Death By Falling Piano: The Cartoonish But Real Death Of A Grand Rapids Man

If you're like me, you grew up watching cartoons like Tom and Jerry and The Pink Panther, where characters were hurt in some of the most ridiculous ways: stepping on a gardening rake, a car crash, and getting crushed by safes, anvils, or a piano. The piano falling was always so random that it was the pinnacle of cartoonish deaths.

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But generally, what made a piano crushing someone so funny was that it is also one of the most unrealistic ways to get hurt. I mean, come on, in what situation could you possibly find yourself in the vicinity of a piano falling from the sky? It's just impossible, which is what made it a staple of absurdist ways to die in media.

Well, an almost impossible way to die. Believe it or not, one of the only documented deaths from a piano falling on one's head happened here in Grand Rapids.

George Snyder: The Grand Rapids Piano Tragedy

It takes an incredibly unique circumstance for you to find yourself underneath a suspended piano, but back in 1887, Grand Rapids man George Snyder found himself in that very situation.

READ MORE: Grand Rapids 'Death Stairs': The Stairs At Belknap Lookout Park

It wasn't as random as walking on a street corner and plop piano on your head. But George was technically one of the most at risk for this sort of tragedy, given his profession.

He was a worker at the old Chase Brothers Piano Company, a piano manufacturing factory that was open from 1893 to 1930. According to the Washington City Paper, found that George met an untimely end via piano around January 11th, 1887.

A newspaper article from the Jackson Citizen reported this back in 1887:

“A young man named George Snyder was instantly killed at Grand Rapids Monday. He was employed at Chase Bros’ piano manufactory, and as he was passing out of the factory on his way to dinner, a piano which was suspended by a windlass fell on him, crushing his chest and skull and causing instant death.”

Talk about bad timing. The Washington City Paper also found that there have been 26 piano-related deaths in the US over the last 100 years, but George's was the only recorded death where a piano fell on top of someone and killed them, Hanna-Barbera style.

Sadly, he did not jump back up like Wiley Coyote. But it does prove that it is possible, so watch for grand pianos where they shouldn't be.