# Has anyone ever been killed by a falling piano or anvil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 12, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484 "2013-04-12T09:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/1 "2013-04-12T09:16:04Z")
[The column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3101/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil) > [@Cecil Adams](#): > > Virtually every other reported case of death by piano resulted from the instrument simply tipping over. Commonly the victims were kids playing near an old upright; perhaps some misguided practical joke was involved, but if so it fell flat. Dear Cecil, You’re letting Ed write the punchlines again, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/2 "2013-04-12T13:45:28Z")
One common feature of this trope is that the piano, or safe, or what have you, is being hoisted up the outside of a building with a block and tackle presumably because it’s too big or too heavy to go up the stairs or the elevator. My guess would be that this cliche’ harkens back to the latter nineteenth century, when buildings started becoming very tall but stairwells were still narrow and elevators more like those lightweight cagelike contraptions you see in old movies. This would have become an obsolete practice once freight elevators became standard in most multistory buildings. BTW: has anyone ever been crushed under a road roller (“steam roller”)? (I can picture a murder mystery called “The Cartoon Murders” about a series of macabre deaths by cliche’d methods). ---
**Author:** ![JimR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@JimR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimR)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/3 "2013-04-12T14:02:57Z")
Someone miss a chance for a pun? On flying anvils: “… but you can see where things could go tragically awry” works also as “… but you can see where things could go tragectorally awry” - although I can’t find anything proving that “tragectorally” is an accepted word. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/4 "2013-04-12T14:05:39Z")
Reminds me of the classic torts case used to illustrate _res ipsa loquitur_, in which someone got beaned by a barrel of flour that came suddenly rolling out of the second story of a building. (Another favorite _res ipsa_ case: the one where someone found, IIRC, a partially decomposed, severed human toe in their pouch of chewin’ tobacky…) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/5 "2013-04-12T14:35:49Z")
> [@JimR](#): > > Someone miss a chance for a pun? > > On flying anvils: “… but you can see where things could go tragically awry” > > works also as “… but you can see where things could go tragectorally awry” - although I can’t find anything proving that “tragectorally” is an accepted word. You’re probably thinking of “trajectory” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/6 "2013-04-12T15:25:56Z")
Soda vending machines now carry a warning that tipping them can crush you to death. Presumably these came about in response to some actual crushings. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/7 "2013-04-12T15:27:18Z")
Thank you for the introduction to that delightful pastime of anvil launching. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/8 "2013-04-12T17:03:41Z")
> [@](#): > > a man ironically surnamed Keys was crushed under a piano being delivered to his home I’m pretty sure he was unironically surnamed, probably generations before the incident. That will be of little comfort to the widow Keys and the little Keys. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/9 "2013-04-12T18:39:39Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’m pretty sure he was unironically surnamed, probably generations before the incident. That will be of little comfort to the widow Keys and the little Keys. There are people who believe that the English word “irony” refers only to a rhetorical device, and not to situations. They are nurturing a fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/10 "2013-04-12T20:13:56Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > There are people who believe that the English word “irony” refers only to a rhetorical device, and not to situations. They are nurturing a fantasy. I agree with you that his surname had some irony in view of his demise. However, he was not named ironically. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/11 "2013-04-12T20:18:40Z")
Hah! Harks back to my very first Teemings article, **Watch out for Falling Anvils** : [http://www.teemings.net/series\_1/issue01/anvils.html](http://www.teemings.net/series_1/issue01/anvils.html) I don’t know of any cases of anvil-firing deaths (or any falling-anvil deaths, for that matter), but it wouldn’t surprise me if there hadn’t been injuries from anvil firings. Lord knows that the 19th (and early 20th) century penchant for blowing things up for entertainment certainly did result in some fatalities. Things like this: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yUc3wd4It8g/hqdefault.jpg "Spectacular 1913 Train Collision") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUc3wd4It8g) ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/12 "2013-04-12T22:51:28Z")
> [@](#): > > a man ironically surnamed Keys was crushed under a piano being delivered to his home Being crushed by an anvil, however, is always an ironic situation, regardless of name. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/13 "2013-04-12T23:04:08Z")
Properly plummeting perilous pianos [**need a pair of experts**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s4nVg_W_6Y). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/14 "2013-04-13T08:52:31Z")
My reading of history/law leads me to believe that death by mill wheel was relatively common. Leading to the mill wheel being treated as a killer. Strict liability was a feature of early English law, even when dealing with inanimate objects. I dunno the actual cause of death. Probably loading/unloading was more of a hazard than falls from a height. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/15 "2013-04-13T09:50:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Harks back to my very first Teemings article, **Watch out for Falling Anvils** : Blech. Cartoons were created ex-nova? No mention of film or vaudeville precedents? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/16 "2013-04-13T14:41:30Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Blech. Cartoons were created ex-nova? No mention of film or vaudeville precedents? You know of any? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/17 "2013-04-13T14:42:02Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’m pretty sure he was unironically surnamed, probably generations before the incident. That will be of little comfort to the widow Keys and the \*\*little \*\*Keys. You mean minor keys. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/18 "2013-04-13T16:24:11Z")
Serves me right for not being musical. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/19 "2013-04-15T04:07:09Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I’m pretty sure he was unironically surnamed, probably generations before the incident. That will be of little comfort to the widow Keys and the little Keys. You’re confusing the past participle in its guise as a “verbal adjective” – i.e., just describing something’s state of being – with its variant guise as a “statement of an event having taken place” – i.e., reference to a specific action. The difference is the basis for the old joke: “She was turned on by the television, and vice-versa.” ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/20 "2013-04-15T16:39:22Z")
Just to clarify an error in Cecil’s column and Slug’s illustration, the cavity that is filled with powder is on the bottom of the anvil, not the top (known as the face). Bealers’s “The Art of Blacksmithing” has a good illustration. IIRC, there was a beef between an ABANA (the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America) and a regional chapter over the inclusion of anvil shooting at official events. Anvil shooting has always seemed to me to be a way to ruin a perfectly good anvil. Rob [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484.md?page=2)