Coincidental with this was increased intrigue and the outward expression of his theme song, which he chanted to all within earshot, the burden of which was: “How can we get rid of Hurok? How can we get rid of Hurok? Who needs him?” The question of the _Firebird_ production was, as I have suggested, the most contentious and controversial of any that arose in my relationships with Ballet Theatre. _Firebird_ was hounded by troubles of almost every description, as each day upturned them. Its production was marked by disputes, aggravations, and untold difficulties from first to last. If history is to be believed, that sort of thing has been its lot from its inception in the Diaghileff days of 1910. The Adolph Bolm production eventually reached the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, after a series of vicissitudes, on the night of the 24th October, 1945, with Alicia Markova in the title role, and Anton Dolin in the role of Ivan Tsarevich, originally danced in the Diaghileff production by Michel Fokine. The _Firebird_ is an expensive work to produce; there are numerous scenes, each requiring its own setting and a large complement of costumes. In order to help overcome some of the financial problems involved, I agreed with Ballet Theatre to contribute a certain sum to the cost of production. I shall have something more to say about this a bit later. As for the work itself, I can only say that the conception and the performance were infinitely superior to that which, in these latter days, is given by the New York City Ballet, to which organization, as a gesture, I gave the entire production for a mere token payment so far as the original costs to me were concerned. Under my contractual arrangements with Ballet Theatre, the organization was obligated to provide a new second ballet for the season. I felt _Firebird_ had great audience-drawing possibilities. Ballet Theatre insisted _Firebird_ was too expensive to produce and countered with the suggestion that Antony Tudor would stage a work on the musical base of Bartok’s _Concerto for Orchestra_. While this work would have been acceptable to me, I could discover no evidence that it was in preparation. Pursuing the matter of _Firebird_, Ballet Theatre informed me they were not in a position to expend more than $15,000 in any production. I suggested they prepare careful estimates on the cost of _Firebird_. This was done--at least, they showed me what purported to be estimates--and these indicated the costs would be something between $17,000 and $20,000. Therefore, in order to ease their financial burden, I offered to pay the costs of the production in excess of $15,000, but not to exceed $5,000. And so it was, at last, settled. We had all agreed on a distinguished Russian painter, resident in Hollywood, a designer of reputation, who not only had prepared a work for Ballet Theatre, but whose contributions to ballet and opera with other organizations had been considerable.