilyn’s being named Miss N.A.S. San Diego in 1952, was shot by Frank Powolny (not ‘Bernard of Hollywood’, as credited on the standee.)
Most infamously of all, a Marilyn sculpture was removed by hacksaw from atop the Four Ladies of Hollywood gazebo in Los Angeles in 2019. The sculpture was irreparably damaged, and the culprit was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment.
And finally, the rescued standee isn’t the only Marilyn-themed decor gracing Lola’s in Madison, WI…
The Marilyn Report 