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H. P.
Shortly after my return home in 1928, I was given a rather unusual and
enjoyable commission: to design scenes, props, and costumes for a ballet
titled "H. P." (the abbreviation for horse power). I had been
recommended for the job by the composer Carlos Chavez, my association
with whom was to have a ludicrous and unhappy ending several years
later. My designs for "H. P." included a cocoanut tree, a bag of money,
horse power, downtown New York, a girl and boy from Tijuana, a banana,
an American girl, a pineapple, sailors, sugar cane, a captain, tobacco,
and cotton -- quite a lot, in fact. "H. P." was first performed in 1932
at the Philadelphia Academy of Music with Leopold Stokowski conducting.
Afterwards I did an album of the costumes in color, which was purchased
by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and donated by her to the Museum of
Modern Art in New York.
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