Speaker 1: Have you ever seen a death mask, maybe in a
Speaker 1: museum or even just a photo of one. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of us, you probably thought, wow, that's creepy, But
Speaker 1: they served a really practical purpose, and one of them
Speaker 1: has become world famous. You may have touched her yourself,
Speaker 1: and Michael Jackson referenced her in a huge hit record,
Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The origin of the line Annie, are
Speaker 1: you okay? Next on the backstory, We're back with the backstory.
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson's song Smooth Criminal has the line Annie, are
Speaker 1: yeah okay? Sorry for the music around three dozen times.
Speaker 1: It also has the line mouth to mouth resuscitation sounding heartbeats.
Speaker 1: Where did that come from? Well, it seems Michael was
Speaker 1: trained in CPR, and the mannequin used worldwide for CPR
Speaker 1: training is resus Annie. In fact, the model for Annie
Speaker 1: was actually the death mask of a young woman in
Speaker 1: Paris in the eighteen eighties. More unhear in just a moment,
Speaker 1: So okay, death mask? Does that weird you out? Maybe
Speaker 1: you've seen them in museums or even in photos of
Speaker 1: historic figures like Abe Lincoln, although his was actually a
Speaker 1: life mask. But these things were popular, and there was
Speaker 1: a reason for them to understand where the idea for
Speaker 1: a death mask even came from, we got to go
Speaker 1: way back. Ancient civilizations in Egypt, Greece, and Rome use them,
Speaker 1: and interestingly, even though they lived on the other side
Speaker 1: of the world. South American civilizations including the Inca, Mayan,
Speaker 1: and Aztecs also used death masks. In every case, it
Speaker 1: was to honor the dead, show some of their physical features,
Speaker 1: and facilitate their journey into the afterlife. Most of these
Speaker 1: really early masks are works of art. King Tut's death mask,
Speaker 1: which was found inside his sarcophagus, is hugely famous. It's
Speaker 1: twenty three pounds of solid gold representing Tut's face, though
Speaker 1: it's probably fairly idealized. Three D studies of his mummified
Speaker 1: body show a guy with buck teeth and a receding chin.
Speaker 1: Oh well. As time went on, death masks were used
Speaker 1: even more, not just for spiritual reasons or honoring big shots.
Speaker 1: By the Middle Ages, they stopped burying the masks with
Speaker 1: the bodies. Instead, they were used in funeral ceremonies, but
Speaker 1: then kept in libraries, museums, and universities, as well as
Speaker 1: in family homes. Death masks were made not just of royalty,
Speaker 1: but also composers like Beethoven, military leaders like Napoleon, and
Speaker 1: even inventors like Nikola Tesla, whose friend had a death
Speaker 1: mask made of Tesla after his nineteen forty three death.
Speaker 1: Some folks even have life masks done, like Abe Lincoln.
Speaker 1: Now that was not just for the family to have
Speaker 1: as a keepsake, although they did, but also so paintings
Speaker 1: and sculptures of an individual could be done without their
Speaker 1: presence in an art studio. You see, there was no photography,
Speaker 1: or at least not very good but potography back then,
Speaker 1: and other than in portraits, it was difficult to capture
Speaker 1: the actual features of an individual. These masks were made
Speaker 1: with plaster or wax and were highly detailed. And that's
Speaker 1: how we get to the young woman whose face was
Speaker 1: borrowed for the CPR mannequin resssa Annie. It was eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight and the story goes that a young woman's
Speaker 1: body was pulled from the Sene River, which flows through Paris.
Speaker 1: She appeared to be about sixteen years old, but there
Speaker 1: was nothing to identify her. The common practice in those
Speaker 1: days was to immediately make a death mask of an
Speaker 1: unknown individual so it could be placed with the remains. Then,
Speaker 1: as the body deteriorated, it could still be identified by
Speaker 1: the mask. They would then display the bodies, maybe as
Speaker 1: many as a dozen at a time, in public, usually
Speaker 1: behind glass in a chilled room. The public could check
Speaker 1: them out to see if they could id them, and
Speaker 1: also get a little bit of a morbid thrill. The
Speaker 1: young woman was never identified, but people were enchanted by
Speaker 1: her looks and seemingly calm demeanor. They called her len
Speaker 1: Connille de la Senne, or the unknown woman of the Seine.
Speaker 1: The French philosopher and author Albert Cameau called her a
Speaker 1: drowned mona Lisa. Because of her serene smile, women wanted
Speaker 1: to look like her, and everybody wanted a copy of
Speaker 1: her death mask, so of course somebody figured out how
Speaker 1: to make a book off of her. Plaster copies of
Speaker 1: her death mask were sold all over Europe and still
Speaker 1: by the way sol today. People hung them in their
Speaker 1: homes as works of art. Paintings were based on it,
Speaker 1: and books and short stories were written about her, all
Speaker 1: made up, of course, since nobody knew who she was.
Speaker 1: Some thought she'd killed herself after finding herself pregnant and
Speaker 1: then being jilted by her lover. Fast forward seventy years
Speaker 1: or so. In the nineteen fifties, a couple of anesthesiologists
Speaker 1: met at a men conference and they began developing what
Speaker 1: was called mouth to mouth ventilation to bring people back
Speaker 1: who'd stop breathing. That eventually led them to CPR. In
Speaker 1: the early nineteen sixties, or Norwegian researcher volunteered to create
Speaker 1: the mannekin they'd use to train people in CPR. They
Speaker 1: just didn't know what it should look like. They decided
Speaker 1: to make it female, feeling that both men and women
Speaker 1: would rather do mouth to mouth on a woman who
Speaker 1: looked less threatening, but choosing the exact face was tough.
Speaker 1: Then the Norwegian researcher was visiting a relative's house when
Speaker 1: he noticed a reproduction of the Lost Woman of the
Speaker 1: Sin the death Mask hanging on a wall. Voila. They
Speaker 1: named her Anne, and resssa Annie was created. She's now
Speaker 1: called the most kissed face in the world. Twelve million
Speaker 1: people a year lock lips with her as they train
Speaker 1: in CPR techniques. Among those hundreds of millions over the
Speaker 1: years who've learned from her, Michael Jackson. Part of the
Speaker 1: EMS training involves repeatedly asking the patient, Annie, are you okay?
Speaker 1: And that's where that line comes from in Michael's song
Speaker 1: Smooth Criminal. Hope you like the Backstory with Patty Steele.
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Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: The Backstory is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the
Speaker 1: Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is
Speaker 1: Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes
Speaker 1: every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to
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Speaker 1: for listening to the back Story with Patty Steele. The
Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.