The Backstory: Michael Jackson, Death Masks, and the CPR Woman

Maybe you’ve seen death masks of famous people like King Tut or Napoleon. But the 1888 death mask of a completely unknown teenager in Paris was used to create Resusci-Annie . . the CPR doll. And that inspired one of Michael Jackson’s biggest hits!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever seen a death mask, maybe in a
museum or even just a photo of one. Like a
lot of us, you probably thought, wow, that's creepy, But
they served a really practical purpose, and one of them
has become world famous. You may have touched her yourself,
and Michael Jackson referenced her in a huge hit record,
I'm Patty Steele. The origin of the line Annie, are

(00:22):
you okay? Next on the backstory, We're back with the backstory.
Michael Jackson's song Smooth Criminal has the line Annie, are
yeah okay? Sorry for the music around three dozen times.
It also has the line mouth to mouth resuscitation sounding heartbeats.

(00:42):
Where did that come from? Well, it seems Michael was
trained in CPR, and the mannequin used worldwide for CPR
training is resus Annie. In fact, the model for Annie
was actually the death mask of a young woman in
Paris in the eighteen eighties. More unhear in just a moment,
So okay, death mask? Does that weird you out? Maybe

(01:06):
you've seen them in museums or even in photos of
historic figures like Abe Lincoln, although his was actually a
life mask. But these things were popular, and there was
a reason for them to understand where the idea for
a death mask even came from, we got to go
way back. Ancient civilizations in Egypt, Greece, and Rome use them,
and interestingly, even though they lived on the other side

(01:29):
of the world. South American civilizations including the Inca, Mayan,
and Aztecs also used death masks. In every case, it
was to honor the dead, show some of their physical features,
and facilitate their journey into the afterlife. Most of these
really early masks are works of art. King Tut's death mask,

(01:49):
which was found inside his sarcophagus, is hugely famous. It's
twenty three pounds of solid gold representing Tut's face, though
it's probably fairly idealized. Three D studies of his mummified
body show a guy with buck teeth and a receding chin.
Oh well. As time went on, death masks were used

(02:09):
even more, not just for spiritual reasons or honoring big shots.
By the Middle Ages, they stopped burying the masks with
the bodies. Instead, they were used in funeral ceremonies, but
then kept in libraries, museums, and universities, as well as
in family homes. Death masks were made not just of royalty,
but also composers like Beethoven, military leaders like Napoleon, and

(02:34):
even inventors like Nikola Tesla, whose friend had a death
mask made of Tesla after his nineteen forty three death.
Some folks even have life masks done, like Abe Lincoln.
Now that was not just for the family to have
as a keepsake, although they did, but also so paintings
and sculptures of an individual could be done without their

(02:54):
presence in an art studio. You see, there was no photography,
or at least not very good but potography back then,
and other than in portraits, it was difficult to capture
the actual features of an individual. These masks were made
with plaster or wax and were highly detailed. And that's
how we get to the young woman whose face was

(03:15):
borrowed for the CPR mannequin resssa Annie. It was eighteen
eighty eight and the story goes that a young woman's
body was pulled from the Sene River, which flows through Paris.
She appeared to be about sixteen years old, but there
was nothing to identify her. The common practice in those
days was to immediately make a death mask of an

(03:35):
unknown individual so it could be placed with the remains. Then,
as the body deteriorated, it could still be identified by
the mask. They would then display the bodies, maybe as
many as a dozen at a time, in public, usually
behind glass in a chilled room. The public could check
them out to see if they could id them, and

(03:56):
also get a little bit of a morbid thrill. The
young woman was never identified, but people were enchanted by
her looks and seemingly calm demeanor. They called her len
Connille de la Senne, or the unknown woman of the Seine.
The French philosopher and author Albert Cameau called her a
drowned mona Lisa. Because of her serene smile, women wanted

(04:20):
to look like her, and everybody wanted a copy of
her death mask, so of course somebody figured out how
to make a book off of her. Plaster copies of
her death mask were sold all over Europe and still
by the way sol today. People hung them in their
homes as works of art. Paintings were based on it,

(04:40):
and books and short stories were written about her, all
made up, of course, since nobody knew who she was.
Some thought she'd killed herself after finding herself pregnant and
then being jilted by her lover. Fast forward seventy years
or so. In the nineteen fifties, a couple of anesthesiologists
met at a men conference and they began developing what

(05:02):
was called mouth to mouth ventilation to bring people back
who'd stop breathing. That eventually led them to CPR. In
the early nineteen sixties, or Norwegian researcher volunteered to create
the mannekin they'd use to train people in CPR. They
just didn't know what it should look like. They decided
to make it female, feeling that both men and women

(05:25):
would rather do mouth to mouth on a woman who
looked less threatening, but choosing the exact face was tough.
Then the Norwegian researcher was visiting a relative's house when
he noticed a reproduction of the Lost Woman of the
Sin the death Mask hanging on a wall. Voila. They
named her Anne, and resssa Annie was created. She's now

(05:48):
called the most kissed face in the world. Twelve million
people a year lock lips with her as they train
in CPR techniques. Among those hundreds of millions over the
years who've learned from her, Michael Jackson. Part of the
EMS training involves repeatedly asking the patient, Annie, are you okay?

(06:08):
And that's where that line comes from in Michael's song
Smooth Criminal. Hope you like the Backstory with Patty Steele.
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(06:37):
The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the
Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is
Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes
every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to
me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at
Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks

(06:58):
for listening to the back Story with Patty Steele. The
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.