“Orson actually had a terrible bout of stage fright during his first performance there. The tradition of the time was that after every act, you’d come out and take a bow, much like opera. He got through the first two acts just fine, but for the third act, he said a line about Solomon having a thousand wives — and mind you, this all came back to while standing on stage at the Gate stage — when someone in the back shouted, and he completely died. It’s a horrible experience, and still has to do this little fall, and he was so terrified, he threw himself down the steps. Now, all the actors thought he had killed himself, but the audience gave him a massive standing ovation, and that covers up the dry, as well as shows the confidence and quick thinking he had. And I was on that stage.” - Speakeasy (The Wall Street Journal)