History Main / DumbwaiterRide

The dumbwaiter has been a fixture in [[BigFancyHouse Big, Fancy Houses]] for [[https://blog.stannahlifts.co.uk/the-history-of-a-dumb-waiter over a thousand years]]. A miniature elevator between the walls, it is designed for transporting food, laundry, and other objects between floors in a building when carrying them would be inconvenient. What it's not designed for is carrying people.

* ''Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries'': In ''Etiquette & Espionage'', the first book of the series, the 'incident' that gets Sophronia Temminnick sent to a finishing school by her mother involves her riding inside a dumbwaiter in an attempt to eavesdrop on a meeting between her mother and a very important guest. It ends with [[ItMakesSenseInContext her flying on the floor in her petticoats with India rubber wrapped around her feet and most of a trifle atop the head of the unfortunate Mrs Barnaclegoose]].

* ''Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries'': In ''Etiquette & Espionage'', the first book of the series, the 'incident' that gets Sophronia Temminnick sent to a finishing school by her mother involves her riding inside a dumbwaiter in an attempt to eavesdrop on a meeting between er moter and a very important guest.It ends with [[ItMakesSenseInContext er flying on the floor in her petticoats with India rubber wrapped around her feet and most of trifle atop the head of the unfortunate Mrs Barnaclegoose]].

* In the 1916 Creator/CharlieChaplin film ''The Count'', Mr. Chaplin hides in an unusually-large dumbwaiter just as the butler upstairs is summoning it. He gives one of the party guests quite a fright when he arrives on the upper floor.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" has Jago and Litefoot attempting to use a dumbwaiter to escape from Magnus Greel and his followers.

* In the Creator/AppleTVPlus series ''Home Before Dark'' episode "Dark Rooms", Hilde and her friends Donnie and Spoon sneak inside a kitchen dumbwaiter to go down into the basement while investigating Wott Management at the Catherine Higgins House.

* In the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''The Headless Ghost'', one of the ghosts was a rich SpoiledBrat in life who was addicted to ice cream that his butler would bring up to his bedroom through a dumbwaiter. One time, he greedily crawled inside after he got tired of waiting and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome immediately fell to his death]].

* In ''Film/HomeAlone3'', Alex uses a dumbwaiter to evade the terrorists who were looking for him. One of them realizes this was how he got outside the house from the attic after she and two of her cohorts realize too late the trampoline was a trap and tries it herself, but the moment the dumbwaiter reaches the attic, [[BatmanGambit she falls down the shaft, because Alex removed the bottom.]]

* In ''Film/HomeAlone3'', Alex uses a dumbwaiter to evade the terrorists who were looking for him. One of them realizes this was how he got outside the house from the attic and tries it herself, but falls down the shaft because the dumbwaiter had not reached the attic yet. [[BatmanGambit Alex planned for her to do that.]]

* ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy'': Harriet breaks into the mansion of Agatha Plummer and gets caught hiding in her dumbwaiter.
** This is carried over to the film adaptation as well.

* In ''VideoGame/PajamaSam in: No Need to Hide When it's Dark Outside'', there's a sentient dumbwaiter in Darkness's House that leads from the laboratory to the kitchen and vice-versa. Sam can ride the dumbwaiter up from the lab to the kitchen, but if he tries to ride it down to the lab, the dumbwaiter will prevent him from doing so. In the path where Sam's mask is hidden under a sentient table that dances when it doesn't see Sam, Sam needs to use the {{Invisibility}} potion to make himself invisible. However, since this potion only lasts for a short time, the fastest way to get up to the living room, which is right next door to the kitchen, is by riding the dumbwaiter.

* One story in the Website/DarwinAwards involves two guys who decide to take a ride in a dumbwaiter. Unfortunately, they both squeeze in at the same time, and their combined weight sends them falling to their deaths.

* In the Creator/AppleTVPlus series ''Home Before Dark'' episode "Dark Rooms", Hilde and her friends Donnie and Spoon sneak inside a kitchen dumbwaiter to go down into the basement while investigating Wott Management at the Catherine Higgins House.

* During a plan to assassinate a roomful of German generals having a meeting in a hotel via exploding centerpieces on ''Series/HogansHeroes'', the crew learns from a spy that the meeting was actually to give the generals the plans for the defense of France in preparation for an Allied invasion. The spy, ignorant of the assassination attempt, had left his copy in the dining room after it had been cleared out. This meant [=LeBeau=] had to ride the dumbwaiter back up to the room and steal a copy of the plans for allied intelligence. Newkirk is devastated when the bombs go off before the dumbwaiter returns, thinking [=LeBeau=] had been caught in the blast.

* In ''Film/WhoeverSlewAuntieRoo'', Christopher pulls himself up to Katharine's secret nursery, where he sees Aunt Roo singing to Katharine's skeleton. [[spoiler:Later, he tries to do the same thing to rescue Katy from the nursery. Aunt Roo catches him and cuts the dumbwaiter ropes so they can't escape.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''The Headless Ghost'', one of the ghosts was a rich SpoiledBrat in life who was addicted to ice cream that his butler would bring up to his bedroom through a dumbwaiter. One time, he greedily crawled inside after he got tired of waiting and [[RealityEnsues immediately fell to his death]].

* ''Film/CryWolf'': Played for drama. Susan's husband Jim is supposedly dead, but Susan begins to think that her brother-in-law Mark, who is obviously up to ''something'' nefarious, may be holding Jim prisoner in his attic laboratory. When Susan finds out that Mark gets his meals sent to the lab by dumbwaiter, she hauls herself up. Her husband isn't there, but she overhears a suspicious conversation before she has to go back down via dumbwaiter, barely avoiding being caught.

* On ''Series/{{Cheers}}'', the dumbwaiter at the Gaines mansion gets quite a bit of usage when Woody and Kelly get married. First, Kelly hides in it since Woody's there and the ceremony hasn't started yet. Then the justice of the peace dies and they send him to the basement in it. When they try to bring him back up, he's gone. Now, Carla goes down the dumbwaiter to find him, only to get dropped. Both times she tries to come back up, she gets dropped again.

* ''Trivia Murder Party 2'' (part of ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack 6'') uses this for its "Dumb Waiters" mini-game. Participants must secretly choose whether to board either the left or right dumbwaiter; if everybody gets into the same one, they're all spared. If not, however, the host will drop everyone on the heavier side to their doom.

-->'''Howard Stark''': What if the chain snaps and I fall to my death?
-->'''Peggy''': Don't worry, I'll never reveal that Howard Stark's dead body is lying rotting in the bottom of a dumbwaiter shaft.

* ''Film/ShootEmUp'': Donna made a quick escape in a dumbwaiter during the penthouse shootout scene.

* On ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'', Lenny & Sqiggy get in trouble with Mrs. Babish when they ride the building's dumbwaiter playing "Coal Miner".

-->-- Angie Sage, ''Araminta Spookie: My Haunted House''