013 Trapdoor

We all recognize the image: the evil boss/magnate has a trapdoor in front of his desk, through which he can drop employees and labor agitators and anyone else at his diabolical pleasure. Mr. Burns has one, for instance. But where on earth did this come from? Who originated the trope? Perhaps some earlier instance could be found, but he's one I'd put forward as a possible contender: F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished Hollywood novel, The Last Tycoon. Our narrator Cecilia's father (the crude and scheming arriviste, not the brilliant Monroe Stahr who is the tycoon of the book's title) is rumored to have set up such a device. "I've heard a story about a trap door in the floor that would drop unpleasant visitors to an oubliette below but believe it to be an invention," says Cecilia. Probably the trope is older -- showing up in some work of pulp fiction or other. But who knows -- maybe Fitzgerald came up with it. And currently, let it be known, its appearance in Fitzgerald is mentioned neither in the Wikipedia nor the TV Tropes articles on the subject of trapdoors.