The Man, The Muse, The Mystery

“… I was frankly slightly terrified of having to deal directly with a super-star like Nureyev, so I procrastinated. Then, one morning I came to work decidedly determined. I called the Sol Hurok office hoping to get information as to how to reach him. Surprisingly they gave me his private phone number without any questions. He was staying at an apartment hotel called The Navarro on Central Park South. It was still early morning, but I thought it would be safe to call him because I thought there’d be some underling taking his calls. Instead, it was Nureyev himself who answered, sounding extremely groggy. Apparently I’d woken him up. Not a good beginning. Flustered, I explained about the personality poster, and conscious of his reported anger over the photo sets, I was quick to explain that we could not pay much by way of compensation for the use of his image. Unfortunately, this was lost on him, both due to his sleepiness and his precise but rather limited knowledge of English. He didn’t say no, but he clearly wanted to get off the phone and go back to sleep. He said, ‘Find me at the Met sometime.’ He was dancing with Margot Fonteyn and the Royal Ballet for a New York season at the Metropolitan Opera House.”