This photograph of the American Manager is one of a collection of 27 glass negatives of the ballet Parade, taken backstage by the photographer Harry Lachman. Parade was first staged by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in 1917. It had a libretto by Jean Cocteau, music by Erik Satie, costumes and sets designed by Pablo Picasso and choreographed by Leonide Massine.

Photographs of any Diaghilev ballets, especially from the post 1914 period are extremely rare, partly because, for all his promotional skills, Diaghilev did not ensure that regular or comprehensive photographic records were made. There are several negatives in this collection which have never been published or are very rarely seen.

The costumes for the trio of managers, even more than the set, provide the cubist element to Parade. The two cubist managers attracted a great deal of attention and may be seen as a link to Italian Futurism. They were dehumanised figures 10 or 11 feet high, whose limited movement had to be stylised. The American Manager (occasionally listed as the New York Manager) was performed at most performances by Maximillian Statkiecicz. His costume was inspired by the Woolworth building (opened 1913), accessorised by a stove hat, pleated shirt and he ‘holds’ a megaphone in his left hand extended by a long arm and a placard reading PA-RA-DE in his right. Beaumont sums up the design describing his ‘exterior is suggestive of America by reason of the skyscraper he bears on his back, his red shirt, and cowboy riding-boots’.