97-year-old dances to Stayin' Alive at his own birthday party in Los Angeles and dies
Guests had just sung Happy Birthday, the Bee Gees track is the tempo first-aid instructors use for chest compressions
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Vito klatscht und tanzt auf der Party zu seinem 97. Geburtstag zu „Stayin’ Alive“. Kurz darauf stirbt erFoto: TikTok
Foto: TikTok
A 97-year-old man named Vito died at his own birthday party in Los Angeles, shortly after dancing to the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive". Video from the evening has been shared countless times online; the original TikTok has since been deleted, but copies circulate, credited to the account MarkusLangner.
The party was organized by Vito's neighbor Eden Malinoff, a baker, who made him a red wine cake; it doubled as a Halloween party for his 97th birthday. The clips show him dancing, laughing and clapping along to Barry Gibb's falsetto, then accepting the cake and the birthday congratulations. The guests sang Happy Birthday to him live. When the song ended, Vito sat down, closed his eyes and stopped breathing.
His best friend Caleb Turner said Vito died listening to his favorite music. Malinoff, who baked the cake, put it plainly: if he could have chosen how to depart, exactly like this. Friends at the party described the evening as a dramatic but perfect exit.
The soundtrack carries a coincidence of its own. "Stayin' Alive" runs at roughly 103 beats a minute, the tempo first-aid instructors use to teach the rhythm of chest compressions. Most people meet that rhythm in a training room, kneeling over a plastic torso. Vito met it standing up, in front of friends, with a red wine cake on the table and a room singing his name.
His last recorded advice, delivered from the party: never drink cheap booze.