He collapsed on stage while in the middle of his act on a live Sunday
evening variety show, falling backwards through the centre of the stage
curtain. As he began to snore loudly (often a symptom of a massive
heart attack) and as his feet remained protruding underneath the bottom
of the curtain the theatre audience assumed this was part of his
"failed magic trick" act and continued to roar with laughter. After a
few moments of confusion the orchestra struck up and the show went to a
commercial. Although the incident had been seen live by millions of
viewers at the time, the sequence was never shown again out of respect
to his family and to his memory.
